Mother’s bid to regain parental rights rejected

Bedford County woman lost custody due to drug addiction

A Bedford County mother who lost her child more than seven years ago due to drug addiction issues cannot now exercise her parental rights even though she is no longer addicted, according to an opinion issued late last week by the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

The case was filed in the appeals court as a challenge to a decision last June by Bedford County Judge Brandi J. Hershey, who terminated the mother's parental rights.

The petition to terminate was filed by the foster mother -- the child's caretaker for the last 7.5 years.

The issue before the appeals court, as outlined by the mother's Altoona attorney Matthew R. Dombrosky, was that the trial court erred when it found a legal basis had been established for the termination of the mother's rights and that the Bedford judge did not give appropriate weight to efforts by the foster mother to thwart the mother-daughter relationship.

Hershey, however, in her opinion, rejected the notion the foster mother prevented the birth mother from seeing the child.

According to the Superior Court opinion, after the mother was released from a term in a state prison, she was granted unsupervised visitation with her daughter, but then she moved to another city that was a "considerable distance" from Bedford, losing any contact with the child.

The last contact between the mother and child was by telephone in December 2020.

In her opinion, Hershey noted that, after being granted visitation rights, the mother moved to another city and did not seek a modification of the court order to address that issue.

When asked why, the mother responded, "Well, I have no answer. I didn't know what to do, so I did nothing."

The Superior Court panel that reviewed the appeal included Judges Alice B. Dubow, Mary P. Murray and Megan Sullivan.

The Superior Court addressed the mother's lack of action in its opinion supporting Hershey's decision.

The mother, it pointed out, made limited attempts to contact the child.

She did not pursue additional custody and moved away from where the child lived.

The mother did not call the child after December 2020 and did not provide financial support for the child.

She also undertook no parental responsibilities, the appeals court concluded.

After citing those reasons, the Superior Court panel rendered its support for the decision by the Bedford County judge.

The opinion also reported the child has never expressed a desire to see her birth mother.

The foster mother became the child's caretaker when the child was about six months old.

The Superior Court opinion reported the mother's heroin habit initially led to placement of the child with a family member, but the mother eventually sought help from the present foster mother, a person she knew.

The mother argued that she is now fit to be the child's caretaker. She testified she has two jobs, a home and has not used drugs for three years.

She testified she wants to be in the child's life.

The Superior Court explained that, under the law, parental rights may be terminated "if a parent either demonstrates a settled purpose of relinquishing parental claim to a child or fails to perform parental duties.

"Parental rights are not preserved by waiting for a more suitable or convenient time to perform one's parental responsibilities while others provide the child with her physical and emotional needs," the appeals court explained.

The biological father of the child previously consented to the termination of his parental rights, the opinion stated.