Charleston County v. Jackson

• Decision Date: 06 March 2006
• Docket Number: No. 4090.,4090.
• Citation: 627 S.E.2d 765
• Court: South Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: CHARLESTON COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, Respondent, v. Priscilla JACKSON, Bryan Houpe, Lamont Coles, Sr., John Doe and Stephen Doe representing the unknown biological father or fathers of Jazmyn Jackson and Lamont Coles, Defendants, and Jazmyn Jackson, a child, d/o/b 6/26/90, Lamont Coles, a child, 10/15/95, of whom Lamont Coles, Sr. is, Appellant.

627 S.E.2d 765

CHARLESTON COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, Respondent, v. Priscilla JACKSON, Bryan Houpe, Lamont Coles, Sr., John Doe and Stephen Doe representing the unknown biological father or fathers of Jazmyn Jackson and Lamont Coles, Defendants, and Jazmyn Jackson, a child, d/o/b 6/26/90, Lamont Coles, a child, 10/15/95, of whom Lamont Coles, Sr. is, Appellant.

No. 4090.

Court of Appeals of South Carolina.

Heard January 18, 2006.

Decided March 6, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Cherie W Blackburn, Stephanie E. Lewis and Susan S. Quist, all of Charleston, for Appellant.

Frampton Durban, Jr., of North Charleston, for Respondent.

James C. Bradley and Michael F. Bowler, III, both of Charleston, for Guardian Ad Litem.

HEARN, C.J.:

The Charleston County Department of Social Services (the Department) brought this termination of parental rights (TPR) action against Lamont Coles, Sr. (Father). The family court terminated Father's parental rights to Lamont Coles, Jr. (Child), and Father appeals. We reverse.

FACTS

The origins of this case began more than ten years ago, in February of 1995, when Father met Priscilla Jackson (Mother) in Long Island, New York. At that time, Mother had a four-year-old daughter named Jazmyn. In June 1995, Father was arrested for first-degree assault and robbery. After pleading guilty, he was imprisoned, and has been incarcerated in a New York State prison ever since. He is not eligible for parole until 2007.¹

Three months after Father's arrest in 1995, Mother gave birth to Child. Shortly thereafter, Father affirmatively sought to establish paternity of Child, and in May 1996, a New York family court determined Father was Child's biological father. A month after this determination, Father tried to send Child his limited inmate earnings. He also attempted to arrange a life insurance policy that benefited Child. His attempts were in vain, however, because in November 1996, Mother, Jazmyn, and Child disappeared.²

From that moment onward, Father engaged in an exhaustive letter-writing campaign to learn the whereabouts of Child. Father wrote hundreds of letters to numerous agencies, associations, centers, organizations, and government officials. Father's effort was so intense, the Department's counsel stipulated at trial that Father "has done more than anybody I've ever seen to try to find his son and to maintain contact with the agencies that had his son." The family court took judicial notice of the fact that Father "did everything, most probably more than anyone would ever expect anyone to ever do in the history of this court" to locate his son.

While trying to locate his son, Father expressed concern about losing his parental rights. In May 1997, for example, he wrote a New York family court to ask for assistance of counsel to protect his legal rights in the event his legal connection with Child was in jeopardy because of his inability to locate Child. Father wrote that same court almost a year later to notify it that despite his best efforts he could not locate Child. He told the family court he had contacted multiple investigators, non-profit corporations, bar associations, as well as the Ohio Departments of Social Security and Vital Statistics, which he contacted because Mother was from Ohio.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, Mother and Child's life together was unraveling. In August 1997, the Department took Child into emergency protective custody based on allegations Mother's boyfriend sexually abused Jazmyn. In September 1997, the family court found this abuse constituted a threat of harm to Child. The family court issued a restraining order against Mother's boyfriend and approved a treatment plan requiring Mother to attend individual counseling, parent effectiveness training classes, and a substance abuse treatment program. It is unclear from the record what efforts, if any, the Department made to notify or contact Father.

In January 1998, the family court ordered Mother to establish and maintain stable housing and an appropriate income to support her children. Again, the Department's efforts to notify or contact Father were either non-existent or are unknown. In February 1999, Mother disappeared,³ and during her absence, the family court established a permanent plan of TPR and adoption. This action occurred in July 1999, and once again, Father was never notified, though he was still doing everything he could to locate Child.

In February 2000, Father learned from the National Missing Children's Locate Center in Portland, Oregon that Mother resided in South Carolina. He immediately wrote Mother, but his letter was returned with an indication that she had moved. Father then began writing South Carolina agencies, courts, and legal services. Finally, on August 22, 2000, culminating nearly four years of searching, the South Carolina Department of Social Services wrote Father, informing him Child was in foster care in the custody of the Department. The Department also advised him it could not proceed with his case until after his release from prison.

Within days, on August 28, 2000, Father began to write the Department. Although he did not receive a response from his initial letters, he soon discovered Sue Christopher was Child's caseworker, and he began writing to her on October 9, 2000.⁴ In this letter, Father apprised the Department of his extensive search to find Child and his wish to establish "a positive line of communication" with the Department. He also notified the Department he did not want his parental rights terminated, he needed legal representation, and he had a five-year-old file of correspondence the Department could review. Despite the fact that Father had been searching for information about Child for four years, the Department did not respond.

On October 23, 2000, Father again wrote the Department. Father expressed his wish to connect with Child and asked the Department about his options. The Department sent him a required form letter inviting him to a Foster Care Review Board (the Board) meeting, but did not otherwise respond. On October 30, 2000, Father informed the Department he had received the Board invitation but could not attend because he was incarcerated in New York. He also expressed his frustration that he had not received any information from the Department other than the invitation, and that he felt as though the Department was discouraging him from making contact with Child. The Department did not respond.

On November 1, 2000, Father again wrote the Department. This time, he asked for Child's address so he could write Child. He also reiterated he did not want his parental rights terminated. On the same day, Father wrote the Department's legal counsel with the same request. Neither the Department nor the Department's legal counsel responded. On November 29, 2000, Father again wrote the Department. He alerted the Department it had not responded to any of his letters, and he wanted to know his options as well as the results of the Board meeting. The Department did not respond. On January 4, 2001, Father again wrote the Department. He expressed his utter distress that the Department had not responded to any of his letters.

Finally, on January 9, 2001, the Department responded to Father. Department caseworker Christopher informed Father of the July 1999 permanence planning order directing TPR and adoption, and assured him the Department would ask the court to appoint him a Guardian ad Litem (GAL) and legal counsel to protect his rights. On January 10, 2001, Department director Odessa Williams informed Father the Department had not yet commenced a TPR action against him and requested that Father furnish the Department with a list of "adoptive resources" for Child. This January 2001 communication is the first time the Department responded to Father's letters, which began in October 2000, and the first time it contacted him since it took Child into emergency protective custody in August 1997.

On February 5, 2001, Father asked the Department multiple questions, including whether he could contact Child. He received no reply, so Father wrote three additional letters on March 8, March 19, and April 16. In these letters, he asked the Department to answer his inquiries and also requested a photograph of his son. The Department did not reply to any of these letters.

On August 6, 2001, Father wrote Department caseworker Christopher the following:

I believe [the Department] is supposed to unify families with problems, help them. My son has been in foster care since [August 1997]. [To] this date I think that [is] over four years . . . What can be done so I don't have to lose [or] give up my parental rights and forever lose my only child[?] Can you, being the head of my son's case, the only one who can provide answers, can you give me his social security number [so] at least if I die I can give [or] leave him something[?]

Christopher did not respond to this letter. On August 8, 2001, the Department filed a TPR action against Father. This action was taken twenty-five months after the family court's July 1999 order establishing a permanent plan of TPR and adoption and approximately twelve months after Father learned Child's whereabouts.

After multiple continuances, this case was tried on July 17, 2003; December 11, 2003 and June 16 and 17, 2004. On August 27, 2004, the family court terminated Father's parental rights to Child. The court found Father willfully failed to visit and support Child because it took Father "over a year and a half to provide the identity of the persons who could assume some of his parental duties." The court referred to the fact that Father did not provide the names of adoptive resources that Department director Williams requested in January 2001 until July 2002. The court also found Child had been in foster care for fifteen out of the last twenty-two months. Finally, the family court found TPR would be in the best...