In The
Court of Appeals
Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana
No. 06-15-00034-CV
IN THE INTEREST OF J.N. AND J.N., CHILDREN
On Appeal from the 196th District Court
Hunt County, Texas
Trial Court No. 81156
Before Morriss, C.J., Moseley and Burgess, JJ.
Memorandum Opinion by Justice Moseley
MEMORANDUM OPINION
DeDe’s1 drug use, petty thefts, and incarcerations eventually resulted in the termination of
her parental rights to her five children. In this case, she appeals the trial court’s order terminating
her parental rights to her children J.E.N. and J.H.N. This case was tried with a companion case,
which is the subject of another appeal pending before this Court. 2 DeDe filed identical briefs in
the two appeals in which she contends that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to
support the trial court’s findings that she (1) knowingly placed or knowingly allowed the children
to remain in conditions or surroundings which endangered the physical or emotional well-being of
the children, (2) engaged in conduct or knowingly placed the children with persons who engaged
in conduct that endangered the physical and emotional well-being of the children, and (3) failed to
comply with the provisions of a court order that specifically established the actions necessary to
obtain the return of the children who had been in the temporary managing conservatorship of the
Department of Family and Protective Services (the Department) for not less than nine months as a
result of the children’s removal from the parent under Chapter 262 of the Texas Family Code for
the abuse or neglect of the children. See TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 161.001(b)(1)(D), (E), (O) (West
Supp. 2015). DeDe also contends that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support
1
We refer to the children by their initials and to the parents by fictitious names to protect the privacy of the children.
See TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 109.002(D) (West 2014).
2
Although tried together, DeDe’s rights to her other three children, J.F., J.L., and J.N., were also terminated under a
separate cause. Her appeal from that termination order is the subject of a separate opinion, issued this same date,
under cause number 06-15-00033-CV. Since these matters were tried together and the evidence presented at trial was
relevant to both matters, we fully set forth the evidence in the companion opinion.
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the trial court’s findings that termination was in the best interests of the children. See TEX. FAM.
CODE ANN. § 161.001(b)(2) (West Supp. 2015).
The arguments raised in this appeal are based exclusively on the arguments brought before
this Court in the companion appeal styled In the Interest of J.F., J.L., and J.N., Children, cause
number 06-15-00033-CV. In our opinion of this date disposing of that appeal, we found (1) that
the evidence was legally and factually sufficient to support the trial court’s finding under Section
161.001(b)(1)(E) and (2) that the evidence was legally and factually sufficient to support the trial
court’s finding that termination was in the best interests of the children who are the subjects of that
appeal. For the reasons set out in that opinion, we find in this appeal that (1) the evidence is legally
and factually sufficient to support the trial court’s finding under Section 161.001(b)(1)(E) and
(2) the evidence is legally and factually sufficient to support the trial court’s finding that
termination is in the best interests of J.E.N. and J.H.N. We overrule DeDe’s points of error in this
appeal.
We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Bailey C. Moseley
Justice
Date Submitted: September 30, 2015
Date Decided: November 19, 2015
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