Care and Protection of Vieri (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-136-17)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 16-P-1706 Appeals Court CARE AND PROTECTION OF VIERI.[1] No. 16-P-1706. Berkshire. September 11, 2017. – October 18, 2017. Present: Green, Sullivan, & Sacks, JJ. Minor, Care and protection. Parent and Child, Care and protection of minor. Practice, Civil, Care and protection proceeding. Department of Children & Families. Petition filed in the Berkshire County Division of the Juvenile Court Department on October 26, 2015. The case was heard by Judith A. Locke, J. Daniel R. Katz for the mother. Andrew J. Haile, Assistant Attorney General, for Department of Children and Families. William A. Comeau for the child. SULLIVAN, J. Vieri’s adoptive mother, who is also his maternal grandmother (mother), appeals from an adjudication that Vieri is in need of care and protection pursuant to G. L. c. 119, § 26. On appeal the mother challenges the Juvenile Court judge’s determination that she is currently unfit to parent Vieri. We affirm. Background. We summarize the judge’s findings and the evidence consistent with those findings. Vieri was born in September, 2001. The mother adopted Vieri and his older brother, Alan (a pseudonym), in November of 2006, when Vieri was five years old and Alan was seven.[2] In June, 2014, the Department of Children and Families (department) began an investigation arising from concerns that Vieri was neglected. A little over a week later, the town health department, which had had ongoing contact with the mother over various issues in the home, responded to complaints of a sewage leak in the home. Ultimately, over 2,500 gallons of raw sewage were removed from the basement. The mother left Vieri, then thirteen, and Alan “on [their] own most of the summer” of 2015. During this time, Vieri was arrested twice; he was charged with possession of alcohol and shoplifting in July. Later in September, 2015, Vieri was charged with larceny for stealing $ 800 from the mother. Vieri testified, and the judge credited, that he took the money because the mother left him and Alan without food. The department subsequently created an interim service plan for the mother, which included cooperating with the department and meeting with the assigned social worker, providing food in the home, keeping the home clean, and not leaving Vieri home alone without adult supervision. In October, 2015, an agent of the […]