In the Matter of B.A.C.

B.A.C., the child of Rebecca Cornelius (defendant), was born severely addicted to cocaine and methadone in June 2007. Cornelius had been addicted to various drugs for more than 20 years, and she continued taking drugs throughout her pregnancy. When a dependency and neglect petition was filed by the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (plaintiff), a juvenile court held that B.A.C. had been severely abused due to Cornelius’s use of cocaine while she was pregnant with B.A.C. On appeal, both a circuit court and the Tennessee Court if Appeals affirmed. Physicians in the dependency case testified that they had never seen any infant with higher drug levels than B.A.C.’s levels and that B.A.C.’s withdrawal symptoms were also the most severe. One doctor assessed that B.A.C. suffered severe physical abuse. After the juvenile court found B.A.C. dependent, Cornelius’s use of drugs was out of control. In the summer of 2008, Cornelius used cocaine, Dilaudid, morphine, and other drugs. To secure illegal drugs, Cornelius resorted to stealing from stores, selling her prescription methadone, and selling her possessions. After multiple hearings, the juvenile court terminated Cornelius’s parental rights to B.A.C. on the ground of severe child abuse and on the ground of persistence of conditions. The juvenile court also ruled that it was in B.A.C.’s best interests to terminate Cornelius’s parental rights. Cornelius appealed, asking the Tennessee Court of Appeals to overturn its affirmance of severe child abuse in the prior dependency case. Also, Cornelius asserted that neither the juvenile court’s ruling on the persistence of conditions nor its best-interest determination was supported by clear and convincing evidence. Under Tennessee law, a parent’s parental rights regarding a child whose court-ordered removal from the parent’s custody lasted for six months could be terminated if: (1) the conditions that caused the parent to lose custody still remained and would likely lead to further child abuse; (2) it was unlikely that the parent would remedy the removal conditions soon enough to permit the child’s return in a short time; and (3) continuing the parent-child relationship would lessen the child’s opportunity to settle into a home that was safe and permanent. If all three conditions were met, a finding of persistence of conditions was proper. Although Cornelius made some progress toward regaining custody after the filing of the termination-of-parental-rights petition, each requirement was met in this case. [Ed.’s note: The casebook excerpt does not include the court’s analysis of its affirmance of prenatal drug use as severe abuse.]