M.J.A., In Interest of

• Decision Date: 25 March 1992
• Docket Number: No. 17664,17664
• Citation: 826 S.W.2d 890
• Parties: In the Interest of M.J.A. and C.L.A. Perry W. EPPERLY, Chief Juvenile Officer of Greene County, Respondent, v. D.D., a/k/a D.A., a/k/a D.H., Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 890

826 S.W.2d 890

In the Interest of M.J.A. and C.L.A. Perry W. EPPERLY, Chief Juvenile Officer of Greene County, Respondent, v. D.D., a/k/a D.A., a/k/a D.H., Appellant.

No. 17664.

Missouri Court of Appeals,

Southern District,

Division Two.

March 25, 1992.

Karenanne Miller, Springfield, for appellant.

Lisa A. Ghan, Greggory D. Groves, Lowther, Johnson, Joyner, Lowther, Cully & Housley, Springfield, for respondent.

SHRUM, Presiding Judge.

The juvenile court ordered termination of the mother's parental rights to her sons, M.J.A., born January 24, 1983, and C.L.A., born February 14, 1985. On appeal, the mother challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the court's findings that she abandoned and neglected her sons, that she had demonstrated disinterest in and lack of commitment to them, and that the provision of services would not bring about lasting parental adjustment. We conclude the evidence supports the juvenile court's findings and we affirm the judgment. ¹

FACTS

The juvenile office assumed protective custody of M.J.A. and C.L.A. on May 31, 1990. At a jurisdictional hearing on July 11, 1990, the juvenile court adjudicated the boys to be neglected. A petition to terminate parental rights was filed December 28, 1990, and a hearing on the petition was conducted May 16, 1991, and June 6, 1991. At that hearing, the court took judicial notice of the record of the jurisdictional hearing, including the adjudication of neglect. Facts developed at the hearing on the petition to terminate, viewed in the light most favorable to the judgment, follow.

M.J.A. and C.L.A. were taken into protective custody after the children's maternal grandmother, Betty G., notified officials of the Division of Family Services (DFS) and the juvenile office that she had physical custody of the boys but was unable to care for them.

At the hearing, Betty explained how she came to have custody of the children. She and her husband, whose permanent residence is Springfield, Missouri, worked as over-the-road truck drivers. In May 1990, while they were stationed in Memphis, Tennessee, Betty was contacted by her daughter During the West Memphis, Arkansas, meeting, Betty wrote and the appellant signed, a statement whereby the appellant purported to "give" the four children "over to Betty [G.] for legal adoption" and leave full responsibility of the four children to Betty.

the appellant, who asked that Betty take her children. The appellant told Betty she had no food, money, or home for the children. On the night of May 25, 1990, the appellant met Betty at a truck stop in West Memphis, Arkansas, and left with her the two boys, who are the subject of this termination proceeding, and two minor daughters, A.A.F., born April 15, 1980, and A.L.H., born April 22, 1987. At the time, the appellant did not indicate to Betty that she would return for the children. Betty said the appellant told her, "she couldn't take care of them no more," and "they would be better off with me."

Betty said the appellant did not know where she was going after she left the children with her. Betty told the appellant, "If you leave the kids with me, don't come around these kids until they're of legal age." Betty told the appellant she could write to the children because they were old enough to write back to her.

Almost immediately, Betty realized she could not care for the children. She said she and her husband could not take the children on their over-the-road trips and that she and her husband "could not cope" with the children's "emotional problems." On May 29, 1990, Betty contacted the Greene County, Missouri, DFS, and that agency took the two boys into protective custody. ² Betty denied that she intended, at the time the appellant left the children with her, to place them in foster care.

Betty testified that, after the West Memphis meeting, with one exception, the appellant never contacted her about the children, either in person, by letter, or by telephone. The single contact was a letter Betty received from the appellant approximately two weeks after the West Memphis meeting in which the appellant expressed sorrow that "this had to be this way" and in which she promised to send the children's birth certificates and social security cards. However, she never sent those items, and Betty testified that the letter was the last she heard from her. Betty said her last knowledge of the appellant's whereabouts came in September 1990 when a woman from a sheriff's office (apparently Cole County, Missouri) called to advise her that the appellant was in the county jail.

Anne Schubert, a deputy juvenile officer, supervised the case involving the two boys for the juvenile office beginning May 31, 1990. On June 18, 1990, she attempted to locate the appellant and obtained a Holts Summit, Missouri, address for her. Schubert learned the identity of the mother of the appellant's husband and contacted the mother by telephone on June 20, 1990, and confirmed that the appellant lived in Holts Summit. Based on the information acquired by Schubert, a summons was issued for the appellant at the Holts Summit address. Correspondence to the appellant was also sent to that address.

Over objection, Schubert testified that she had a telephone conversation on June 21, 1990, with a person she believed to be the appellant. Schubert said the caller identified herself as the appellant; asked for Schubert by name; said she obtained Schubert's name, address, and telephone number from a letter the caller had received from Greene County DFS social service worker Jim Ferguson; and that the caller "mentioned her boys."

During the conversation Schubert explained to the caller that "her children Schubert testified that during her supervision of the case, a period of more than six months, she did not receive a request from the appellant to visit her sons and the appellant provided no support to them. Schubert recommended termination of the appellant's parental rights because of her lack of contact with the boys while they were in foster care.

                were in foster care."   She informed the caller of the date of the jurisdictional hearing and told her she should call Ferguson.  The caller replied that she would call Ferguson
                

Carmen Meadows, a Christian County DFS social service worker, supervised the boys while they were in foster care in that county. Meadows testified that she had no contact with the appellant during the two months the boys were under her supervision and that DFS received no support from the appellant for the boys during that time.

Ferguson, the only Greene County DFS case worker assigned to the case, testified that he had no contact with the appellant from May 31, 1990, when he was assigned the case, until May 2, 1991, two weeks before the hearing on the termination petition. Ferguson was aware of no payments by the appellant for the support of her sons.

Over objection, the court received into evidence a February 8, 1991, social summary prepared by Ferguson. In that report, Ferguson concluded that the appellant knew that the boys had been, since May 1990, in the custody of the DFS but that she had not "demonstrated any willingness or interest in parenting these two boys" and had not made "any meaningful response" to the DFS or the juvenile court. In the report, Ferguson recommended that the parental rights of the appellant be terminated, an action he believed to be "in the best interest of the children."

At the hearing, Ferguson recanted his earlier recommendation that the appellant's parental rights be terminated. He testified about his May 2, 1991, contact with the appellant, a telephone call from her. ³ The appellant asked Ferguson "what she could do to see the children." Ferguson told her she should attend a Permanency Planning Team (PPT) meeting scheduled for May 10, 1991.

The appellant attended the PPT meeting and visited her two sons. Ferguson observed the visit. At the hearing, he described as "appropriate" the appellant's response to the boys and their response to her. Ferguson said the boys "seemed very happy to see her" and "seemed very comfortable in her presence."

Ferguson then testified, "At this time I would not recommend that the termination go forward." He based this recommendation on his observations at the visit between the appellant and her sons, information he received about her recent visit in Christian County with A.A.F., and information obtained at the PPT meeting. ⁴

Much of the appellant's evidence conflicted with that offered by the respondent juvenile officer. The appellant testified she signed the paper written by Betty but denied having read it before she signed it. She said she understood the term adoption to mean "you give up rights ... somebody else can take your children," but denied authorizing Betty to put the children up for adoption. She understood the statement to mean Betty could obtain medical treatment for the children and place them in school. The appellant said she had just been evicted from her home and she left the children with Betty as a temporary arrangement, until she could "get a job ... and a place to After leaving the children with Betty, the appellant wrote them "several letters" but received no response. The appellant spoke with Betty by telephone, and Betty told her "never to call there again." Betty denied her permission to visit the children and Betty's husband threatened to have her arrested "if I came down there and put one foot in his yard...."

live, to get on my feet," and that Betty agreed to that.

Regarding her whereabouts, the appellant testified that after leaving the children with Betty on May 25, 1990, she stayed "with some friends for a while in Osage City and some people up in Columbia." On July 1 she moved to a mobile home in Jefferson City where she resided until September 1990 when she was arrested for passing bad checks and placed in the Cole County jail for 44 days. From the Cole...