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Spaulding v. Butler8/31/2001
found mother to be a concerned parent, willing to take advantage of available resources, but somewhat "overwhelmed by powerful forces around her." It is not clear what powerful forces the court was referring to. Mother brought both boys to the sessions and " n Ms. McCartney's presence, [mother] was able to use appropriate parenting methods in managing the two children. Nonetheless, Michael took up so much of her attention, due to his special needs, that Nathan received less attention."
In September 1994, the court issued a final order granting sole legal and physical parental rights and responsibilities of ten-month-old Nathan to mother, and unsupervised visitation to father. Pursuant to the parties' stipulation, the court deleted the no-stalking provisions of the June 1994 relief-from-abuse order.
Over the next year, the Spauldings, father and Penelope, began taking pictures of Nathan to document when he arrived for a scheduled visit dirty or bruised. At some point during this period, testing showed that Nathan began to be developmentally delayed.
During a visit in August 1995, father noticed that Nathan had a bad diaper rash. Mother had been aware of the rash and used an over-the-counter ointment to treat it. When that failed, she sought help from a doctor who prescribed a prescription ointment. Father took Nathan to the hospital and was given an ointment that began to clear up the rash. The following weekend, father noticed, the rash was bad again. This pattern persisted. The court found that mother had "pursued appropriate care for treatment of the rash, but that she was not able to follow through consistently in order to clear up the rash, and that as a result, Nathan repeatedly suffered a severe and painful rash that was preventable."
In August of 1996, Nathan was tested for lead poisoning and found to have unacceptable levels of lead in his blood. At the hearing, mother testified that she was later contacted and told that there was an error in the test. The court made no finding on this issue, stating: "There is no indication one way or another whether it is accurate that there was an error." In September 1996, mother, Nathan and Michael returned to weekly therapy with Ms. McCartney because the boys were biting each other on a regular basis.
In April 1997, during a visit, father found marks on Nathan's body where Michael had bitten him, and took Nathan to the hospital. The court found that father "was dishonest about Nathan's custody status," telling hospital personnel that he had custody of Nathan. The hospital reported the marks to SRS. Father filed a relief-from-abuse petition in which he requested transfer of custody to himself. After hearing, the court found abuse based on mother's failure to prevent Michael from hurting Nathan and issued a relief-from-abuse order transferring custody to father and providing for mother to have supervised visits with Nathan for four hours a week. Father then filed the motion to modify the parentage order presently at issue. In the order now on appeal, the court found that mother had been aware of and concerned about the bite marks and had shown them to a public health worker at a clinic. In August 1997, SRS completed its investigation of the bite marks and found father's allegations of abuse unsubstantiated. In September 1997, the parties stipulated to unsupervised visits between mother and Nathan for three weekends a month, and to a professional evaluation of mother's interactions with Nathan.
On October 14, 1997, Nathan came back from a visit with mother with marks on his body; mother told father the marks were cold sores. Father took Nathan to the hospital where it was determined that the marks
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