In Re Ashley S.

762 A.2d 941 (2000)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The Lewiston Police Department received a phone call from Ashley's mother indicating that her two-month-old son, Eric Jr., had died in his sleep. Upon arriving at the apartment, the two responding detectives found the baby's corpse and Ashley in a shockingly unsanitary and dangerous apartment. The apartment was in complete disarray, with dog excrement on the floor and garbage and trash piled everywhere. The odor of feces, urine, body odor, animals, and decaying food was overwhelming. Cockroaches, flying bugs were around the trash and crawling on the walls. In the bathroom, there were gnats, and the tub was filled with trash bags full of clothing and other items. Dirty dishes and rotting foods filled the kitchen area. Ashley looked and smelled as if she had not been bathed in days, if not weeks, and was dressed in clothes that were covered with feces. Her clothing was wet. Her pants had feces completely coating the inside, front, and back. She had feces inside and outside of her stocking, shoes. It was all over- her body and in her hair. Ashley had to be 'taken for medical treatment several times to try to determine why she was emitting a noticeable body odor even weeks after her removal from F's home. Ashley's baby brother, Eric Jr., had been dead for approximately eight to twelve hours when the officers arrived. On the day before his death, and from 7:30 a.m. until the mother's return just after 1:00 p.m., the father took no action to tend to Eric Jr. or Ashley's needs. During those hours, Eric Jr. laid fully covered beneath a blanket in a sweltering apartment, right beside his father's bed, and died. Ashley was penned in a small room, covered in her own feces, unattended, and prevented from contact with her parents by a fence in the doorway of her room. The Department of Human Services filed a petition for child protection order concerning two-year-old Ashley. It alleged that Ashley was in circumstances of jeopardy based on her parents' severe neglect, domestic violence, and mental health problems. It sought immediate removal from her parents' home. The court granted the preliminary protection order, and the Department removed Ashley from her parents' care on the same date. Two months later, the court held hearings and found that Ashley was in circumstances of jeopardy. F seemed to feel no responsibility for his son's death and did not seem to think it out of line to allow a small child like his youngest daughter to languish for hours in her room behind a locked gate. The court found that F's 'failure to even notice that [his] child was dead is clear and convincing evidence of deprivation of supervision.' F had the financial resources and the skills necessary to provide a clean and safe environment for his children. The court concluded that F willfully and grossly neglected the needs of his children. In so concluding, the court granted the Department's request not to commence reunification efforts. The father filed a timely appeal of the court's order.