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APPEAL
FROM THE JEFFERSON COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NO. 35JV-19-14],
HONORABLE EARNEST E. BROWN, JR., JUDGE
Tabitha McNulty, Arkansas Commission for Parent Counsel, for
appellant.
Ellen
K. Howard, Jonesboro, Office of Chief Counsel, for appellee.
Chrestman
Group, PLLC, by: Keith L. Chrestman, attorney ad litem for
minor children.
OPINION
MIKE
MURPHY, Judge
Appellant Pamela Mixon appeals from the April 15, 2019 order
of the Jefferson County Circuit Court granting permanent
custody of four of her six children to their fathers and
closing the case as it related to those children. She now
asserts that the court erred in granting permanent custody to
the childrens fathers because she did not receive notice
that permanent custody would be considered at the hearing,
and she argues that the courts custody order was not in the
childrens best interest. We affirm.
On
January 8, 2019, the Arkansas Department of Human Services
(the Department) exercised an emergency hold on M.M. (born
3/16/2015) and filed a petition for emergency custody and
dependency-neglect three days later. The Department initiated
an investigation into the welfare of Mixons children after
Mixon was found "passed out" in a car in the
Departments parking lot for over three hours with
three-year-old M.M. confined to the car; M.M was covered in
sweat and was crying loudly. Mixon agreed to a drug test that
day, and she tested positive for illegal substances. The
petition alleged that in addition to M.M., Mixon is the
mother of K.B. (born 2/08/2002), Q.B. (born 6/14/2003), K.H.
(born 11/09/2004), J.H. (born 5/30/2006), and J.C. (born
9/08/2009). Mixon had legal custody of these children, but
they had been in the physical custody of the following
individuals for over six months: J.H. and K.H. with their
legal father, Komie Henderson (Henderson); K.B. and Q.B. with
their legal father, Quentin Battles (Battles); and J.C. with
his paternal grandmother, Carrie Coleman. The petition also
alleged this was not the first contact that the Department
has had with Mixon and her children. A
child-protective-services case was open from June 4, 2015, to
January 20, 2016; however, Mixon did not complete the offered
services— including drug assessments, housing, drug
screens, home visits, substance-abuse treatment, and
employment services— because she withdrew the children
from school and moved, and the Arkansas Department of Child
and Family Services could not locate her.
The
circuit court entered an ex parte order of emergency custody
on January 11. The order placed custody of M.M. with the
Department and restricted Mixon from removing her children
from the homes where they were living. On January 17, the
circuit court held a probable-cause hearing, and it found
that probable cause existed for M.M. to remain in the
Departments custody, and it continued to forbid Mixon from
removing the other children from their placements.
Additionally, the circuit court ordered that Mixon be
referred for the courts "Family Treatment Drug
Court."
On
February 13, the Department filed a motion to terminate
reunification services as to all her children except the
child
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it had removed, M.M. The motion alleged that because the
children had not lived with Mixon for an extended period, it
would be detrimental to their health, safety, and well-being
to attempt reunification. Thus, it requested that the circuit
court change the goals for those children to relative
placement.
The
court conducted the adjudication hearing the next day, found
the allegations in the petition to be true, and adjudicated
the children dependent-neglected. Additionally, the circuit
court found Battles to be the legal father of Q.B. and K.B.;
Henderson to be the legal father of K.H. and J.H.; Justin
Coleman to be the legal father of J.C.; and Myron Johnson to
be the legal father of M.M. The circuit court further found
that none of the legal fathers had contributed to the
dependency-neglect of the children, set the goal of the case
as reunification, and ordered all parents to comply with the
case plan and court orders.
On
February 21, the circuit court held a Family Treatment Drug
Court hearing wherein it reviewed the case and ordered a goal
of reunification with a fit parent. At this hearing, two
positive drug screens were admitted into evidence, one from
that day and one from the January 17 hearing. Due to Mixons
positive drug screens, the circuit court ordered that she
submit to another drug screen before she left ...