SUMMARY: Termination of parental rights was proper where over a period of time after an appellate reversal of termination the father did not make significant progress toward reunification nor show the desire to do so.
Ray’Cine, DOB 5/07, and Dejan, DOB 1/09, have been in foster care since birth. Their mother has had mental health and substance abuse issues and has lost parental rights to both children. The father, Sylvester, was not initially involved in the case because he hid his identity as the father for fear of being prosecuted as he was 58 years of age at conception while the mother was under 19. Genetic tests in June 2008 established Sylvester as the father. Services were offered to Sylvester but the court ordered termination of his parental rights in September 2009. That order was reversed by the Court of Appeals in April 2010. The juvenile court then entered disposition orders in August 2010, April 2011 and October 2011, which ordered Sylvester to visit with the children, complete pre-treatment and parenting assessments, release medical records, and participate in family counseling, among other things. Although Sylvester generally agreed to comply, he failed to follow through on many things including providing medical records for over a year, completing the assessments, having contact with the caseworker and service providers, and providing a contact list of informal supports. He visited with the children three times per week and was mostly consistent except for periods of time, but declined to progress visits to a more frequent basis. In December 2011, the State filed a second petition to terminate Sylvester’s parental rights. After trial in February 2012, the court terminated Sylvester’s parental rights. Sylvester appealed.
The Nebraska Court of Appeals affirmed the termination of parental rights. After finding the children were out of home more than 15 of the past 22 months, the Court addressed best interests and noted the overall lack of clear progress since the reversal of the termination, which includes Sylvester failing to complete court-ordered pre-treatment and parenting assessments because he did not think they were necessary, his refusal to have contact with certain providers, and his lack of interest in progressing to anything more than supervised visits a few times per week. The Court noted that Sylvester only complied with some of the court orders while choosing to disregard others, frequently failed to respond to caseworkers and services providers, and did not follow through after agreeing to certain things. The Court also noted that there was not a clearly beneficial relationship between Sylvester and the children, and Sylvester never wanted to progress beyond supervised visits, which sometimes even then were not consistent. Noting the large amount of time the children had been in foster care (over 3 years), the father’s lack of action toward reunifying the children with him, and the issues already herein listed, the Court concluded that termination was in the children’s best interests.