In re L.O.-D.

Summary

The Ninth District Court of Appeals affirmed the juvenile court’s adjudication of L.O.-D. as a dependent child under R.C. 2151.04(C) and its award of temporary custody to Summit County Children Services. The court held that the adjudication and disposition were not against the manifest weight of the evidence, citing chronic truancy, domestic-violence exposure, untreated mental-health concerns, and unsafe cluttered living conditions.

Holdings

1. The adjudication of dependency was not against the manifest weight of the evidence because clear and convincing evidence showed that the child's home environment, including chronic truancy combined with severe clutter, exposure to domestic violence, and Mother's unaddressed mental-health and behavioral concerns, warranted the state assuming guardianship in the child's interests.
2. The order placing L.O.-D. in the temporary custody of Summit County Children Services Board was not against the manifest weight of the evidence because the placement was in the child's best interest.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the juvenile court's adjudication that L.O.-D. was a dependent child under R.C. 2151.04(C) was against the manifest weight of the evidence.
2. Whether the juvenile court's order placing L.O.-D. in the temporary custody of Summit County Children Services Board was against the manifest weight of the evidence and contrary to the child's best interest.

Disposition

affirmed