K.H. v. State
| Citation | 2020 OK 32 |
| Decision Date | 12 May 2020 |
| Docket Number | Case Number: 118035; Comp. w/118078 |
| Parties | IN THE MATTER OF K.H., C.H., E.H., C.H. DEPRIVED CHILD(REN) TAYLOR HUDSON, Appellant, v. STATE OF OKLAHOMA, Appellee. CODY HUDSON, Appellant, v. STATE OF OKLAHOMA, Appellee. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Oklahoma |
NOTICE: THIS OPINION HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION. UNTIL RELEASED, IT IS SUBJECT TO REVISION OR WITHDRAWAL.
APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF OKLAHOMA COUNTY
JUVENILE DIVISION
¶0 The appellants, Taylor and Cody Hudson (Hudson/parents), were arrested and charged with felony criminal child abuse in relation to the alleged abuse of one of Cody Hudson's sons. Subsequently, the State sought to terminate the Hudsons' parental rights to the four children they had together. At trial, the parents sought to preclude any evidence of the criminal charges from being presented to the jury. The trial court limited evidence of the criminal charges to only inform the jury that charges had been filed ---- nothing else. The jury rendered a verdict terminating parental rights as to both parents. The Hudsons appealed. We retained the cause. We hold that the limited admission of evidence of the fact that parents have been charged with criminal felonies for child abuse (but not yet convicted) was error but does not warrant reversal. The jury's verdict was supported by the clear and convincing evidence that the abuse was heinous and shocking.
AFFIRMED.
Phillip P. Owens, II., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Appellant Taylor Hudson.
Stephanie A. Younge, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Appellant Cody Hudson.
Jaclyn Rivera, Assistant District Attorney, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Respondent, State of Oklahoma.
¶1 We retained this cause to address whether the admission of evidence of the fact that the parents have been charged with criminal felonies for child abuse (but not yet convicted) was error which does not warrant reversal. We hold that it does not because the jury's verdict was supported by clear and convincing evidence of heinous and shocking abuse.1
¶2 The appellant, Cody Hudson (father/Hudson) lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and fathered two boys, R.H. and B.H., with Revona Serber (natural mother/Serber). The boys were born on April 14, 2009, and February 3, 2012, respectively. After Hudson and Serber's relationship ended, no formal custody agreement was made, but the father did see his boys occasionally. Hudson then fathered two more boys and a girl, C.H., E.H., and C.H., on January 28, 2015, December 5, 2015, and November 11, 2017, respectively, with the appellant, Taylor Ainsworth, now Hudson, (hereinafter referred to as "mother," even though she is the step-mother of R.H. and B.H.).
¶3 In October of 2015, the couple moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and the father stayed home with the children while the mother worked to support the family. In February of 2018, the father and mother took physical custody of R.H. and B.H. because of Serber's drug use. The couple had previously had the boys in December of 2017 for about two weeks as well.
¶4 Serber apparently lived in an apartment with broken windows, occasionally without electricity, with little food, and with drug users and strangers coming into the apartment with weapons, engaging in sex, and using drugs. B.H. moved to live with another relative in July of 2018, due to severe behavioral problems which the couple thought made it unsafe for him to be around their children. According to the mother, B.H., who was six at the time, would hit and cuss at other kids, and bang his head on the ground. He had also asked for knives to cut his own eyes out, attempted to hang himself with a belt, and threatened to kill other people. R.H. also had behavior issues, but not nearly as severe as B.H.
¶5 After a receiving a tip from an unnamed source, on August 27, 2018, police officers and the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) jointly dispatched to the Hudson's home to do a child welfare check for R.H. Police officers searched the home, but were unable to find R.H. The Hudsons told the police that R.H. was with a grandmother. The police left and contacted the grandmother, and she told them that she did not have R.H., and that they were lying. The police returned and this time they found R.H. hiding in the washing machine. R.H. had significant bruising, in different stages of healing, to his upper torso, neck, and face. DHS took R.H. to OU Children's Hospital for examination, and the police took the father to jail. A few days later, the mother was also arrested.
¶6 When R.H. was taken to the hospital, he reported to the DHS worker that he got in trouble for not listening, that the mother grabbed his face and was on top of him, and R.H. hit his head on the floor. However, he was generally reluctant to talk to DHS about what happened in the house. A trained forensic interviewer also interviewed R.H. at the hospital in a recorded interview as well.
¶7 The mother offered an explanation to the DHS worker that just days prior to the incident, she was concerned with R.H.'s behavior toward her children. R.H. had informed them that he had been playing with another kid at his natural mother's apartment in Tulsa when the other kid pulled his pants down and told R.H. to "suck it" or he would hit him in the head. She reported that after her son C.H. tried to insert a bathtub crayon in his anus, R.H. admitted that he had touched C.H. through his pants on the penis. She also said that she saw R.H. playing with himself as her daughter, E.H., watched. She also thought she caught R.H. moving his hand away from E.H.'s undone diaper. It was at this point the father got angry and spanked R.H. all over his body. They hid R.H. in the washer when the police came because they were scared they would get their kids taken away.
¶8 The Oklahoma County District Attorney (DA) filed applications on August 28, 2018, to take the father and mother's three children, C.H, E.H. and C.H., as well as R.H., into emergency custody and place in kinship foster care. Emergency care is allowed when there is an imminent safety threat to the children.2 The trial court granted the DA's request the same day and set a hearing for August 30, 2018. As a result of the August 30th hearing: the trial court granted the father and mother visitation; R.H. went to live with his maternal grandmother; the other three were in a foster home; and the Court set another hearing for September 17, 2018.
¶9 On September 6, 2018, the father and mother married. The next day, on September 7, 2018, apparently as a result of the forensic interview and medical examination of R.H., the DA filed petitions to have C.H., E.H., and C.H., determined to be deprived and to terminate the mother's and father's parental rights due to the shocking and heinous abuse to the half-sibling, R.H. Termination is allowed for many reasons, one of which is when abuse or neglect of a child or a sibling is heinous and shocking.3 The DA alleged both the father and mother failed to provide proper care of their children and that they beat, slapped, hit, and caused R.H. to be covered in bruises. The DA also asserted that the mother tried to choke R.H., tied him up, hit him with a belt, poked him in the eye, stepped on him, and that she psychologically abused him and left him at home alone when the rest of the family went out.
¶10 The DA alleged that the father was unfit because he also hit R.H., and caused him to have a black eye. The children remained in DHS custody while the causes were pending. The DA also filed criminal felony charges on September 11, 2018, against the father and mother. The criminal case has not yet been resolved.
¶11 On December 6, 2018, the mother gave birth to another child, K.H., and the next day DHS also sought emergency custody of K.H. as well. On December 11, 2018, the trial court allowed K.H. to be placed with her siblings in DHS custody. The father's and mother's termination proceedings as to all four of their children proceeded to trial on May 7-10, 2019.4
¶12 The trial consisted of testimony and other evidence presented by the father, the mother, a police officer, R.H, and the video forensic interview of R.H. made at the hospital. Testimony of B.H., Serber's sister, two child protective services workers, a DHS permanency worker, and a grandmother, was also presented to the jury. By the conclusion of the trial, the trial court had already determined that the children were deprived. The jury returned verdicts to terminate the parental rights of both the father and the mother.
¶13 On June 7, 2019, and June 25, 2019, the mother and the father, respectively, appealed. On July 3, 2019, the Court made the mother's appeal and the father's appeal companion cases with separate records and separate briefing by the parties. We retained the cause on October 14, 2019, and it was assigned on December 9, 2019, for an opinion to address the admission of evidence of the pending criminal charges in a termination of parental rights proceeding. Because both causes involve the same trial and are companion cases, we decide them both in this single opinion.
¶14 Both the father and mother argue that the trial court erred in allowing the State and the children to admit evidence of their criminal charges before the jury. Both filed motions in limine to exclude such evidence5 and continued to object to the evidence throughout the trial, after the court denied the motions in limine. While the father and mother admit that criminal convictions may be used generally to impeach witnesses, they point out that neither of them has been convicted.6 Consequently, they argue that the evidence of only being charged with a crime would be irrelevant, and too prejudicial.7 The State and children argue that it was not error to admit the evidence of criminal charges.
To continue reading
Request your trial