February 1, 2025
Termination of parental rights; failure to achieve sufficient degree of personal rehabilitation; trial court’s reliance on inference unsupported by evidence.
- Just after child’s birth, adjudicated neglected & committed to DCF.
- Trial granted DCF’s petition to terminate parental rights, found respondent mother was unwilling or unable to benefit from efforts to reunify her w child & that she’d failed to rehabilitate her issues w mental health, substance abuse and intimate partner violence.
- Respondent mother appealed from termination of parental rights → claimed court improperly drew inference (when they failed to conclude she wasn’t under influence of drugs during visits w child) unsupported by the evidence & relied on that inference in finding she failed to achieve rehabilitation within reasonable time to assume a responsible position in the child’s life.
- Testimony of two DCF workers who supervised visitation and noted mother appeared to fall asleep during visit but didn’t appear to be under the influence. → Ct “does not fully credit as believable their remarks about her not appearing to be under the influence”.
- Ct didn’t draw inference that mother was under influence of drugs during visits w child, but found it didn’t have enough evidence to make that determination.
- The court’s acknowledgement that there were other factors that could’ve caused that demeanor supports its refusal to conclude she was under the influence.
- The court didn’t mention the incident or suspected drug use again when it again discussed respondent’s visits with child later in its decision, instead focused on respondent’s passive and disinterested demeanor during those visits.
- Judgment affirmed.
