Adoption of Cecily (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-074-13)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 12‑P‑926 Appeals Court ADOPTION OF CECILY.[1] No. 12‑P‑926. Essex. January 3, 2013. ‑ June 7, 2013. Present: Graham, Grainger, & Sikora, JJ. Adoption, Care and protection, Dispensing with parent’s consent, Visitation rights. Minor, Adoption, Visitation rights. Parent and Child, Adoption, Dispensing with parent’s consent to adoption. Grand Jury. Evidence, Testimony before grand jury. Practice, Civil, Adoption. Petition filed in the Essex County Division of the Juvenile Court Department on July 29, 2009. The case was heard by Joseph F. Johnston, J. Patricia Quintilian for the mother. Kari B. Kipf‑Horstmann for Department of Children and Families. Jessica Berry for the child. GRAHAM, J. The mother appeals from a decree of the Juvenile Court entered on November 30, 2011, adjudicating her daughter, born in May of 2009, in need of care and protection and dispensing with the mother’s consent to adoption. She contends that the evidence of her parental unfitness was not clear and convincing, that one of the judge’s key findings is not supported in the record, that the judge erred in admitting in evidence grand jury testimony of the child’s maternal grandmother for full substantive evidentiary value, that the judge erred in drawing a negative inference against the mother because she did not testify at trial, and that the judge erred in denying her posttermination visitation. We affirm. Background. We take the facts from the judge’s detailed findings and the uncontradicted evidence before him, reserving recitation of certain facts as they become relevant to the issue raised. The mother, a secretary at the Lynn Community Health Center, was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States with her family when she was six years old. The father first came to the United States in 1996 with a ten-year visa which has expired; he is not a United States citizen. The mother and father met in 2007 and married in 2008. The following year, the mother’s only child, Cecily, was born. After a six week maternity leave, the mother, who was the sole financial provider for the family, returned to work, and the father was the sole caretaker for Cecily while the mother worked from 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. during the week. In July, 2009, shortly after the mother’s return to work from maternity […]