In re D.C.

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed an order terminating the parental rights of petitioner father M.C. to D.C. The court held that the father’s minimal contact with the child, failure to participate in the abuse and neglect proceedings, and failure to initiate offered services supported adjudication as an abusing parent and termination of parental rights.

Holdings

1. The circuit court did not err in allowing the child to remain in relative care rather than placing him with M.C. when the petition was filed.
2. The circuit court properly adjudicated M.C. an abusing parent based on his failure to provide care and his settled purpose to forego parental responsibilities, even though the evidence did not show that he personally inflicted the physical abuse.
3. The circuit court properly terminated M.C.'s parental rights because there was no reasonable likelihood that the conditions of abuse or neglect could be substantially corrected in the near future and termination was necessary for the child's welfare.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court erred by failing to place the child in M.C.'s custody when the abuse and neglect petition was filed.
2. Whether the circuit court erred by terminating M.C.'s parental rights when the evidence did not show that he personally abused or neglected the child.
3. Whether the evidence supported findings that there was no reasonable likelihood that the conditions of abuse and neglect could be substantially corrected in the near future and that termination was necessary for the child's welfare.

Disposition

affirmed