Through the Eyes of the Child Initiative

Filed on March 22, 2011
Not designated for permanent publication, A-10-906
SUMMARY: A parent cannot delay a proceeding by challenging paternity when a default order of paternity had been entered years earlier and has remained uncontested by that parent.  
Javontae, DOB 6/93, is the child of James, who has been incarcerated a majority of Javontae’s life. [...]

Filed on January 18, 2011
Not designated for permanent publication, A-10-772 through A-10-774
SUMMARY: Termination of the father’s parental rights was proper because he failed to follow through on sex offender and parenting programs while incarcerated and had poor interaction with the children during therapeutic visitation even when prompted, and because the children’s behaviors had improved since [...]

Filed on April 27, 2010
781 N.W.2d 622, 18 Neb. App. 350
SUMMARY: Evidence proving mere possession of crack cocaine by the father without any showing that it affected the child does not establish a definite risk of future harm, and adjudication of the child on this basis was therefore improper.  
Carrdale II, DOB 10/08, was removed [...]

Filed on March 30, 2010
Not designated for permanent publication, A-09-1057
SUMMARY: There was not a violation of the father’s due process rights in the termination of his parental rights as, although he could not attend a portion of the trial due to incarceration, he was offered counsel and the opportunity to submit evidence and cross-examine witnesses. [...]

Filed on March 30, 2010
Not designated for permanent publication, A-09-801
SUMMARY: Given the father’s positive actions in turning his life around since he learned that the child had been removed from the mother, it was not error for the court to deny the petition to terminate his parental rights.  
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Filed on September 8, 2009
17 Neb. App. 919, 773 N.W.2d 161
SUMMARY: Termination of parental rights on the ground of abandonment and substantial neglect through incarceration was improper because there was no concrete evidence that established the length of incarceration and that the mother abandoned the child. To have records from a prior proceeding judicially [...]

Filed on April 28, 2009
766 N.W.2d 424, 17 Neb. App. 544
SUMMARY: The time a parent spends incarcerated shall not be excluded from the determination of whether a child has been out-of-home 15 of the most recent 22 months. As the father did not take steps to undergo sex offender treatment in the two months [...]

Filed on July 3, 2006
14 Neb. App. 867
SUMMARY: The sole testimony of two caseworkers with limited firsthand knowledge of the mother’s progress did not sufficiently establish that termination was in the children’s best interests, such as evidence that adoption was a possibility or of the needs or interests of the children. 
On April 22, 2004, a [...]

Filed on January 25, 2002
263 Neb. 43, 638 N.W.2d 510
SUMMARY: A separate hearing is not required when a parent challenges the provision of reasonable efforts under Neb. Rev. Stat. section 43-283.01. Although incarceration cannot alone be a basis for termination, the court may consider the facts that led to the incarceration and the parent’s [...]

Filed on April 3, 1992
240 Neb. 404, 482 N.W.2d 250
SUMMARY: The physical presence of a parent at the hearing to terminate parental rights is unnecessary so long as the parent has been provided procedural due process. Parental incarceration may be considered in reference to abandonment as a basis for termination of parental rights under [...]