In re S.C.F.

• Decision Date: 30 March 2017
• Docket Number: NO. 01-16-00788-CV,01-16-00788-CV
• Citation: 522 S.W.3d 693
• Parties: IN the INTEREST OF S.C.F., and L.C.F., Children
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

522 S.W.3d 693

IN the INTEREST OF S.C.F., and L.C.F., Children

NO. 01-16-00788-CV

Court of Appeals of Texas, Houston (1st Dist.).

Opinion issued March 30, 2017

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Overruled June 6, 2017

Vince Ryan, County Attorney, Sandra D. Hachem, Sr. Asst County Attorney, 1019 Congress, 17^th Floor, Houston, TX 77002, for Appellee.

Donald M. Crane, 810 South Mason Road, #350, Katy, TX 77450, for Appellant.

Panel consists of Chief Justice Radack and Justices Jennings and Bland.

OPINION

Jane Bland, Justice

This is an accelerated appeal from the trial court's judgment terminating the parental rights of a father of two children. On appeal, the father contends that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support termination of his parental rights. Viewing the evidence in a light favorable to the trial court as the fact finder, we conclude that sufficient evidence supports the termination order. We therefore affirm.

BACKGROUND

The two children in this case, S.C.F. and L.C.F., were seven- and six-year-old girls, respectively, at the time of the trial. They are the youngest of the mother's five children and the only two fathered by F.C., the father in this appeal.

The children resided with their mother before the Department of Family and Protective Services removed them. The Department removed the two children from their mother's home in February 2014 after receiving a referral reporting neglectful supervision. According to the referral, the children arrived late to school approximately three or four days a week. Upon arrival, the children had not been bathed, smelled bad, and wore dirty clothes. They did not have warm clothing during the winter months and would wear bathrobes over their clothes when it was cold. The children were infested with lice. They had sores on their heads from scratching, and lice would drop onto the floor during class. The children's teeth were so rotten that they would break.

The referral also reported that the mother left the children unattended in the home and in her locked car, that she sexually abused the children, and that she would bring men home and have sex with them in front of the children. The home itself was filthy, and the mother kept a chicken coop inside the apartment where the family lived.

The Department located maternal relatives who were willing to take care of the children, and it referred the mother to its Family-Based Support Services program. No evidence in the record shows that the father had any contact with the children during the year the mother participated in support services and they lived with the mother's relatives.

When it became clear that the mother was not going to satisfactorily complete the services and the relatives caring for the children were no longer able to care for them, the Department brought the children into custody, placed them with a foster family, and initiated this suit.

At a May 2015 status hearing, the caseworker told the trial court that the child advocate had smelled alcohol on the father at an earlier hearing setting. Based on this information, the Department referred the father for a substance abuse assessment. A hair specimen taken from the father during an August 2015 drug screening tested positive for marijuana.

Also in September, the mother, who suffers from schizophrenia, had a mental-health crisis. She voluntarily returned to her childhood home in Mexico for inpatient psychiatric treatment.

The trial commenced in early July 2016. On the first day of trial, the mother's rights were terminated as to all of her children. The father of the other three children voluntarily relinquished his rights, and trial proceeded as to the father of the children in this appeal. The trial court admitted into evidence as Exhibit 22 the Department's family service plan for the father, detailing the reported condition of the children, the mother's mental illness and non-compliance with treatment, and the mother's "significant DFPS history." That document noted the Department's concerns, including: "[The father] left his children in the care of their mother, who is not appropriate;" and "[The father] is not appropriate due to him having a history of domestic violence." The father's service plan goals were to "demonstrate an ability to provide basic necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and supervision for his children." The service plan required the father to provide the current caseworker "with any and all sources of income by the 15th of each month" and to complete a psychosocial evaluation and follow all of the recommendations associated with that evaluation. The father signed the family service plan on April 17, 2015.

The caseworker, Jasmin Green, testified that the mother had a prior CPS history in which her mental health and the conditions of the home were in question. The children were placed in a "safety placement" with the mother's brother. When the brother's family could no longer care for the five children, the Department brought them into its care. The mother had not seen the children from late September 2015 to the time of the trial in July 2016.

At the beginning of the trial, Green testified that the Department's goal for the two children was "family reunification" with the father while the Department maintained conservatorship. Green reported that this was the Department's future plan—the father and the children had engaged in one family therapy session at the time of trial. The agency supported the father's reunification with the children with the Department's conservatorship, but Green testified that "we would really want to rebuild that relationship because [the father] really didn't reside with the children." Green stated that the Department would come back to the trial court to seek modification at a later time based on the family therapist's later recommendation. Green testified that the father had completed all of his services, with the exception of family therapy, and that he had visited and bonded with his children.

Green testified that the children "were behind" when they first came into the Department's care, but that their circumstances had "substantially improved" since the Department was charged with their care. She stated that the five children would prefer to be together, but that the father had expressed some desire for all of the children and the oldest of the five had told Green that she "would be okay" with going with the father.

Carla Ramirez, the child advocate, testified that the Department had initially sought termination of the father's rights, but had changed its position in the three weeks before trial. Ramirez stated that, if the trial court ordered Department conservatorship and a continuance of the trial, then Child Advocates would monitor the situation and talk to the family therapist about the children's best interests. She noted that the father had just started therapy and completed services during the month before trial and "he hadn't" done anything by the time of a June 17th hearing that took place before the July 5th beginning of the trial. When Ramirez had asked the father about his reason for the delay in accepting services and having "the same degree of responsibility as any other father over, you know, a year period," the father answered that "he did not want to take the parental rights from the mom." The father told her that "now since the CPS has told him that we're not giving the children back to Mom, now he wants to try ... to get them back."

Ramirez agreed that the children were doing well in their current placement, which was not a long-term placement. Meanwhile, the Department was continuing to look for a long-term placement with a family relative.

In light of this testimony, the trial court continued the trial. The trial recommenced on July 12. The father did not appear at the trial. At that time, the Department stated that its continued goal was reunification with the father. Ramirez again testified. She had visited with the children again during the trial recess and had informed them that the Department had changed its goal to reunification with the father. Ramirez stated that the children then informed her that they "are very adamant" against going home with the father. The older child's earlier expression to the caseworker that she would be "okay" with the children going to their father was made at the time because the father had promised her a phone and a lap top. The children's therapist similarly reported that the children do not want to go with the father. The children told Ramirez that "the reason they don't want to go back home, [is] because he toma mucho, which means he drinks too much and they've seen him roll around the floor fighting with Mom." The children reported that dad "smelt like alcohol" during supervised visits in the CPS office. Ramirez then interviewed the father during the recess and talked to him about the children stating that "they've seen him drink, that they['ve] seen him fighting." The father told Ramirez that "he's never fought" and he "doesn't drink because he is allergic." The father reported to Ramirez that "if he drinks beers he will die." Ramirez confirmed, however, that the father had a protective order in place against contact with the mother in 2013. In light of reviewing "the case," "the substance abuse assessment," and the interviews with the children and the family therapist, Ramirez testified that Child Advocates continued to recommend termination of the father's parental rights.

Green also was recalled to the witness stand. She testified that the father had completed his services except for family therapy. She stated that family therapy was added to the service plan when the Department changed its goal, and the father had completed two sessions at this time. Green testified that the father told her "the father had never really lived with [his two daughters], [but] he provided financial support." Other than what the...