Opinion
10-P-2009
12-14-2011
ADOPTION OF AVA.
NOTICE: Decisions issued by the Appeals Court pursuant to its rule 1:28 are primarily addressed to the parties and, therefore, may not fully address the facts of the case or the panel's decisional rationale. Moreover, rule 1:28 decisions are not circulated to the entire court and, therefore, represent only the views of the panel that decided the case. A summary decision pursuant to rule 1:28, issued after February 25, 2008, may be cited for its persuasive value but, because of the limitations noted above, not as binding precedent.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER PURSUANT TO RULE 1:28
We conclude that none of the factual findings by the judge in this case was clearly erroneous. The mother objects that a number of findings are based on hearsay. To begin with, this evidence was all admitted without objection below. See Adoption of Sean, 36 Mass. App. Ct. 261, 265 (1994). See also Adoption of Mary, 414 Mass. 705, 712 (1993). Furthermore, the information from the California proceedings is also included within the investigator's April, 2009, report. The hearsay within that report is admissible under the statutory hearsay exception contained in G. L. c. 119, § 24. The sources of the information contained in the report were sufficiently clearly identified. See Care & Protection of Leo, 38 Mass. App Ct. 237, 243-244 (1995).
The findings of fact made by the judge support the judge's conclusion that parental unfitness was shown by clear and convincing evidence. The judge's findings are adequately tied to the conclusion of unfitness. See Petition of the Dept. of Social Servs. to Dispense with Consent to Adoption, 15 Mass. App. Ct. 916, 917 (1983). We note the judge's findings of a history of domestic violence by the mother against her older children and of inappropriate behavior toward her older daughter; his findings, based on a psychological evaluation, that the mother demonstrated impairments in reality testing in terms of misperceiving events, that the mother's 'inaccurate perceptions of people often lead to poor judgment and inappropriate behavior,' and that her personality traits include 'denial of reality'; his findings that a parental evaluator had concluded that the mother's condition and her resistance to meaningful help could create risk for the child and compromised the mother's current ability to parent the child; and his findings describing inappropriate behaviors by the mother, including men coming to her home to solicit her for sex, her once accepting money for sex, her repeatedly reporting that the child had serious medical symptoms that, upon investigation, the child did not have, and her repeated inconsistency in reporting significant factual events. Taken together with the other facts found, these findings support the conclusion by clear and convincing evidence that the mother is unfit to parent the child. The decree is therefore affirmed.
So ordered.
By the Court (Graham, Rubin & Wolohojian, JJ.),