Nevada family-law case summaries

This case involves a Nevada family in which the oldest child, S.L., suffered severe physical and emotional abuse over a period of years. The abuse came to light in December 2013 when S.L., then fifteen, arrived at school with a black eye and told a friend that her stepfather Donald had hit her. Although S.L. initially told Child Protective Services that she had hit her eye on a cabinet, an investigation found multiple bruises and abrasions consistent with abuse. All four children were removed from the home in January 2014 and placed with the Clark County Department of Family Services (DFS). Once in foster care, the children began describing what had happened at home. S.L. later testified that Donald had abused her since third grade — hitting her with a belt and buckle, cutting her wrist with a knife, shooting her hand with a BB gun, knocking out a front tooth, jumping on her chest while wearing work boots until she passed out, making her stand on her head for 30 minutes, and denying her food. She said her mother Melissa knew about the abuse and helped cover bruises with make-up, and that Donald made the children rehearse stories to tell outsiders. Donald and Melissa entered no-contest pleas to the protective custody petition and were given case plans. They attended assessments and therapy programs, but throughout the process they continued to insist that S.L.'s injuries were self-inflicted. A psychological assessment rated both parents at high risk to abuse or neglect again. Recorded jailhouse phone calls captured Melissa calling S.L. a "killer kid" and saying she "has a brain of a fucking peanut." After a trial, the district court terminated both parents' rights. On appeal, the parents made a constitutional argument: they said they could not be punished — by losing their children — simply for refusing to admit to a crime, because the Fifth Amendment protects people from being forced to incriminate themselves. The Nevada Supreme Court rejected that argument here. The court explained that, under its earlier decision In re Parental Rights as to A.D.L., parents indeed cannot have their rights terminated solely because they refuse to confess. But the court drew a line: parents can be required to engage in meaningful therapy designed to make sure the children will be safe at home, and a failure to make real progress in therapy is a different thing from a refusal to confess. Here, the court said, the parents' rights were not terminated merely because they would not admit the abuse — they were terminated because the abuse was extensive and ongoing, the parents had not meaningfully addressed it in therapy, the assessments showed a high risk of repeat abuse, and the therapist who supported reunification had never seen the children's injuries and believed the abuse had not happened. The court also held that there was strong evidence supporting termination on the statutory grounds — parental unfitness, failure to adjust, token efforts, and risk of serious injury — and that termination was in the children's best interests, given that they had bonded with a foster family willing to adopt them, and the two younger children's wish to return home was conditioned on the violence stopping.

This case involves the termination of parental rights of a mother and father over their four children. The case began in December 2013 when the oldest child, then-fifteen-year-old S.L., showed up at school with a black eye and told a friend that her father, Donald, had hit her. Although S.L. initially told Child Protective Services that she had hit her eye on a cabinet, an investigation revealed multiple bruises and abrasions consistent with abuse. All four children were removed from the home in January 2014 and eventually placed together in a foster home. Once safely in foster care, the children disclosed years of abuse. At trial, S.L. testified that Donald had been abusing her since around third grade. The abuse she described included being hit with a belt and buckle, having her wrist cut with a knife, being shot with a BB gun, having a tooth knocked out, being jumped on while Donald wore work boots until she passed out, being made to stand on her head for thirty minutes, being denied food, and being treated differently from the other children. S.L. testified that her mother, Melissa, knew about the abuse and covered S.L.'s facial injuries with makeup. The children were also coached to repeat false stories about how the injuries occurred. Donald and Melissa entered no-contest pleas to the protective custody petition and were given case plans. They participated in assessments and therapy. However, throughout the process, both parents continued to insist that S.L.'s injuries were self-inflicted. Recorded jail calls captured Melissa calling S.L. a "killer kid" with "a brain of a fucking peanut." A psychological assessment found both parents at high risk to abuse or neglect again. On appeal, the parents argued that taking away their parental rights because they refused to admit the abuse violated their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination - the constitutional protection against being forced to confess to a crime. The Nevada Supreme Court had recently addressed a similar issue in a case called A.D.L., where it ruled that a parent cannot be forced to admit a crime under threat of losing her children. The Court rejected the parents' argument here. It distinguished A.D.L., where a single accidental-looking injury was at issue and the mother had otherwise satisfied her therapy requirements. In this case, the Court explained, the abuse was severe, repeated, and stretched over years, and the parents had not engaged in meaningful therapy that would address the abuse and ensure the children's safety if returned home. The Court drew a line: parents cannot be compelled to admit a crime, but they can be required to engage in genuine therapy aimed at protecting their children. Losing children for failing to undergo such therapy, the Court said, "is simply a consequence of the reality that it is unsafe for children to be with parents who are abusive and violent." The Court also affirmed that there was enough evidence to support the district court's findings that the parents were unfit, had failed to adjust, had made only token efforts toward reunification, and posed a risk of serious injury to the children. Because the children had been outside the home for 30 months at the time of trial, a legal presumption applied that the parents had only made token efforts, and the Court agreed they failed to rebut that presumption. Finally, the Court agreed that termination served the children's best interests, noting that the children had bonded with and integrated into a foster family willing to adopt them.