TPR Hearing Take 2 Day 2

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The parents were absent again today. Did anyone really think they would show up?


Today ended the hearing. There were only 3 witnesses that actually testified and a lot of information entered into evidence as well as the closing arguments.

When court began, the first witness was (S)'s therapist. She gave what was in my opinion very compelling testimony as to the impact that the parents have had on (S)'s life and most likely on all the children's lifes. She was very concerned about the potential regression if she were to be reunited with her parents. She said there would be extenisve counselling required with the parents and she has had 5 meetings set up with mom and mom has been a no-show at 3 of them. This lack of committment would not allow for the necessary counselling to take place. She also said that when she did have the chance to meet with mom, she was not truthful with her. This certainly would not be helpful in counselling.

After that there was a lot of legal manueverings taking place and meetings in chambers that we were not privy to. It seems that there were some problems with getting witnesses to arrive on time and other things to occur. It wasn't until about 3 1/2 hours after the recess that court reconvened. There were only two more witnesses called. Both of whom were testifying to the fact that mom and dad were spending a lot of time together and were certainly not separated as the first judge had thought.

It was then time for closing arguments. The longest argument went to the District Attorney. You could tell he didn't want to miss anything or leave anything out. He wanted to make sure that the judge had as much information as possible to terminate parental rights. I think he was successful, although he may have gotten a little carried away. I say that because at one point when he said "This is like overtime"....The judge interupted and said "When we get to the sports analogies, we have probably heard enough. Your closing argument has been longer than your case."

The lamest argument has to go to dad's lawyer. This is no reflection on the lawyer who is certainly competant and the type of a guy I think I could be friends with, but the fact that he had the lamest client any lawyer has ever had to put up with. I think dad not showing up only helped him through this hearing.

The most well thought out argument was the one made by the mother's lawyer. While it seemed to be well thought out, it didn't seem to be of significant substance, and i don't think swayed the judge much one way or the other.

The best closing argument has to go to the GAL. He was very passionate in his advocacy for the children. He emphasized the fact that these kids have been in limbo for almost 2 years and it was time to get the kids the stability they need. The best part of his argument, and the states case for that matter, was that all five childen have permanancy plans in place. There are foster parents with all 5 kids who are ready, willing, and able to adopt. We all know each other so there is high probablilty that the siblings will maintain contact. During his entire argument, the judge seemed to be connecting with what he was saying. She was nodding her head and paying close attention to what he said. She had no questions for him as he was complete with what he said and clarification was not needed.

So now it is up to the judge. She has mounds and mounds of evidence to analyze and then has to determine if the state has met its burden to terminate the parental rights.

Unforunately, of fortunately, depending on your position, it is the judges job to decide the case on the law. While what is best for the children has to enter into her thinking to some extent, if the state has not met its burden as outlined in the law, then the termination can not be granted. If on the other hand, the burden has been met and there is a belief that the children will be in jeopardy if the TPR is not granted then there is no choice but to grant the TPR. I would love to have a decision before Thanksgiving, but I think before Christmas is more likely.

It would be a wonderful Christmas present to be able to let these kids know that there will finally be some stability in their life. I hope Santa can bring them that.

TPR Hearing Take 2 Day 1

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Guess what.....Bio mom and dad couldn't be bothered to show up in court for the start of the TPR hearing. As a result, things went pretty quick today.

Now on top of everything else, we have abandonment as an issue. The lawyers for mom and dad did show up.No one knows for sure where etiher of the parents are but rumor is dad is in hiding and wants everyone to believe he is somewhere on the gulf coast. He may or may not be. Rumor is Moms grandmother dies and she was attending her funeral. (In the words of the GAL...."A lot of people have dies in this case") Mom's lawyer asked for a continuance, but the judhge denies that. The state called about 10 witnesses today. Mom's lawyer asked about 12 questions total and Dad's lawyer may have asked 2 or 3 questions.

Mom's lawyer is only planning on calling one witness, and dad's lawyer has no plans to call any witnesses. It seems as though they are convinced that the state will win this case and they are saving their energy for the appeal.....On the other hand, I don't think the state has presented as strong a case as they did the last time, but apparently they have all agreed to have the last case be part of the record of this case....I have no idea what any of this means and I am just hoping as everyone else is that whatever is best for the kids is what happens.

There will be a day 2......It will be tomorrow.......I will report on that tomorrow evening.......I won't have any more of an idea as to what is going on tomorrow then I do today.......I get more and more baffled by our justice system every time I show up in court for these hearings.

We will be keeping our fingers crossed....see you all tomorrow
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Court Hearing

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OK, you are not going to believe some of this, but I can assure you all of this is the truth.

Tuesday we didn't bother to go to the hearing. Big mistake. Apparently bio-dad sort of threw a chair at the caseworker at one point during a recess. Anyway, we did go for all of Wednesday. So a couple of foster parents including DW gave testimony as well as more therapists. They also started going out of order and at some point the bio-mom lawyer and the bio-dad lawyer started calling some of their witnesses.

The therapist for (S) said that during therapy (S) had buried a mother and father figure into the sand and she thought it symbolized the burying of her mom and dad. Bio-mom's lawyer when cross-examining asked if it was possible that it was the foster parents as opposed to the biological parents. Of course she had to say yes. (S) has no way of understanding all that. so anyway after that the bio-mom lawyer came over to us and wanted to make sure we knew that she didn't for one minute think that it would have been us and that she was just doing her job. It was really kind of funny but at the same time it was nice. The reason she came over is because bio-mom got mad at her because bio-mom likes us and doesn't want to do anything to make us think poorly of her. (I think it is a little too late for that). but I digress...

Bio-dad's lawyer calls the case worker as a witness. The entire time he is asking the caseworker questions bio-dad is badgering him telling him to ask this question or that question and continually interupting him. When it came time for bio-mom's attorney to ask the questions of the caseworker, bio-dad continued talking with his lawyer and telling him what he needed to do and it got to the point where the judge had to take a recess so that bio-dad and his lawyer could talk. It was obvious that bio-dad has no control over himself. Anyway, that recess ended up lasting until the end of the day so while on Wednesday morning they thought they would finish on Wednesday, they had to come back on Thursday to finish up.

Thursday began with the continuing of questions for the caseworker by bio-mom's lawyer, then the DA and then the GAL. Then the show began. It was time for bio-dad to testify.

His lawyer asked the questions first. I don't think he asked more than 2 questions and he just let bio-dad ramble on and spoke for about an hour and a half. It was a rant although it did make sense when I was able to concentrate. For most of the time he was putting me to sleep. Anyway, bio-mom's lawyer knew better then to ask him anything. The DA asked a couple of questions and you could tell that bio-dad was about to blow. He backed off a bit so there wouldn't be an explosion. the it was time for the GAL to ask some questions. He asked a simple yes or no question and bio-dad started to go on. The GAL said "This is a yes or no question, just give me a yes or no". Bio-dad said "I can't answer it yes or no". the GAL said "I am not going to be as patient with you as the DA was". Bio-dad's lawyer objects saying that the GAL is being argumentative.......It was at this point something was said that had me to the point where I thought I was going to get totally hysterical with laughter and get thrown out of the courtroom. Bio-dad syas to the GAL

"Maybe you need some anger management classes"

I kid you not. It is the truth.

The bad news.........There is no doubt that for all of (S)s life and even while in utero, by their own admission she was subjected to domestic violence of some sort on a weekly basis. That is what they admit to. It was probably even more then that.

I will write more about the lessons learned about (S)s life before being placed with us in the coming days. Right now I am still totally unsure of what we may want to do in terms of adoption. I have made a lot of difficult decisions in my life. I think that is going to be the most difficult.