In re: B.R.-2

Summary

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed the termination of petitioner mother J.R.'s parental rights to B.R.-2. The court held that clear and convincing evidence supported her adjudication as an abusing parent based on continued controlled-substance use and failure to remedy conditions underlying a prior involuntary termination of parental rights.

Holdings

1. The circuit court properly adjudicated petitioner as an abusing parent because clear and convincing evidence showed that she continued to use controlled substances, including Xanax, and failed to correct the conditions that led to the prior abuse and neglect proceeding.
2. When a parent previously had parental rights to a sibling involuntarily terminated, the court must review whether the parent remedied the problems leading to that termination, and the prior termination lowers the minimum evidentiary threshold for termination when a statutory factor is present; the prior termination does not itself mandate termination.
3. The circuit court's findings were not clearly erroneous because its account of the evidence was plausible in light of the record as a whole.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court properly adjudicated petitioner as an abusing parent based on clear and convincing evidence that she continued to use controlled substances and failed to correct the conditions that led to the prior involuntary termination of her parental rights.
2. Whether the circuit court's adjudication was sufficiently supported by evidence concerning the prior involuntary termination and petitioner's efforts, or lack of efforts, to remedy the conditions underlying that termination.

Disposition

affirmed