W.G., In re, s. 20871

• Citation: 1999 SD 85,597 N.W.2d 430
• Decision Date: 14 June 1999
• Docket Number: 20872,Nos. 20871,s. 20871
• Parties: In the Matter of W.G., Alleged Abused or Neglected Child. In the Matter of P.G., Alleged Abused or Neglected Child. . Considered on Briefs
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

Page 430

597 N.W.2d 430

1999 SD 85

In the Matter of W.G., Alleged Abused or Neglected Child.

In the Matter of P.G., Alleged Abused or Neglected Child.

Nos. 20871, 20872.

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

Considered on Briefs June 14, 1999.

Decided July 7, 1999.

George H. Danforth, Huron, for C.G., father.

Beverly J. Katz, Huron, for appellant J.G., mother.

Mark W. Barnett, Atty. Gen., Joan P. Baker, Asst. Atty. Gen., Pierre, for State.

PER CURIAM.

¶1 Mother and Father appeal from the order terminating their parental rights to their two sons. We affirm.

FACTS

¶2 Mother and Father are the parents of W.G., age eleven (d.o.b. May 11, 1988) and P.G., age six (d.o.b. January 13, 1993). Department of Social Services (DSS) has worked with this family since 1990 in Huron and in Sioux Falls. Due to W.G.'s eligibility, he and the family also receive ongoing support services from the Adjustment Training Center in Huron and, because of her mental illness, Mother and the family receive continuing services from the Bradford-Leary Center there.

¶3 Both boys have special needs. W.G. is educationally considered to be in the mentally retarded category. He has attention-deficit and learning disabilities, as well as hyperactivity and developmental delays. He receives individual psychological therapy and peer group therapy for social skills. He is often angry, with much of this anger directed toward his Father. P.G. is very sensitive and easily upset. He is aggressive, difficult to discipline and impulsive. He also shows signs of attention deficit and hyperactivity. Both boys have indicators that they have Adjustment Disorder with Disturbance of Conduct.

¶4 Mother is forty-four years old and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and is mildly mentally retarded. She was first hospitalized at the Human Services Center as an adolescent in 1969. She quit school after the 8 th grade and at age twenty-five, joined the carnival when it was at the State Fair in her hometown of Huron. She traveled with it to Texas and left the carnival in 1983. She met Father the following year and lived with him until being admitted to the state psychiatric hospital in Texas in 1985. Upon her release from this hospital in 1986, she returned to South Dakota and was readmitted to the state hospital in Yankton. Father followed her here and they married when they learned Mother was pregnant with W.G. Mother has been hospitalized in McKennan Hospital's mental health unit in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

¶5 Father is a sixty-four-year-old Hispanic man. He quit school in 1954 to join the United States Navy. He was raised with strict discipline and respect for authority and has a strong work ethic. He is a hard worker and good provider but has a long history of alcohol abuse. He was married and divorced twice previously and has raised six other children who are now grown. In 1993, he was convicted of sexual contact with a thirteen-year-old female friend of his niece whom he was babysitting. He had been drinking at the time of the offense and claims no recollection of the events but readily admits it happened if the victim says it did. He served over four years of his seven-year sentence before his release from prison in April 1998.

¶6 DSS began receiving referrals on the family ten years ago, in January 1989. In August 1989, allegations of neglect of W.G. were substantiated. In January 1990, one and one-half-year-old W.G. was removed from the home when Mother threatened to kill him. He was removed again in July 1990 for the same reason; this time he stayed in foster care for one year. After W.G. returned home, the family moved to Texas and Mother was readmitted to the state mental hospital there. She gave birth to P.G. during this time. The family returned to South Dakota in July 1993 following her release. DSS received referrals of neglect of the children in August and November, 1993, but did not intervene because the family was receiving in-home services from the Adjustment Training Center and the Bradfield-Leary Center in Huron. Mother continued to receive ongoing support from the mental health centers and was taking a different medication (Clorazil) to stabilize her mental illness. This medication has decreased the symptoms of her illness and she has not been hospitalized since 1993. Mother has described it as a "miracle" drug for her although it does make her drowsy. Her drowsiness has a negative effect on her ability to adequately supervise her sons on some occasions.

¶7 When Father began serving his sentence in 1993, Mother struggled to care for the two boys, with continuing support services from the two Huron agencies. Three referrals filed with DSS in 1994 were unsubstantiated, but in September 1994, Mother asked to have the children placed in foster care so she could admit herself to the Bradfield-Leary Center. DSS received referrals in 1995 and 1996 but did not intervene because of involvement by the two mental health centers. In November 1996, Mother again asked that the children be placed in foster care so she could admit herself to the Bradfield-Leary Center. Two more referrals to DSS in 1997 were not acted upon because of the involvement of the two mental health centers with the family.

¶8 Eventually, in 1998, DSS received referrals from both these mental health centers about conditions in the home and child neglect. The children were left to wander and were found several times in Lewis Drug Store five blocks from their home, while Mother was home sleeping. Sometimes, then five-year-old P.G. wandered down to the store alone. Mother was unable to make the children stay at home. Despite intensive in-home services from the mental health centers for five years, the following conditions went unabated: head lice, unkempt and unsanitary living conditions, and no structure or supervision for the children. Both boys slept when and where they pleased, and urinated all over the house rather than use the bathroom, specifically anywhere on the carpet and in a bucket kept under the kitchen sink. Constant in-home and hands-on working with Mother and the boys did not improve these conditions.

¶9 DSS was also concerned about the Father's imminent release from prison and the fact that he had received no treatment for his sexual abuse problems and had not stopped drinking. Father was twice terminated from the prison's sex offender program for "failure to assume responsibility, minimization, justification, rationalization, and overt lying behaviors." Although at least two psychologists evaluated Father and agreed he is not a premeditated sexual predator or a pedophile, one of these psychologists found him to be "at high risk to sexually reoffend and a danger to the community." (emphasis original). Father has a history of sexual promiscuity and adultery; psychologists noted his use of alcohol loosens his already lowered sexual inhibitions. Father admits he has been classified as an alcoholic since 1965 and has been through three alcohol treatment programs since the 1970s, most recently while incarcerated under the sexual contact with a minor conviction. However, he vehemently denies he has a problem with alcohol because he claims he has never missed a day of work due to his drinking. He states he reduced his weekly intake of alcohol from a half gallon of vodka to pints and beers when his attorney told him to stop drinking. His psychologists have also told him to stop drinking.

¶10 The children were removed from the home and placed in protective custody on April 24, 1998, the day before Father's release from prison. They were adjudicated abused and neglected on August 13, 1998. The three entities continued providing services to the family. The Family Service Agreement between DSS and the family set forth the following goals and objectives: assure that parents provide proper supervision to the children at all times, maintain clean and healthy home environment, and complete all court-ordered evaluations. These were the identified risk factors that placed the children in danger resulting in their removal. The agreement stated that if the identified risks were not reduced, termination of parental rights was a possibility.

¶11 Since Father has been home and the children removed, the home has been significantly cleaner. The court ordered supervised visitation, which was held in a variety of places to provide the parents with different experiences in supervising the children. About a month after Father's release from prison, he acquired full-time work laying natural gas pipeline in the state. This work often requires his absence from the home for a week at a time. Although some of the visitations were scheduled on the weekend to accommodate Father's work schedule, many of them occurred during the week without Father's presence. Visitation occurred about once per week though there was no limit on the number of visits parents could have.

¶12 There is a strong bond between Mother and both boys, but Mother is...