Date: 09-12-2024

Case Style:

Indiana Department of Child Services and Kids' Voice of Indiana

Case Number: 49D14-2107-JT-6156

Judge: Jennifer Hubartt

Court: Superior Court, Marion County, Indiana

Plaintiff's Attorney: Indiana Department of Child Services Legal Department

Defendant's Attorney:

Click Here For The Best Indianapolis Family Law Lawyer Directory

Description:

Indianapolis, Indiana parental rights family law lawyer represented a parent.

[¶3] On April 5, 2019, the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) investigated a report that Mother had stabbed Father twice with a knife in Child's presence. Child was removed from Mother and Father and placed in relative care. On April 11, DCS filed a petition alleging that Child was a child in need of services (CHINS) due to Mother's failure to provide Child with a home free from violence. At the hearing held on that date, the trial court appointed counsel to represent Mother, granted wardship of Child to DCS, appointed a guardian ad litem (GAL), and provided that the permanency plan was reunification.

[¶4] On July 31, the trial court adjudicated Child a CHINS, after Mother entered an admission at the factfinding hearing held that same day. She admitted that Child was a "child in need of services because parents need assistance maintaining a home free from domestic violence. Therefore, the coercive intervention of the Court is necessary." Appealed Order at 2. The permanency plan remained reunification. The trial court entered a parental participation order requiring Mother to engage in a domestic violence assessment and homebased therapy with a couples counseling component and follow all recommendations.

[¶5] Periodic review hearings were held in November 2019 and February 2020. Following a permanency hearing held in May 2020, the trial court issued an order finding that Mother had completed a twenty-six-week domestic violence course but had failed to complete the court-ordered home-based therapy. In subsequent permanency hearing orders issued in February and July 2021, the trial court found that Mother had made "limited progress with the services" that

DCS had offered; Child had been in her foster home placement for approximately two years and had bonded with her foster family; Mother had not made "meaningful or sustainable progress toward reunification" with Child; and Mother had not received "positive recommendations" from DCS regarding an increase in her parenting time. Ex. Vol. 1 at 99, 104. During the CHINS proceedings, Mother worked with over twenty service providers but was unsuccessfully discharged from all of them for reasons that included "lack of consistent contact and cooperation or progress with [the] services." Appealed Order at 3. On July 21, 2021, the trial court modified Child's permanency plan to adoption.

[¶6] On July 23, 2021, DCS filed a petition for the involuntary termination of Mother's parental relationship with Child. At the initial hearing, the trial court appointed attorney Amber Benson (Attorney Benson) with the Marion County Public Defender Agency (MCPDA) to represent Mother. Attorney Benson left the MCPDA in February 2022, and the trial court appointed public defender Shashan Deyoung (Attorney Deyoung) to represent Mother. The trial court had originally scheduled the termination hearing to take place in December 2021. However, the parties filed, and the trial court granted, numerous motions to continue the hearing, which resulted in the court scheduling and rescheduling the hearing multiple times.[1]...

* * *

Outcome: Affirmed

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: