Post-blogging a case on violations of withholds.

I’m a little behind in my video posting. This appeal is very technical. Kevin Colbert is arguing on behalf of a mother who received a withhold of adjudication. At some later time, she was found intoxicated (without the child present). The court violated the withhold and entered an adjudication and removed the child(ren) from her custody. Mr. Colbert argues that there should be a requirement that there be some nexus between the alleged non-compliance with the case plan and risk of harm to the child. He points out that case plans have numerous tasks in them–like find a job or learn English–that are not reasonably related to child safety.

Judge Emas suggests that unreasonable case plan tasks should be objected to at disposition, not at the violation hearing. I have the benefit of knowing that the case was PCA’d. It probably didn’t help that being found intoxicated certainly sounds like the type of thing that would put a child at risk, unlike “failing to learn English.” If a case comes up where a withhold is violated because of a truly non-sensical or ancillary task, the court will have to look much more closely at this practice.


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