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In re Frederick P.9/28/2001
As amended October 9, 2001.
Submitted on Briefs: September 13, 2001
The mother appeals from a judgment of the District Court (Skowhegan, Clapp, J.) terminating her parental rights with respect to her five children. The mother asserts that: (1) the results of the termination hearing were irreparably tainted because, during an earlier cease reunification hearing, her rights to free exercise of religion were violated by references to both parents' religion as Wiccans which the mother's brief characterizes as an "unusual and historically disfavored religion referred to in the transcript as 'witchcraft' and 'paganism'"; (2) her due process rights were violated because the cease reunification hearing proceeded without her being present; and (3) there was insufficient evidence to support the court's findings that termination of parental rights was appropriate and in the best interests of the children, particularly in light of the desires of the three older children that her parental rights not be terminated. We affirm.
I. CASE HISTORY
From 1984 to 2000, the children's mother and father were married. During the marriage, five children were born, three boys and two girls, ranging in age from seven to fifteen at the date of the termination hearing. From 1984 until 1997, the couple and the children lived in Massachusetts at the home of the children's maternal grandmother. This was not a healthy relationship because, as the court noted, the maternal grandmother was a significant force in the home life and may have abused or permitted abuse of the mother and her brother as children.
In 1995, after the death of the maternal grandmother and grandfather and two uncles, the mother began to manifest significant mental health problems, some of which may have been rooted in her own abused childhood experiences. The family continued to live at the grandmother's home in Billerica, Massachusetts, until 1997. At that time, child protective agencies in Massachusetts began investigating the living conditions in the home. The family then moved to Gloucester, Massachusetts. They lived there only a short time before being evicted and moving to Hampton, New Hampshire. There they lived in a seasonal summer home through the winter of 1997-1998. In New Hampshire, the mental health condition of both parents apparently continued to deteriorate with the mother becoming the dominant authority in the family. The District Court found that during this time, the mother enlisted the children in her effort to dominate her husband by "having them physically attack, restrain and beat their father in order to get the car keys or money desired by [the mother]."
After being evicted from the Hampton, New Hampshire, residence, the parents purchased a travel trailer and, sometime in the winter of 1998-1999, moved onto a lot in the woods in New Portland, Maine. Although all of the children were of school age, they were not enrolled in school and had to care for themselves and deal with their increasingly unstable parents.
The record, supported by photographs, indicates that the living conditions at and around the trailer were at about the worst extreme of clutter and filth. The trailer had no running water or toilet facilities. Sewage was dumped on the ground underneath and outside the trailer. Great amounts of clothing, trash and junk were strewn about the grounds. A fifty-five gallon drum filled with human waste sat in a pool of sewage. An electric cord was tied to a post with string. The trailer itself was not level. Inside the trailer, smoke from the wood and fuel burning stove was regularly discharged to the interior because of a broken or separated stove pipe
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