Kinard v. ADHS
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Cite as 2010 Ark. App. 423
ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS
DIVISION II
No. CA10-67
Opinion Delivered
TAMMY KINARD
APPELLANT
May 12, 2010
APPEAL FROM THE SEBASTIAN
COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
[NO. JV03-400]
V.
ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF
HUMAN SERVICES
APPELLEE
HONORABLE MARK HEWETT,
JUDGE
AFFIRMED
DAVID M. GLOVER, Judge
Appellant, Tammy Kinard, appeals from an order terminating her parental rights in her
daughter, J.K. Her sole argument for reversal is that the circuit judge erred in viewing her
home during the termination hearing. We hold that the court’s view was contrary to Arkansas
law but that the error was harmless in light of the other evidence in the case. We therefore
affirm the termination order.
On November 4, 2007, the Fort Smith Police Department received a report that
eight-year-old J.K. was alone at a grocery store, lost and unable to cross Rogers Avenue. J.K.
had a Subway sandwich and a note from appellant containing the Subway order. A police
officer took J.K. home and found appellant lying on a bed and living in a foul-smelling
environment. Appellant told the officer that she wanted to send J.K. to Wal-Mart at that
Cite as 2010 Ark. App. 423
point, but the officer advised that it was probably not safe for her to go alone. According to
the Arkansas Department of Human Services (“DHS”), a representative from J.K.’s school
reported that J.K. was responsible for taking care of all housework and expressed a desire to
be in foster care. Four days later, DHS caseworkers went to appellant’s apartment, and
appellant answered the door in a nightgown that appeared to be covered with feces. The
caseworkers observed that the house was in disarray, had a bad odor, and was filled with flies.
They additionally discovered that appellant had not been giving J.K. her prescribed
medication. When the workers advised appellant that they planned to exercise a seventy-twohour hold on J.K., appellant stated that if J.K. did not want to come home, appellant would
“sign the papers because I am a grown woman and I don’t need that in my life.” DHS was
aware of the family’s history: J.K. was in foster care for more than a year in 2004–05 due to
physical abuse, inadequate housing, neglect, and “caretaker unable to cope,” and another case
was opened in March 2007 because J.K. was being locked in her room each night from 7:00
p.m. until time for school the next day. Based on these circumstances, DHS sought
emergency custody of J.K. The circuit court granted DHS’s custody petition on November
13, 2007.
Thereafter, the court found probable cause for J.K.’s removal from the home and
adjudicated J.K. dependent-neglected based on lack of supervision. The court established a
goal of reunification and directed appellant to maintain stable and appropriate housing and
income; to complete parenting classes; to undergo a psychological evaluation and complete
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recommended counseling; to maintain transportation; to visit J.K. regularly; and to participate
in family counseling if recommended by J.K.’s therapist.
On June 5, 2008, the court conducted a review hearing, after which it maintained the
goal of reunification. The court found that appellant had partially complied with the case plan
and court orders but had not completed parenting classes or undergone a psychological
evaluation. The court ordered appellant to perform those tasks and to undergo an examination
to determine her physical ability to care for J.K. A permanency-planning order entered five
months later maintained the goal of reunification and reiterated appellant’s obligations.
The court’s next order, following an April 2009 hearing, changed the goal of the case
to termination of parental rights. The court found that appellant had lost her means of
transportation, failed to attend counseling, missed visits with J.K., and refused to allow DHS
and CASA representatives to inspect her home. DHS filed a petition to terminate appellant’s
parental rights, and a termination hearing took place on September 28, 2009.
At the hearing, J.K.’s therapist, Kim Davis, testified that she had recommended
stopping appellant’s visitation with J.K. Davis described a DVD she had seen of one visit in
which appellant apparently spilled nail polish on the floor, chastised J.K. about being
responsible for it, made J.K. clean up the spill, critiqued her cleaning efforts, mentioned
money to replace the spilled bottle, and declared that “they are going to throw us the hell out
of here.” Davis said that J.K. was in tears over the incident.
CASA director Glenda Evans testified that she facilitated visits between appellant and
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J.K. and videotaped the visits as required by court order. She presented the court with a
videotape of some representative visits including the nail-polish incident, which Evans said
went on for “a very long time.” Another visit involved a child who was playing with J.K. and
whom appellant asked, “[W]hat’s wrong with you?” When the child hesitantly replied that
she had cerebral palsy, appellant stated that God punishes people by giving them diseases.
During another visit, J.K., who was by then ten years old, had gotten a haircut that she
requested herself. When appellant saw the haircut, she criticized J.K. in a manner that Evans
described as cruel and that went on so long that Evans eventually asked appellant to stop. Yet
another visit found appellant upset over a small hole in J.K.’s blouse, which she photographed
“to let the judge see how [J.K.] comes to these visits.” According to Evans, no supporting and
loving relationship existed between appellant and J.K., and she described the relationship as
strange, with J.K. acting like a three-year-old around appellant and engaging in inappropriate
kissing and touching. Evans said that she had recommended in the past that visitation be
suspended and that she now recommended termination of appellant’s parental rights.
Evans also produced a series of photographs taken on April 15, 2009, which was the
last time before the termination hearing that CASA was able to obtain access to appellant’s
home. Evans testified that the photographs showed that appellant’s bed was very dirty with
feces on it; that there were feces all over the commode; and that there were other unkempt
and cluttered areas. Appellant objected that the pictures were “five or six months old,” at
which point DHS’s attorney suggested that the court take a recess and visit appellant’s home.
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The court did so with all counsel, appellant, and the bailiff present. Appellant voiced no
objection.
Following the visit, the hearing resumed and appellant took the stand. She
acknowledged that her apartment was not appropriate at the time of trial and that it was “a
mess” because she was depressed and did not expect J.K. to return home immediately.
Appellant also stated that her home had less food in it than it did in April and that she believed
that the toilet “looked worse today than it did in April.” Regarding other matters, appellant
testified that she had prescriptions for several medications and was under “medication
management” with her doctor. However, she said that, even though she was supposed to
return to her doctor six months after her last appointment in January 2009, she had not done
so. Appellant also admitted that her last counseling appointment had been on April 30, 2009.
Her therapy records indicated that she had been discharged for noncompliance on that date;
that her diagnosis included “possible delusions”; that her mental-health symptoms increased
in February; and that she did not attend day treatment as recommended.
Appellant’s testimony also demonstrated her propensity for delusional and paranoid
thinking. She stated that she told her therapist that God promised to provide her with
diamonds and that she had obtained a $12,000 ring for $150. She also accused DHS family
service worker Tiffany May of stealing her car and using “stalkers and creepers” to follow her
and attack her in bed; claimed that her maintenance man allowed people to enter her
apartment at night by selling them keys for ten dollars; and believed that police detectives, to
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whom she had reported her car stolen, said that the car was repossessed “to make me look
bad.”
DHS caseworker Brenna Meyers testified that appellant had not provided a letter from
her doctor stating that she was physically and emotionally capable of parenting J.K. She also
stated that appellant never progressed far enough in her individual therapy to permit family
therapy to take place. Meyers said that she would describe J.K. as “brow-beaten” by appellant
and stated that DHS recommended termination of parental rights.
Based on the foregoing evidence, including the court’s viewing of appellant’s home,
the court found that termination of appellant’s parental rights was in J.K.’s best interest and
that grounds for termination existed. The termination order noted the condition of appellant’s
home but declared that the primary impediments to reunification were appellant’s mental
illness, which had worsened with delusions and paranoia, and appellant’s lack of compliance
with counseling, treatment, and medication management. Appellant appeals from the court’s
order and argues that the court “erred by making a home visit to appellant’s apartment to
view the conditions of her home and by failing to ensure that a record was made of what
occurred during that visit.”
Arkansas law has long permitted a fact-finder to leave the courtroom and view a site
that is material to the matter being tried. See Fitzgerald v. La Porte, 67 Ark. 263, 54 S.W. 342
(1899); Benton v. State, 30 Ark. 328 (1875). In Fitzgerald, our supreme court stated that a jury’s
view of the premises was “evidence to be considered by the jury in connection with other
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facts in the case.” Fitzgerald, 67 Ark. at 265, 54 S.W. at 343. However, in more recent cases,
particularly those involving bench trials, the supreme court has retreated from its position that
a fact-finder’s view may serve as evidence and has restricted such views to their usefulness as
an aid for better understanding testimony that is already on record. Johnson v. State, 337 Ark.
196, 205, 987 S.W.2d 694, 699 (1999); Potter v. Bryan Funeral Home, 307 Ark. 142, 146, 817
S.W.2d 882, 884 (1991); Mitcham v. Temple, 215 Ark. 850, 851, 223 S.W.2d 817, 818 (1949).
As a result, our courts now recognize that, when a judge’s view exceeds that limited purpose,
the judge commits error. Potter, 307 Ark. at 146, 817 S.W.2d at 884.
The question before us is whether the circuit judge’s visit to appellant’s home was
undertaken for the purpose of understanding the proof that was already on record, which
would be permissible, or whether, as characterized by appellant, the judge’s inspection was
an “evidence gathering foray,” which would not be permissible. We conclude that the judge’s
view exceeded the scope allowed by our supreme court. The purpose of the court’s visit was
to acquire new evidence regarding the current state of appellant’s home rather than to afford
clarification or understanding of previously received testimony. While we understand the
court’s desire to bridge the gap in the photographic evidence by making a quick visit to
appellant’s home, we think that the better practice would have been for the court to dispatch
the attorneys, parties, and a witness to observe appellant’s apartment, then have the witness
report back to the court on the record with a description of what was seen. Instead, by
undertaking a personal view of the premises, the court added to the quantum of proof, which
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was contrary to law. The presence of error, however, does not end our inquiry.
Appellee correctly notes that appellant did not object to the court’s on-site inspection
of her home. Appellant responds that Ark. R. Evid. 605, which prohibits a trial judge from
acting as a witness in a case, does not require an objection to preserve a claim of error. See
Lillie v. United States, 953 F.2d 1188 (10th Cir. 1992), and the cases cited therein (holding that
Fed. R. Evid. 605, which is identical to Arkansas’s rule, applies to a judge’s view of a location
and considers the view to be evidence in the form of the judge’s own testimony). We need
not address the applicability of Ark. R. Evid. 605 and its plain-error rule to the present
situation, however, because any error committed by the court in visiting appellant’s home was
harmless based on the remaining proof adduced at the hearing.
We note first that appellant’s own testimony corresponded to most, if not all, of the
court’s observations of her home. She testified that her house was “a mess” on the date of the
hearing, that it was inappropriate for J.K. to return to, and that in some respects it was worse
than when the previous pictures were taken in April 2009. Where evidence is improperly
admitted but the same evidence is admitted through another source, there is no reversible
error. See Suggs v. State, 322 Ark. 40, 44, 907 S.W.2d 124, 126 (1995) (involving hearsay
testimony).
Secondly, the record contains proof, separate and apart from the judge’s personal view,
that overwhelmingly supports the termination decision. Almost two years into the case,
appellant had not maintained transportation as ordered; she was uncooperative with DHS; she
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was discharged from counseling for being noncompliant with her therapy and doctor’s
appointments; and she did not progress far enough in her own counseling to participate in
family therapy. Moreover, evidence existed that she was cruel and inappropriate during her
visits with J.K. and that she suffered from extreme paranoia and delusions as shown by her
testimony at the hearing. Given the court’s reliance on appellant’s mental-health problems as
the primary basis for termination, we cannot say, in our de novo review, that the court clearly
erred in terminating appellant’s parental rights. Henson v. Ark. Dep’t of Human Servs., 2009
Ark. App. 697, at 5, ___ S.W.3d ___, ___ (applying de novo review and the clearlyerroneous standard). See also Potter, 307 Ark. at 146, 817 S.W.2d at 884–85 (affirming the trial
court based on other evidence in the case, despite the court’s error in gathering evidence
outside the courtroom). We therefore affirm the termination order.
Affirmed.
R OBBINS and M ARSHALL, JJ., agree.
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