In re KCH, A02A1575.

• Decision Date: 20 September 2002
• Docket Number: No. A02A1575.,A02A1575.
• Citation: 257 Ga. App. 529,571 S.E.2d 515
• Parties: IN THE INTEREST OF K.C.H., a child.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

571 S.E.2d 515

257 Ga. App. 529

IN THE INTEREST OF K.C.H., a child.

No. A02A1575.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

September 20, 2002.

Moulton & Massey, Laura R. Gailey, for appellant.

Thurbert E. Baker, Attorney General, Dennis R. Dunn, Deputy Attorney General, William C. Joy, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Shalen S. Nelson, Assistant Attorney General, John R. Laseter, for appellee.

MILLER, Judge.

The mother of minor K.C.H. appeals from the juvenile court order finding K.C.H. to be deprived and ordering that the child be committed to the temporary custody of the Georgia Department of Human Resources, acting through the Morgan County Department of Family & Children Services (the "Department"), until further order of the court. She contends that (1) venue and jurisdiction were improper in Morgan County, and (2) the deprivation finding of the juvenile court was not supported by clear and convincing evidence. We discern no error and affirm.

On appeal from a finding that a child is deprived,

we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the juvenile court's judgment to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found by clear and convincing evidence that the [child was] deprived.... This Court neither weighs evidence nor determines the credibility of witnesses; rather, we defer to the trial court's fact-finding and affirm unless the appellate standard is not met.

(Citations and punctuation omitted.) In the Interest of S. S., 232 Ga.App. 287, 289, 501 S.E.2d 618 (1998). As defined in OCGA § 15-11-2(8)(A), a deprived child is a child who "[i]s without proper parental care or control, subsistence, education as required by law, or other care or control necessary for the child's physical, mental, or emotional health or morals...." In considering a deprivation petition, "[t]he petition is brought on behalf of the child and it is the child's welfare and not who is responsible for the conditions which amount to deprivation that is the issue." (Citation and punctuation omitted.) In the Interest of J. P., 267 Ga. 492, 480 S.E.2d 8 (1997).

The record reveals that, following a September 18, 2001 deprivation hearing, six-year-old A.C. and four-year-old J.C., the mother's two children at the time, were placed in the temporary legal custody of the Department based on the juvenile court's finding that A.C. had been molested by the mother's live-in boyfriend. The court ordered that no reunification plan would be completed for the family until such time as the boyfriend moved out of the residence. The mother did not believe that her boyfriend had molested A.C., and the boyfriend did not move out of the house. The mother, who subsequently married the boyfriend, was pregnant with the couple's child, K.C.H., at the time of the September 18 hearing.

On November 24, 2001, the day before K.C.H. was born, the mother and father went to South Carolina to see some of the father's relatives. Although the mother later claimed that she and her husband were moving to South Carolina on that day, neither the mother nor her husband informed the Department of any planned move to South Carolina prior to the trip. A Department caseworker had visited the mother at her residence in Morgan County on several occasions, and on her meeting with the mother a week prior to the mother's trip to South Carolina, the mother made no mention of any intention to move to South Carolina. The couple went to South Carolina without informing their landlord in Georgia that they were moving and without requesting that their utilities be shut off at their Georgia address.

The mother was admitted to a hospital in Anderson, South Carolina, on November 25, 2001, where she gave birth to K.C.H. The home address given for the mother on her hospital admission records was her Madison, Georgia, address.

Despite the mother's objection to venue and jurisdiction with respect to K.C.H., the Morgan County Juvenile Court on November 27, 2001, granted a shelter care order based on the father's continued residence with the mother and the father's history as an alleged sexual predator. The juvenile court confirmed the findings of the shelter care order following a November 29, 2001 informal detention hearing. The court continued temporary custody of K.C.H. and approved the filing of a deprivation petition as being in the child's best interest. The deprivation petition was filed on December 4, 2001.

At the December 11, 2001 deprivation hearing, a case manager testified that she was concerned about K.C.H.'s safety in light of the prior judicial finding that K.C.H.'s father had molested A.C., and the mother's failure to give any indication that she would be separating from her husband. A caseworker also testified that the Department elected to remove K.C.H. from the custody...