Reed v. State (In re AM-LR)
Reed v. State (In re AM-LR)
Opinion of the Court
[¶1] Appellant, Chelsea Reed (Mother), appeals the district court's termination of her parental rights to her minor children, AM-LR and TCG. Mother claims she was denied due process of law during the prior neglect proceedings. We affirm.
ISSUE
[¶2] Mother's sole issue on appeal is: "Were Mother's Due Process Rights violated when she was not given Notice of a Permanency Hearing or her Right to request an Evidentiary Hearing?" We state the dispositive issue as: May Mother collaterally attack the juvenile court's permanency order by appealing the district court's termination of parental rights order?
FACTS
[¶3] Mother has two children, AM-LR born in 2011 and TCG born in 2014. Proceedings in this case began in late December 2014, when the state filed a juvenile neglect action against Mother
[¶4] Following the adjudicatory hearing, the juvenile court appointed a multidisciplinary team (MDT), which recommended reunification as the initial permanency goal. In its October 23, 2015, Order on Review Hearing , the juvenile court found DFS was "making reasonable efforts for a permanency plan of reunification and a concurrent plan of adoption with family."
[¶5] In January 2016, at the first permanency hearing, the juvenile court adopted the MDT's recommendation to give Mother another three months to comply with the case plan and court requirements to regain custody of her children, notwithstanding Mother's lack of effort during the prior year. The MDT advised Mother it would change its recommended permanency goal from reunification with a concurrent goal of adoption, to termination and adoption, if Mother failed to make substantial progress. Mother failed to make the necessary progress and, consequently, at the next MDT meeting in April 2016, the MDT recommended changing the permanency plan to adoption. Mother was notified of, but did not attend, the April 2016 MDT meeting; Mother's attorney did attend the meeting. The juvenile court accepted the new permanency recommendation after hearing from all parties, including Mother and her attorney, during a review hearing on April 18, 2016. Mother did not appeal the juvenile court's April 25, 2016, Order Upon Review Hearing despite the fact it found "efforts to reunify are no longer necessary" and DFS is "making reasonable efforts at the concurrent permanency plan of adoption."
[¶6] Mother also did not appeal the juvenile court's July 21, 2016, order following a permanency hearing on July 18, 2016, which incorporated the MDT's continued recommendation for a permanency goal of termination of parental rights and adoption. DFS filed a civil action in district court to terminate Mother's parental rights on July 25, 2016.
[¶7] The district court held a bench trial on July 12-13, 2017, and entered an order terminating Mother's parental rights to AM-LR and TCG pursuant to
DISCUSSION
[¶8] Mother does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to terminate her parental rights or raise any issue on appeal relating to the termination proceeding. She instead alleges the juvenile court violated her due process rights in the neglect proceedings by failing to notify her of a change in the nature of the July 18, 2016, hearing, and her right to request an evidentiary hearing.
*554Mother did not attempt to challenge the neglect proceedings directly. Instead, she is using her appeal of the district court's termination of parental rights order to collaterally attack the juvenile court's July 21, 2016, Order Upon Permanency Hearing -an order stemming from a separate proceeding in a different court. Whether Mother may collaterally attack the juvenile court's permanency order by appealing the district court's termination of parental rights order is a question of law we review de novo. In re Adoption of SSO ,
[¶9] We have long recognized "termination proceedings are entirely separate and distinct from neglect proceedings, deriving their respective genesis from separate statutes and requiring different burdens of proof." In re MN v. State ,
[¶10] An order from which an appeal lies constitutes a "judgment" as used in the Wyoming Rules of Civil Procedure. W.R.C.P. 54(a) ; In Interest of NP ,
[¶11] Our decisions in In re KGS v. State ,
[¶12] In MN , we held that any error in failing to appoint mother counsel at the initial juvenile proceedings hearing was harmless in the context of the termination proceedings due to the separate nature of, and burden of proof required for, juvenile neglect and termination of parental rights proceedings. MN , ¶ 37,
[¶13] The Order Terminating Parental Rights of Chelsea Nicole Reed is affirmed.
The state filed the neglect petition against Mother and Joshua Golden, the children's father (Father). The Department of Family Services (DFS) petitioned to terminate Mother's and Father's parental rights to AM-LR and TCG in a separate civil action on July 25, 2016. Father failed to answer that petition. The district court entered default against Father and ordered his parental rights terminated on December 22, 2016, and February 9, 2017, respectively. Father's parental rights are not at issue in this appeal.
Police first took protective custody of AM-LR and TCG in October 2014, after a DFS worker and a Rawlins police officer observed animal feces and cigarette butts littering the floors, dirty diapers and weeks old dirty dishes in the home. Mother regained custody a few days later after cleaning up the home.
The record indicates at that time "adoption with family" contemplated adoption by Father's parents in Arkansas. Ultimately, DFS denied any placement with Father's parents and the MDT expected the children's familial foster parents in Cheyenne to adopt both children.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- In the MATTER OF the Termination of Parental Rights to: AM-LR and TCG, Minor Children. Chelsea Nicole Reed, (Respondent) v. State of Wyoming, Department of Family Services, (Petitioner).
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published