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Court: Judge should not have terminated inmate's parental rights Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A Craighead County circuit judge erred when he granted a motion by the Arkansas Department of Human Services to terminate the parental rights of a man who had been imprisoned since before his son was born, the state Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday. The decision reversed a ruling that terminated Troy Lindemood's rights to his son, identified in court papers as C.S., who was born Aug. 30, 2006. Lindemood was in prison in Ohio from January 2006 to September of last year. Circuit Judge Larry Boling entered the order to end Lindemood's parental rights at a hearing on July 12. Boling also ended the parental rights of the boy's mother, and the state Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in October. Because Lindemood was in prison and unable to attend the July hearing, his attorney moved for the hearing to be postponed, arguing his client was less than two months away from being released. Boling denied the motion. Officials with DHS claimed Lindemood's son had been subjected to "aggravated circumstances." The boy was placed in state custody on Sept. 1, 2006, when he was 2 days old, after both he and his mother tested positive for methamphetamine. The Court of Appeals reversed Boling's ruling with respect to Lindemood only, finding that DHS provided no evidence that Lindemood did anything to harm his son. Lindemood "was not responsible for the mother's using illegal drugs during her pregnancy or for drugs being in C.S.'s system when he was born," Judge John Robbins wrote for the court. "Nor can we say that Lindemood abandoned C.S., because Lindemood, from the time he learned of C.S.'s birth, has consistently expressed his desire that he be allowed to establish his paternity and be a parent to C.S.," Robbins continued. DHS also claimed there was little likelihood that providing services to the family would result in successful reunification of the family, but "there is no evidence that DHS tried to determine what services Lindemood might need in order to gain custody of C.S.," Robbins wrote. In some cases parental rights may be terminated because of the incarceration of a parent, but Lindemood's incarceration was not so substantial as to preclude all attempts to reunite him with his son, the Court of Appeals ruled. |
