New Mexico Court Case: State v. Paul P.

STATE OF NEW MEXICO, ex rel., CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES DEPARTMENT, Petitioner-Appellee, v. PAUL P., JR., Respondent-Appellant, and Concerning PAUL P., III, A Child, and THE COEUR d'ALENE TRIBE OF INDIANS, Intervenor. 

Docket No. 19,100 

COURT OF APPEALS OF NEW MEXICO 

127 N.M. 492; 1999 NMCA 77; 983 P.2d 1011; St. B. Bull. 26 

May 18, 1999, Filed 

Released for Publication June 17, 1999. 

APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF DONA ANA COUNTY. THOMAS G. CORNISH, District Judge. 

Trial court's dismissal of Father from proceedings reversed and case remanded to trial court to allow Department to file appropriate petition and then prove one or more of statutory bases for termination of parental rights. 

COUNSEL:
ANGELA L. ADAMS, Children's Court Attorney, ROY E. STEPHENSON, Children's Court Attorney, CHILDREN, YOUTH & FAMILIES DEPT., Santa Fe, NM, for Appellee.

JANE BLOOM YOHALEM, Santa Fe, NM, for Appellant. 

JUDGES:
LYNN PICKARD, Chief Judge. WE CONCUR: RUDY S. APODACA, Judge, M. CHRISTINA ARMIJO, Judge. 

OPINION:

OPINION

PICKARD, Chief Judge.

Paul P., Jr. (Father) appeals the trial court's order dismissing him from the children's court proceedings regarding his son, Paul P., III (Child). The trial court found that Father's consent to adoption or relinquishment of parental rights to the child was not required under NMSA 1978, § 32A-5-19(C) (1997). We disagree and reverse.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The relevant facts are not in dispute. Father is the biological father of Child. At the time that Child was conceived, Father was married to Child's maternal grandmother (Grandmother). Mother was sixteen years old and Father was thirty-nine years old when Child was conceived.

Mother relinquished her parental rights to Child, and Grandmother adopted him when he was four years old. Father and Grandmother raised Child until Grandmother's death in 1994. Father then continued to raise Child by himself. The Children, Youth, and Families Department (the Department) took custody of Child on July 14, 1995, upon allegations that Child was abused. The trial court entered a default judgment against Father on the abuse petition. The trial court adopted a treatment plan to address the circumstances of abuse, with the goal of returning Child to Father. By October 30, 1996, the trial court found that Father had made some efforts to comply with the treatment plan.