In re Children of Bethmarie R.

Summary

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a judgment terminating a mother's parental rights to two children. The court held that the evidence supported the unfitness findings, that the best-interest determination was not improperly based on adoption by a specific person, and that the interaction between the Probate Court and District Court did not deprive the mother of due process.

Holdings

1. The District Court's unfitness finding was not clearly erroneous because it was supported by competent evidence and clear and convincing proof that the statutory grounds for termination were satisfied.
2. The District Court did not commit factual error or abuse its discretion in finding that termination was in the children's best interests. Its findings were based on the children's need for a safe, predictable, stable home, permanency, and closure, rather than solely on an assumption that the grandmother would adopt them.
3. The mother was not deprived of due process because the Supreme Judicial Court had previously rejected the same due-process contention in the appeal from the jeopardy order, and nothing occurring at the termination hearing changed that conclusion.

Questions Presented

1. Whether competent evidence supported the District Court's finding that the mother was unfit under Maine's parental-rights termination statute.
2. Whether the District Court improperly based its best-interests determination on the identity of a prospective adoptive parent rather than on whether adoption or permanency was in the children's best interests.
3. Whether the procedural interaction between the Probate Court and District Court deprived the mother of due process.

Disposition

affirmed