Background
The Guardian Ad Litem and Department of Children and Families appealed an order denying DCF’s emergency petition to terminate the parental rights of J.G. (Mother) and L.L. (Father) to their two children. Both parents had histories of methamphetamine use, and Father had repeated incarcerations for violent offenses.
While Father was incarcerated, Mother left the children with unfamiliar people at a homeless camp when she was arrested on a drug charge. Those people later placed the children with a man who allegedly sexually molested the daughter and kept both children in an unsanitary home. After Mother was released and living nearby, she did not retrieve or check on the children. Father intentionally ceased contact with the children during his incarcerations, provided no support, and made no effort to determine who was caring for them.
The Court’s Holding
The Fifth District affirmed the findings that the children were dependent and that Mother abandoned them. But it held that the trial court clearly erred in finding that Mother had not engaged in egregious conduct. Mother’s decision to leave the children with strangers, coupled with her failure to check on or reclaim them, was supported by uncontradicted evidence and fit the statutory definition of egregious conduct.
The court also reversed the findings that Father had not abandoned the children and that his incarceration did not support termination. His deliberate lack of communication or support, repeated incarceration resulting from his own criminal conduct, and failure to make provision for the children established abandonment and showed that continuing the relationship during incarceration was harmful. The case was remanded because the trial court had not decided whether termination was in the children’s manifest best interests or was the least restrictive means of protecting them.
Key Takeaways
- Leaving children with unknown caretakers and then failing to check on or retrieve them can constitute egregious conduct under section 39.806(1)(f).
- A parent’s repeated incarceration and intentional cessation of contact may support termination based on abandonment.
- Even after statutory grounds for termination are established, the court must decide manifest best interests and least restrictive means.
Why It Matters
The decision emphasizes that incarceration does not excuse a parent’s deliberate failure to maintain a relationship with or provide for children, particularly where the incarceration stems from repeated criminal conduct. It also reinforces that uncontradicted evidence cannot be arbitrarily disregarded in termination proceedings.