In re A.A.-1 and A.A.-2

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed the termination of M.A.’s parental rights to A.A.-1 and A.A.-2. The court held that his continued relationship with a person previously found to be an inappropriate caretaker, despite court orders and warnings, supported adjudication as an abusing parent and demonstrated that the conditions of neglect were not reasonably likely to be corrected.

Holdings

1. A parent's lack of physical custody does not alone foreclose an adjudication of neglect; a parent without physical custody may still fail to provide proper supervision when the totality of the circumstances shows that the child's mental health is threatened.
2. The evidence supported adjudicating Father as an abusing parent because his continued relationship with P.B., despite knowledge of her prior involuntary terminations and court orders prohibiting her contact with the children, threatened the children's welfare.
3. Termination was proper because Father had not corrected the conditions of neglect, there was no reasonable likelihood that those conditions could be substantially corrected in the near future, and the children's welfare required termination.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court properly adjudicated Father as an abusing parent based on his continued relationship with and proposed exposure of the children to P.B., despite orders and evidence indicating that P.B. was an inappropriate caretaker.
2. Whether the circuit court properly terminated Father's parental rights based on the absence of a reasonable likelihood that the conditions of abuse and neglect could be substantially corrected in the near future and the children's welfare requiring termination.

Disposition

affirmed