Cite as 2017 Ark. App. 380
ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS
DIVISION IV
No. CV-17-147
CAROLINE BARRIS Opinion Delivered: June 21, 2017
APPELLANT
APPEAL FROM THE CRAIGHEAD
V. COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT,
WESTERN DISTRICT
[NO. 16JJV-15-240]
ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF
HUMAN SERVICES AND MINOR HONORABLE CINDY THYER,
CHILD JUDGE
APPELLEES
AFFIRMED
RITA W. GRUBER, Chief Judge
Appellant, Caroline Barris, appeals from an order of the Craighead County Circuit
Court terminating her parental rights to her daughter, KJ, born November 3, 2011. Her sole
point on appeal is that the evidence was insufficient to support the circuit court’s decision
finding grounds for termination. We find no error and affirm the circuit court’s order.
On August 10, 2015, the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) filed a
petition for emergency custody and dependency-neglect after friends of appellant notified
local law enforcement that appellant was behaving erratically. According to DHS’s affidavit,
appellant left KJ with friends while she went to work, although she did not tell the friends,
who were sleeping, that she had done so. When the friends awoke and began sending texts
to appellant about KJ, appellant responded by telling them to harm KJ rather than bother
appellant at work. The following is an example of one of her many similar texts:
Cite as 2017 Ark. App. 380
SO DO AWAY WITH HER, PUT HER OUTSIDE, STARVE HER, HURT
HER, TAKE HER NEXT DOOR, BREAK HER ARM ALREADY OR KILL
HER . . . PLEASE, IM A WORK AND YOU CALL CLICKING ABOUT MY
CHILD CRYING PLEASE JUST KILL HER AND TAKE IT OUT ON HER
BECAUSE SHE CRIES, I DON’T CARE, I SENT PARAMEDICS TO GET
HER SO LEAVE HER OUTSIDE OR CUT HER UP TO SHUT HER UP OR
MOLEST HER BIT DON’T CALL ME IM AT WORK, THERE ARE PLENTY
OF WAYS TO KILL A 3 YR OLD.
When the DHS family services worker made contact with appellant, appellant “had bloodshot
eyes,” was unable to focus on a conversation, and “appeared to move slowly.” Although the
DHS worker requested a urine sample for a drug screen, appellant was unable to provide one.
The circuit court granted DHS’s petition for emergency custody and on October 2,
2015, entered an order adjudicating KJ dependent-neglected based on parental unfitness due
to appellant’s “instability.” The court also recognized that DHS had been involved with the
family since 2004 regarding appellant’s older child, who was currently in the custody of his
father, and regarding KJ, who had been placed in a foster home from December 20, 2012,
through April 15, 2014, due to failure to thrive. The court set the goal as reunification with
a concurrent plan of “relative placement, permanency, and adoption.”
In a review order entered on February 12, 2016, the circuit court found that DHS had
made reasonable efforts to provide appropriate family services but that appellant was
incarcerated and had failed to comply with the case plan. After a permanency-planning
hearing in July 2016, the court entered an order finding that, although appellant had viewed
“The Clock is Ticking” video and had submitted to a psychological evaluation, she had
otherwise failed to cooperate with DHS or comply with the case plan. Specifically, she had
tested positive for opiates and oxycodone without a prescription, and she had failed to visit
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KJ, participate in parenting classes, submit to random drug screens, or obtain and maintain
clean, safe, and stable housing. The court changed the goal to adoption and authorized DHS
to pursue termination of appellant’s parental rights.
At the termination hearing on December 8, 2016, Tina Green, appellant’s caseworker,
testified that appellant had been referred for counseling in Jonesboro, had attended an intake
session in July 2016, but then had moved to Batesville without notifying the counseling
office. DHS made a new referral for counseling for November 18, 2016, but appellant arrived
45 minutes late, and the appointment was rescheduled for November 23, 2016. Appellant
failed to show up for the rescheduled appointment. Ms. Green also testified that appellant had
not visited KJ since October 15, 2015. Although appellant had texted her once about setting
up visitation, which was done, appellant did not show up for the visitation. Ms. Green said
that appellant continually gave excuses for why she could not attend scheduled visitations.
She stated that she had never seen appellant interact with KJ. Ms. Green also testified that
appellant had never provided documentation regarding income. Further, she testified that
appellant was living “from place to place” without a permanent address. Ms. Green also stated
that she had not been able to administer any drug screens because of appellant’s unstable
housing and therefore she was not sure whether appellant was drug free. Ms. Green opined
that it was in KJ’s best interest for appellant’s parental rights to be terminated. She testified that
the main concern, and the problem that brought KJ into care—appellant’s “mental
stability”—had not been corrected. She testified that appellant had made no progress in her
ability to maintain a stable home or stable work. The court asked Ms. Green about
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adoptability, and Ms. Green responded that KJ was currently placed with relatives who
wanted to adopt her and who had served as KJ’s foster parents from December 2012 through
April 2014.
Appellant testified that she had failed to visit KJ because she had been incarcerated
from November 2015 through April 2016 and thereafter she had been at work when DHS
had contacted her about visitation. Appellant also testified that she had lived with various
friends and church members; she had lived at her current address for a week. She testified that
she was “job hunting” and had “turned in paperwork” to move into her own place.
The court entered its order on December 9, 2016, terminating appellant’s parental
rights. The court found that DHS had proved four grounds for termination by clear and
convincing evidence: (1) KJ had been adjudicated dependent-neglected and had continued
out of the custody of appellant for twelve months and, despite a meaningful effort by DHS
to rehabilitate appellant and correct the conditions that caused removal, appellant had failed
to remedy the conditions; (2) KJ had lived outside the home of appellant for a period of
twelve months and appellant had willfully failed to maintain meaningful contact with KJ; (3)
appellant had abandoned KJ; and (4) other factors arose subsequent to the filing of the original
petition that demonstrated placement of KJ with appellant was contrary to the child’s health,
safety, or welfare and, despite the offer of appropriate family services, appellant manifested
incapacity or indifference to remedying the subsequent issues. Ark. Code Ann. § 9-27-
341(b)(3)(B)(i), (ii), (iv), and (vii) (Repl. 2015). The court noted that the grounds for
dependency-neglect were parental unfitness due to appellant’s instability and specifically found
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that appellant had not demonstrated that she had maintained employment, stable housing, or
sufficient income to support herself and KJ. The court also found that, although she had
submitted to a psychological evaluation, appellant had not followed the recommendations to
completion and had missed several appointments. Finally, the court found that appellant had
not visited KJ for over a year and that DHS had attempted to restart visitation on several
occasions, but appellant had missed each one.
We review termination-of-parental-rights cases de novo. Dinkins v. Ark. Dep’t of
Human Servs., 344 Ark. 207, 40 S.W.3d 286 (2001). At least one statutory ground must exist,
and there must be a finding that it is in the child’s best interest to terminate parental rights;
these must be proved by clear and convincing evidence. Ark. Code Ann. § 9-27-341. In
making a “best interest” determination, the trial court is required to consider two factors: (1)
the likelihood that the child will be adopted and (2) the potential of harm to the child if
custody is returned to a parent. Schaible v. Ark. Dep’t of Human Servs., 2014 Ark. App. 541,
at 7–8, 444 S.W.3d 366, 371. On appeal, we determine whether the trial court’s finding that
the disputed fact was proved by clear and convincing evidence is clearly erroneous. J.T. v.
Ark. Dep’t of Human Servs., 329 Ark. 243, 947 S.W.2d 761 (1997). Credibility determinations
are left to the fact-finder. Kerr v. Ark. Dep’t of Human Servs., 2016 Ark. App. 271, at 6, 493
S.W.3d 342, 346. Finally, the intent behind the termination-of-parental-rights statute is to
provide permanency in a child’s life when it is not possible to return the child to the family
home because it is contrary to the child’s health, safety, or welfare, and a return to the family
home cannot be accomplished in a reasonable period of time as viewed from the child’s
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perspective. Ark. Code Ann. § 9-27-341(a)(3).
For her sole point on appeal, appellant contends that none of the four grounds found
by the circuit court are supported by the evidence. Proof of only one statutory ground is
sufficient to terminate parental rights. Contreras v. Ark. Dep’t of Human Servs., 2015 Ark. App.
604, at 5, 474 S.W.3d 510, 514. We turn to the first ground found by the court: adjudicated
dependent-neglected, out of the home for twelve months, and failure to remedy the
conditions that caused removal of the child. Appellant does not dispute that KJ was
adjudicated dependent-neglected and was out of her custody for more than twelve months.
She argues that DHS failed to demonstrate that it had provided services to rehabilitate her and
correct the conditions that caused removal. Specifically, she contends that DHS failed to
provide counseling in a timely manner because DHS did not make the first referral for
counseling until July 2016, almost a year after KJ had been placed in DHS custody.
First, the circuit court’s finding on this ground was not based solely on appellant’s
failure to attend counseling. The conditions that caused removal involved appellant’s parental
unfitness. The court found that the unfitness was due to appellant’s instability. Appellant
suffered from mental instability at the time KJ was removed from her custody, but appellant
also suffered from, and continued throughout the case to suffer from, other instability relating
to her housing and employment. Ms. Green testified that appellant had never provided
documentation regarding income, that appellant was living “from place to place” without a
permanent address, and that she was not sure whether appellant was drug free because she had
not been able to administer any drug screens due to appellant’s unstable housing. Appellant
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herself testified that she had constantly changed housing and had been in her present
residence, living with friends, for a week at the time of the hearing. The court specifically
found that appellant had not demonstrated that she had maintained employment, stable
housing, or sufficient income to support herself and KJ. All of these things relate to parental
unfitness. With regard to appellant’s mental instability, appellant was ordered in October 2015
to undergo a psychological evaluation and follow the recommendations. Because appellant
was incarcerated from November 2015 through March 2016, appellant did not undergo the
evaluation until May 2016. Appellant, not DHS, was responsible for this delay. Moreover,
the court found that, although she had submitted to a psychological evaluation, appellant had
not followed the recommendations to completion and had missed several appointments.
Finally, appellant had failed to exercise visitation for over a year at the time of the hearing.
We hold that the court’s finding that appellant failed to remedy her parental unfitness due to
her instability is not clearly erroneous. Because DHS was required to prove only one statutory
ground, we do not address the other three grounds. Shawkey v. Ark. Dep’t of Human Servs.,
2017 Ark. App. 2, at 6, 510 S.W.3d 803, 807.
Affirmed.
KLAPPENBACH and HIXSON, JJ., agree.
Tabitha McNulty, Arkansas Public Defender Commission, for appellant.
Andrew Firth and Mary Goff, County Legal Operations, for appellee.
Chrestman Group, PLLC, by: Keith L. Chrestman, attorney ad litem for minor child.
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