In re Interest of D.D.
| Decision Date | 19 February 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 20-0330,20-0330 |
| Citation | 955 N.W.2d 186 |
| Parties | In the INTEREST OF D.D., Minor Child. E.D., Father, Appellant. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Trent A. Henkelvig (argued) of Henkelvig Law, Danville, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Mary A. Triick (argued), Assistant Attorney General, and Erin Stensvaag, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.
Diana L. Miller (argued) of Whitfield & Eddy, P.L.C., Mt. Pleasant, attorney for minor child.
Patrick Brau of Brau Law Office, Mt. Pleasant, guardian ad litem for minor child.
McDermott, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Christensen, C.J., and Appel, Waterman, and Oxley, JJ., joined. Christensen, C.J., filed a special concurrence. Mansfield, J., filed a dissenting opinion in which McDonald, J., joined.
A seven-year-old girl was sexually abused by her stepfather. The State initiated a child-in-need-of-assistance proceeding, and the juvenile court removed the girl from the home. The court later permitted the girl to return to the home only after the stepfather had been forbidden from living there. But the girl's mother—the wife of the perpetrator—refused to accept the sexual abuse finding against the stepfather. Not long after the victim returned home, the juvenile court permitted the stepfather to return to the home too and dismissed the child-in-need-of-assistance proceeding. In this appeal, we review the juvenile court's decision to end a child-in-need-of-assistance proceeding in which the child victim of sexual abuse has been returned to the home with the perpetrator and in which the child's mother refuses to believe any sexual abuse ever occurred.
A. The Founded Report of Sexual Abuse. D.D.’s mother has five children, each with a different biological father, but each living with the mother. D.D.’s half brother Z.H. (age ten) set in motion the events of this case in late February 2018 when he told his teacher that his stepfather was "cheating" on his mom with his sisters. When he clarified that he was talking about something sexual in nature, school officials immediately spoke separately to all three of his half sisters. When the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) contacted the children's mother about the allegations, the mother denied any knowledge and said she didn't believe her husband would harm the children. But she agreed to have all five of her children stay temporarily at her aunt's house and agreed that her husband wouldn't have contact any with the children as DHS investigated the allegations.
The following week each of the mother's children (except the youngest one, who was only four years old at the time) participated in a forensic interview with a child protection caseworker. The oldest child, a girl named H.T. (age thirteen), was apprehensive in her interview and, according to her interviewer, appeared to have been coached. H.T. told the interviewer that she thought her sisters were "messing with" Z.H. when they told her and Z.H. about the stepfather's sexual abuse. But she also suggested concern for her sisters’ safety, and she made a cryptic statement that "maybe someone should be worried about her today."
Z.H. made comments suggesting his mother had instructed him to limit what he disclosed to his interviewer. In answer to a question about concerns at home, he responded that "mom told me not to say." Later in the interview, he confirmed that his sisters told him their stepfather had touched "their inappropriate body parts." Z.H. said his mother told him not to tell anyone what the girls had told him, but he told the interviewer that when questioned by school officials, "I got scared so I just answered." He admitted to feeling worried to go home from school the day he disclosed the abuse. Z.H. told the interviewer that his sisters said they were kidding once they got home from school. Z.H. also told the interviewer that his stepfather had told the kids he loved them and that he "won't do it anymore." When asked how he knew that his stepfather wouldn't do it anymore, he responded, "I just know."
H.H. (age nine) refused to talk about the details of the allegations in her interview. The interviewer described her demeanor as "fidgety and nervous." H.H. told her interviewer that she "trusts no one." She admitted she told Z.H. about their stepfather's abuse but claimed in her interview that she was joking. When asked why her sister D.D. might claim sexual abuse occurred, H.H. suggested maybe only D.D. was abused. But H.H. nonetheless expressed her wish to stay at her aunt's home, telling the interviewer that her mother and stepfather were mean and that she didn't feel safe with them. When asked whether she has watched movies in her stepfather's bed, she aggressively said "never" and then refused to answer any more questions.
D.D. (age seven), when asked why her stepfather had been banned from the home, said it was because he touched kids in inappropriate places and that people who do that should go to prison. She noted that her stepfather only inappropriately touched girls (meaning her and her sister H.H.), but that he stopped doing it to H.H. and now only did it to her.
During the course of her interview, D.D. gave specific, often graphic, details of the sexual acts her stepfather performed on her. She informed the interviewer that at bedtime her stepfather would tell her to go to his room. He would put on a scary movie and take off D.D.’s pants and underwear. She described what happened as her stepfather "humping her with his wiener," meaning her stepfather "pulls his wiener forward and touches my private." By "private," D.D. said she was referring to "the part of the body where babies come out." He would make her keep her hands on the bed, and keep her knees pulled up to her chest, "so he can do his thing." When asked what that meant, she said, "He sticks his wiener into me." She added that his "wiener" was "humongous."
D.D. said her stepfather then When asked what it feels like, she described it as "pretty wet and disgusting," and said that it made her body "feel like it is getting stabbed in the heart." She expressed feeling terrible when it would happen, that she felt like "puking," and that she could not think about it. D.D. recounted one incident in particular when her stepfather did the same thing to her sister H.H. on the pillow next to her. D.D. explained these acts always happened when her mother wasn't home (she worked the night shift) and that her stepfather would stop if he thought he heard someone.
D.D. told the interviewer that before she told Z.H. and H.T. about what her stepfather had done, she had first told her mother. D.D. said that her mother asked questions about what her stepfather had done, and then her mother started crying. D.D. ultimately told the interviewer she didn't want to discuss it anymore.
After the children's forensic interviews, the mother sat for an interview of her own. She denied any prior knowledge of inappropriate touching and claimed her daughters reported the sexual abuse based on a video of monkeys "humping" that they'd seen on YouTube. When asked if the stepfather was still living in her home, she claimed not to know, and specifically that she didn't know if he continued to sleep there, as she worked the night shift.
A few weeks later, H.H. and H.T. were interviewed again. H.H. as before refused to discuss the sexual abuse allegations, saying that D.D. now said "it was only a dream." But she expressed other unspecified apprehensions about her stepfather. She said she wouldn't feel safe alone with her stepfather but refused to elaborate. She also said she didn't think D.D. would be safe alone with her stepfather. When asked why, she told the interviewer she didn't know. When the interviewer asked H.H. whether she really didn't know or whether she said that because it was hard to talk about, she said, "The second one," but again refused to elaborate. H.H. said she wanted to stay with her mom and her siblings but didn't want her stepfather to live with them.
DHS determined the reports of sexual abuse "founded" as to both D.D. and H.H.
B. The Child-in-Need-of-Assistance Proceeding. In April 2018, the juvenile court entered an order removing the children from the mother's custody and forbidding the stepfather from having any contact with the children or access to the children's residence.
In May, the juvenile court adjudicated all five children in need of assistance under Iowa Code sections 232.2(6)(c )(2) and 232.2(6)(d ) (2018). The juvenile court made its own review of D.D.’s forensic interviews and found credible her allegations of the sexual abuse, noting D.D.’s recitation of "details that would be impossible to come up with without direct experience." The juvenile court found that D.D.’s mother failed to believe the abuse allegations, that she told the children not to disclose any information about them, and that she made no effort to remove the children from the home she shared with her children's perpetrator until DHS became involved. The juvenile court's order notes the stepfather had been charged with second-degree sex abuse, a class "B" felony, with D.D. as the named victim.
The adjudication order also describes other...
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