MOUNT VERNON -- The Fifth District Appellate Court has reversed Madison County Associagte Judge Martin Mengarelli in a ruling in which a father was declared unfit.
The father, identified as Douglas K. in the Sept. 19 ruling, appealed the decision after Mengarelli had also determined his minor son, Owen K, was being neglected.
Fifth District justictes affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part, stating that the lower court missed a step.
“Circuit court erred in finding father to be unfit without first making the minor child a ward of the court," the ruling states.
Douglas first took issue with the finding that Owen had been neglected. The appeals court pointed out that it would not reverse this discovery unless “it is against the manifest weight of the evidence...A finding is against the manifest weight of the evidence only if the opposite conclusion is clearly evident. Here the opposite conclusion is not clearly evident. Accordingly, the trial court did not err in determining the minor was neglected.” It added there was evidence of domestic violence creating a dangerous environment for the minor to form the basis that Owen was neglected.
Justice Judy Cates delivered the opinion. Justices John B. Barberis and Mark M. Boie concurred.
The justices further determined that the lower court erred when it filed a dispositional order that Douglas was unfit. Douglas argued Owen should have been made a ward for the court first, to which the appeals court agreed. Although the lower court’s judgment was not completely voided, the appellate court determined that finding the father unfit was premature.
“Here the court never made the determination that it was in the best interest of the minor to be made a ward of the court before terminating father’s rights<" the ruling states. "This was error.”
The issue started Jan. 29, 2018 when the state filed a petition against Douglas as well as Owen’s mother. The parents ended their relationship in 2015, and had been dating since 2009. The state said that the child was being neglected because he was being kept in an environment that was perilous to his welfare. It particularly said that both parents became dangerously physical and violent with one another while Owen was present.
A temporary custody order gave custody to the mother with supervised visitations on March 1, 2018. Months later an adjudicatory order was also entered and determined that Owen was being neglected by both parents. Another dispositional order Oct. 25, 2018, determined that Douglas was unfit. Because the mother was ruled to be fit, she was granted custody, yet Douglas’s parental rights were not revoked, and the child was not made a ward of the court during the proceedings. Douglas ultimately appealed. The mother was not a party of the appeal.