SAHARA GONZALES v. ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES AND MINOR CHILD (Majority)
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Cite as 2023 Ark. App. 445 ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS DIVISION IV No. CV-23-165 Opinion Delivered October SAHARA GONZALES APPELLANT V. 4, 2023 APPEAL FROM THE SEBASTIAN COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, FORT SMITH DISTRICT [NO. 66FJV-21-56] ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES AND MINOR CHILD APPELLEES HONORABLE SHANNON L. BLATT, JUDGE AFFIRMED MIKE MURPHY, Judge This is a companion case to Gonzales v. Arkansas Department of Human Services, 2023 Ark. App. 444, also handed down today. In both cases, the Sebastian County Circuit Court terminated appellant Sahara Gonzales’s parental rights. This is an appeal from the termination of Gonzales’s parental rights to her sixth child, MC6, born March 20, 2020. The legal issues pertaining to all the children were addressed in a single termination petition, hearing, and termination order. On appeal, Gonzales challenges only the court’s best-interest finding. We affirm. MC6 entered his siblings’ previously opened case in February 2021. The Department exercised custody because Gonzales was using methamphetamine, she had drugs in the home, and she failed to keep the other juveniles in counseling as required. On March 1, 2021, the circuit court held a probable-cause hearing wherein it found that probable cause existed for the emergency order to remain in place. On April 26, the court held an adjudication hearing and, on the basis of the parties’ stipulation, found that MC6 was dependent-neglected due to parental unfitness. The court also found that the allegations in the petition and accompanying affidavit were substantiated by the proof, and it ordered that the case goal be reunification. Additionally, it ordered that MC6 be placed with Gonzales at her residential-treatment facility, and should she leave, MC6 was not to go with her. Further, the circuit court ordered Gonzales to follow the case plan and complete the services enumerated therein. The case proceeded as described in Gonzales, 2023 Ark. App. 444, and Gonzales’s rights to her children—including MC6—were terminated on December 12, 2022. The relevant facts, arguments, and this court’s conclusions are set forth in the companion case and are incorporated herein. Accordingly, we affirm. Affirmed. GLADWIN and GRUBER, JJ., agree. Leah Lanford, Arkansas Commission for Parent Counsel, for appellant. Kaylee Wedgeworth, Ark. Dep’t of Human Services, Office of Chief Counsel, for appellee. Dana McClain, attorney ad litem for minor child. 2
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