In re Sheena I.

• Citation: 63 Conn. App. 713,778 A.2d 997
• Decision Date: 12 June 2001
• Docket Number: (AC 21021)
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: IN RE SHEENA I. ET AL.

63 Conn. App. 713

778 A.2d 997

IN RE SHEENA I. ET AL.¹

(AC 21021)

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued May 2, 2001.

Officially released June 12, 2001.

Foti, Dranginis and Flynn, Js. Matthew T. Gilbride, for the appellant (respondent mother).

Jose A. Suarez, assistant attorney general, with whom, on the brief, were Richard Blumenthal, attorney general, and Susan T. Pearlman, assistant attorney general, for the appellee (petitioner).

Opinion

FOTI, J.

The respondent mother appeals from the judgments of the trial court terminating her parental rights with respect to her two minor children, S and J. On appeal, the respondent mother claims that the court improperly concluded that (1) she failed to achieve personal rehabilitation within the meaning of General Statutes (Rev. to 1999) § 17a-112 (c) (3) (B) and (2) termination of her parental rights was in her children's best interests. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.

In a comprehensive memorandum of decision dated June 12, 2000, the court recited the following facts and procedural history. On May 7, 1999, the commissioner of children and families (commissioner) filed petitions for the termination of the respondent mother's parental rights with respect to her two children, S and J.² The petitions alleged that the children were being denied proper care and attention and that they were being permitted to live in conditions, circumstances or associations that were injurious to their health. The petitions further alleged that J was uncared for and that his home could not provide the specialized care that he required. The petitions also alleged that the respondent had failed to achieve personal rehabilitation after the court had previously adjudicated the children neglected. Additionally, the petitions stated that the children have "been denied, by reason of an act or acts of commission or omission, including but not limited to, sexual molestation or exploitation, severe physical abuse or a pattern of abuse by [each of the parents] the care, guidance or control necessary to [their] physical, educational, moral or emotional well-being."

Following a hearing in which the commissioner presented evidence in support of the petitions, the court found the following facts. The respondent's childhood was characterized by family problems. She attempted suicide at age thirteen, underwent psychiatric treatment for several years and reported that she was the victim of multiple rapes. She also has a history of using illegal drugs and engaging in acts of prostitution; this behavior continued through the time of the present proceedings. She gave birth to four children prior to giving birth to S and J. After those children had been removed from her care and placed with other family members, the respondent's husband instituted divorce proceedings and secured an order of custody for them. There were eleven substantiated referrals of abuse or neglect to the department of children and families (department) concerning the respondent and her family. J was born on July 1, 1995, and at that time he tested positive for the presence of cocaine. In August, 1996, police reported that the respondent used crack cocaine and that her children were hungry and unkempt.

In November, 1996, J suffered burns to over 60 percent of his body resulting from a fire at the respondent's home. J's twin sister, D, died in the fire. J has received extensive medical care for his life threatening injuries. S was three years old and was left unsupervised in a room with J when the fire started. At subsequent counseling sessions, S revealed that she lit the fire because she was upset with her parents. The traumatic experience continues to affect S psychologically.

The commissioner filed neglect petitions after the fire, and the court adjudicated the children neglected in April, 1997. The court ordered protective supervision of the children, and they remained in the respondent's care. Until the supervision period terminated in January, 1998, the department continued to receive reports of abuse and neglect. S's sister, A, told school personnel that the respondent mother had struck A with a belt. S's day care provider reported bruises on her face. In August, 1998, the department of social services reported that the respondent arrived at its office under the influence of illegal drugs.

The commissioner commenced the present proceedings after department social workers visited the respondent's home in October, 1998, and found her children to be very dirty. The children were sleeping on inappropriate mattresses that were badly stained and soaked with urine. Officials at J's school reported that J came to school exhibiting very poor hygienic habits, despite the fact that the proper care of his fire-related injuries required proper hygiene. Department workers found numerous health code violations in the respondent's home, including a hole in the floor of the stairway, no smoke alarms, electrical hazards, broken windows and the use of a propane grill in the kitchen.

The state ceased providing the family with public assistance benefits, as the respondent had not complied with her obligation to obtain employment. The home had no electricity. The respondent continued living a drug-addicted lifestyle; she left her children in the care of others for days at a time. On November 5, 1998, the commissioner again filed neglect petitions.

In March, 1999, while in court for hearings on the neglect petitions, the respondent was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia. She admitted using illegal drugs earlier that morning and also admitted to a department worker that by February, 1999, she was injecting as many as eleven bags of heroin daily. The court thereafter granted the commissioner an order of temporary custody for J, S and their half-sister A, and none of the children has been in the care of a biological parent since that time.

The respondent testified at trial that J's father frequently hit her and that she stayed away from the home for several days at a time. She was not aware of the significant problems with the living conditions in her home. She was incarcerated in October, 1999, and was released in May, 2000. She intended to reside with her mother following her release. In April, 1999, a court-appointed psychologist conducted a family evaluation. She stated in her report that during her evaluation the respondent was under the influence of some illegal substance and was unable to remain alert for even a few minutes. The psychologist concluded that the respondent had emotional difficulties and substance abuse problems, was not the psychological mother of either of the children and should not be allowed even to visit with them until she ceased using illegal drugs.

In September, 1999, Richard Sadler, a psychiatrist, performed a psychiatric evaluation of the respondent. Sadler found her to be "entirely self-absorbed" and essentially unconcerned about her behavior and its effect on her children. He concluded that her children should not be entrusted to her care and that she had provided no indications that she was taking any steps to provide even minimally adequate care for her children.

After the children were removed from the respondent's care, A related accounts of physical and sexual abuse directed at her and her siblings that had occurred in the home. She reported that J's father had hit her with a belt and that the respondent had placed her arms, as well as S's arms, over open flames on the stove as a form of discipline. She also reported that J's father had sexually abused her at bath time and at night.

These accounts were corroborated by S's conversations with her foster mother. She recounted that J's father took baths with her and her half-sister, A. She also told her foster mother that J's father "put things in her behind." S recalled that the respondent and J's father regularly tied her and J to their beds. The respondent acknowledged tying her children to their beds. S told a social worker that she had lit the fire that caused her sister's fatal injuries and severely injured J. She explained that she lit the fire in the bed where J's father had done "bad things" to her, and that she did so because she was mad at J's father and the respondent mother because of the abuse that she was sustaining in the home.

In April, 1999, an official at the Child Guidance Center in Bridgeport interviewed both J and S after their foster parents observed that the children were exhibiting unusual behaviors. The official testified that S disclosed sexual abuse by J's father and the respondent. The children also were evaluated at the Yale Child Sexual Abuse Clinic beginning in June, 1999. The social worker at the clinic concluded that S had been sexually abused. During her evaluation, S consistently depicted, in both stories and drawings, the various forms of sexual abuse that J's father had inflicted on her. Her brother, J, did not engage interviewers at the clinic, however, the social worker at the clinic noted that the "sexualized behavior" J's foster parent observed in the home added credibility to the allegations of sexual abuse that occurred in the respondent's home.

At the time of trial, S was seven years old, and her foster mother testified that since S had come to live with her, S had made significant progress in both her education and in regard to her self-esteem. J was four years old at the time of trial, and his therapist testified that he had made progress both in terms of allowing others to interact with and care for him, and in terms of controlling his behavior. When they first began living in their foster homes, both children initially engaged in acts of inappropriate touching, anger and hostility, consistent with the abuse that they had suffered. Both the department and the respondent presented various proposals for the children's care to the court during the neglect and termination...