Department of Human Services v. T. L.
Department of Human Services v. T. L.
Opinion of the Court
Father appeals the juvenile court’s jurisdictional judgments, which made his four children wards of the court and suspended his visitation with them. As we explain below, father’s appellate arguments are not preserved and, therefore, we affirm.
As relevant here, the juvenile court took jurisdiction over the children, as to father, based on father’s substance abuse, prostitution activities, and domestic violence.
In his first assignment of error, father asserts that the juvenile court erred in finding that DHS had proved the second allegation.
Father’s argument is unpreserved. ORAP 5.45(1) (“No matter claimed as error will be considered on appeal unless the claim of error was preserved in the lower court * * *.”). In the juvenile court, father admitted that he and mother had participated in sexual activities with strangers, but denied that he had known that mother had received money and drugs in exchange for their participation. In other words, father denied having knowingly participated in prostitution. Father asked the court to dismiss the prostitution allegation, asserting that “the Court has a ‘he said she said’ situation,” and that mother was not credible. The court expressly rejected father’s argument that he did not knowingly participate in prostitution.
In his second assignment of error, father asserts that the juvenile court erred in suspending his visits with the children. During the jurisdictional hearing, the family’s DHS case worker testified that, if the parents had traumatized the children, “then ongoing contact isn’t going to help [the children] until they have appropriate therapeutic support.” She also testified that she believed that the children needed “time to stabilize and have appropriate intervention for the trauma that they are exhibiting.” For his part, father testified, in response to questioning by his attorney about whether the court should suspend his visitation, that he believed that “it would be more detrimental to [the] children to not be able to see [him]” and that he had “requested that [his] visitations be increased several times [.]” The court ordered that the parents’ visitation with the children be suspended “until such time as a professional can tell me that would be appropriate for the kids.”
On appeal, father asserts that “when a child is placed in substitute care, the parent is entitled to visitation with the child unless the record establishes that visitation with the parent would endanger the health or safety of the child.” In support of that proposition, father cites ORS 419B.090(4) and Santosky v. Kramer, 455 US 745, 753, 102 S Ct 1388, 71 L Ed 2d 599 (1982), both of which establish, generally, that the liberty interests of parents are protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Based on that proposition, father argues that the court erred because DHS “failed to show any evidence that [flather behaved inappropriately in visits or was causing any safety risk to the children.” Thus, on appeal, father is asserting that DHS failed to present constitutionally sufficient evidence to support the court’s suspension of his visitation.
Father did not make that argument in the juvenile court. At most, he asserted that denying him visitation would be harmful to the children or would not be in their best interests. On appeal, he argues for a different, more
Affirmed.
The juvenile court took jurisdiction over the children, as to mother, based on mother’s substance abuse and prostitution activity.
On appeal, father challenges only one of the three bases upon which the juvenile court took jurisdiction over the children with respect to father. Even though any one of those bases constitutes sufficient grounds for the juvenile court to exercise jurisdiction over the children, see ORS 419B.100(l)(c), we address father’s challenge because the jurisdictional bases have continuing consequences throughout a juvenile dependency case. See Dept. of Human Services v. N. M. S., 246 Or App 284, 293-94, 266 P3d 107 (2011) (explaining that, at a permanency hearing, if the case plan is reunification, parental progress is measured in terms of the parent’s efforts toward remedying the barriers to reunification identified in the dependency petition and case plan).
The juvenile court found that father and mother had engaged in prostitution for years and that father had authored some of their online solicitations.
In the “Preservation of Error” section relating to his first assignment of error, father cites a transcript page where, father asserts, he argued that he “was not currently in a relationship with [m] other and the allegations did not present a current safety concern.” However, it is apparent from the transcript that that argument was directed at the domestic violence allegation. After addressing the prostitution allegation, father’s attorney said:
“* * * And finally as to 2C [the domestic violence allegation] of that same petition, I think there’s abundant evidence that the father is not currently in a relationship with the mother and I’d ask the Court to dismiss that allegation because, based on the current circumstances, despite [father’s] admission to the one incident of choking, because they are no longer in a relationship that does not present a current safety concern.”
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.