IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 14-1674
Filed June 24, 2015
IN THE INTEREST OF K.R.,
Minor Child,
J.R.,
Petitioner-Appellee,
C.W., Father,
Respondent-Appellant.
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Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Jeffrey D. Farrell,
Judge.
A father appeals an order terminating his parental rights. AFFIRMED.
Molly E. Alley of Oliver Gravett Law Firm, P.C., Windsor Heights, for
appellant.
Nicholas Cooper and Sara S. James of Whitfield & Eddy, P.L.C., Des
Moines, for appellee.
Cami N. Eslick of Eslick Law, Indianola, attorney for minor child.
Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Mullins, JJ.
2
MULLINS, J.
The mother of a four-year-old child petitioned to terminate the parental
rights of the father. After hearing testimony and receiving exhibits into evidence
at trial, the court terminated the father’s parental rights. The father has appealed.
The father argues there was not clear and convincing evidence that he
abandoned the child under Iowa Code section 600A.8(3)(c) (2013) and
termination was not in the child’s best interests. We have reviewed the record de
novo. The district court filed a written Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and
Order that identified and considered all the issues presented. We approve of the
reasons and conclusions in the opinion and determine a full opinion would not
augment or clarify existing case law. See Iowa Ct. R. 21.26(1)(d).
The district court properly determined that the father had failed to maintain
substantial and continuous or repeated contact with the child and had failed to
contribute to the support of the child in a reasonable amount. The mother did not
go out of her way to make it easy for the father, but the responsibility to be a
parent remained with him. We further find that his actions defy his expressions
of subjective intent to parent the child, and the father has failed to demonstrate
any genuine intent to assume any duties imposed by the parent-child
relationship. See Iowa Code §§ 600A.8(3)(c), .2(19). In August of 2012, the
father moved to the east coast to live with a woman he met on the internet and
only met once in person, and has remained unemployed for the last three years.
We agree termination of the father’s parental rights is in the best interests
of the child.
3
Accordingly, we affirm pursuant to Iowa Court Rule 21.26(1)(d).
AFFIRMED.