T.B., APPELLANT,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES, APPELLEE
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Florida appellate court affirmed termination of parental rights where mother failed to protect children from physical abuse by stepfather, neglected medical needs, and failed to comply with reunification case plan.
Parental rights may be terminated when a parent fails to protect children from abuse by another household member, neglects their medical needs, and fails to comply with reunification efforts.
[1] A parent's failure to protect a child from physical abuse by another household member, combined with active concealment of the abuse and failure to comply with reunificat…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe mother's husband physically abused one child through severe beatings, which the mother failed to prevent and actively concealed; another child was…
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PER CURIAM.
We affirm an order terminating Appellant’s parental rights as to her three children, D.B., J.H., and N.H. Padgett v. Department of Health and Rehabilitative Servs., 577 So. 2d 565 (Fla.1991); In Interest of Baby Boy A 544 So. 2d 1136 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989); § 39.464, Fla. Stat. (1997).
The record reflects that the trial court could conclude that the state established by clear and convincing evidence that Appellant’s parental rights as to the minor child, N.H., should be terminated.
The trial court’s finding that Appellant failed to protect D.B. is supported by competent substantial evidence. There is direct evidence and expert evidence that D.B. had been physically abused by severe beatings by Appellant’s husband, D.B.’s stepfather, on more than one occasion and Appellant failed to protect the child and participated extensively in covering up the abuse; the parents neglected J.H.’s medical needs resulting in his becoming blind in one eye; and N.H. is at risk of abuse or neglect based on clear and convincing evidence of abuse and neglect of her siblings and additional conduct of the parents frustrating efforts of the department to reunify the family.
The record also supports the court’s findings that Appellant failed to comply with the case plan, the department made every reasonable effort to reunify the family, and the parents’ conduct placed the children at continued risk of further abuse and neglect that threatened their lives and well being irrespective of any provision of services.
STONE, C.J., WARNER, J., and OWEN, WILLIAM C., Jr., Senior Judge, concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Padgett v. Dep't OF Health & Rehabilitative Servs., 577 So. 2d 565 (Fla. 1991)
- In the Interest of Baby BOY A., 544 So. 2d 1136 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989)