SUMMARY: A mother’s long history of abusive relationships and failure to cooperate with services supported a termination of the parental rights.
On November 10, 2009, the State filed a motion for temporary placement of Elijah, DOB 11/2004, and Penelope, DOB 5/2003, based on a report that indicated Shonda might be living with an abusive partner. On February 17, 2011, the State filed motions for termination of Shonda’s parental rights. Evidence introduced at the termination hearing on August 11 and 12, 2011 indicated that Shonda had previously voluntarily relinquished her rights to two other children, and had had her rights terminated to a third child. There were numerous reports to CPS in three different states, and evidence that the children had witnessed multiple domestic violence episodes. Though there was some testimony that Shonda had a warm relationship with her children, there was other testimony that Shonda’s parenting skills were deteriorating. The juvenile court terminated Shonda’s parental rights on September 30, 2011.
The Nebraska Court of Appeals upheld the termination of parental rights. The juvenile court found that the children had been in out-of-home placement for at least 15 of the previous 22 months. The Court of Appeals noted that, despite Shonda’s long history with the system, she was uncooperative with caseworkers and therapists. Additionally, the therapists and case workers who spoke positively of Shonda had only brief experiences with here. The Court of Appeals observed: “Elijah and Penelope need a stable, able and willing caregiver and unfortunately Shonda has not proved herself to be such a caregiver” (supra, pg 22-23).