No. 2-284 / 01-1706.Court of Appeals of Iowa.
Filed May 15, 2002.
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, KARLA FULTZ, Associate Juvenile Judge.
Mother appeals order terminating relationship with a minor son.AFFIRMED.
Frank Burnette of Burnette Kelley, Des Moines, for appellant.
Thomas Lenihan, West Des Moines, for appellee-father.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Mary Pippin, Assistant Attorney General, John P. Sarcone, County Attorney, and Jennifer Navis, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee-State.
Pamela Vandel, Des Moines, guardian ad litem for minor child.
Considered by HAYDEN, PETERSON, and HARRIS, Senior Judges.[*]
PER CURIAM
The trial court felt required to terminate this mother’s relationship with her son, now more than five years old. We agree and affirm.
Only the mother appealed; the father filed a written consent to termination and did not participate in the proceedings. The child (T.T.) was born December 26, 1996, and was ordered removed from A.V., his mother, on September 8, 1997, the day a petition was filed alleging T.T. to be a child in need of assistance. At the time, T.T. had already been living with his maternal grandparents where he remained until April 1999. He was then placed with his paternal grandparents, and has remained with them since.
T.T. was adjudged a child in need of assistance pursuant to Iowa Code section 232.2(6) (1997). Disposition was ordered December 10, 1997, and services were ordered for the parents to aid them in reunification. These efforts were ambitious, easily satisfying as reasonable and appropriate, but prospects were dismal. T.T. had been removed from his mother because she was hospitalized for acute psychosis and suicidal ideations, the result of drug abuse. She was also the subject of a founded child protective assessment for second-degree sexual abuse involving T.T. The sexual abuse assessment stemmed from statements of A.V. to her own mother and to service providers. A.V. now denies the acts actually occurred, but does not deny stating they did. She contends in her appellate brief “she was clearly hallucinating from very real mental health problems at the time.”
Without question she did have real mental health problems. She had been “hearing voices that sounded like loud speakers in her ears.” According to her mother she had been breaking windows, kicking holes in the door and the wall, and was unable to control T.T.
The Iowa Department of Human Services offered eleven varieties of services in its attempt to aid A.V. in addressing her severe psychological problems and developing parenting skills. She did not cooperate and was unable to correct the problems causing the removal. The mother denied having any problems or concerns, which services could address, though she admitted she was still hallucinating.
The permanency hearing was continued, and the State was directed to file a termination proceeding within sixty days. The filing was delayed an additional eight months to allow the mother more time to place herself in a position to parent T.T., but for a full year she spurned liberal opportunities to visit the child.
The facts clearly support the trial court’s order terminating A.V.’s parental rights to T.T. under Iowa Code sections 232.116(1)(d) and 232.116(1)(e) (2001).
AFFIRMED.