In Re Term of Parental Rights as to M.L. and Y.L.

NOTICE: NOT FOR OFFICIAL PUBLICATION.
UNDER ARIZONA RULE OF THE SUPREME COURT 111(c), THIS DECISION IS NOT PRECEDENTIAL
AND MAY BE CITED ONLY AS AUTHORIZED BY RULE.

IN THE
ARIZONA COURT OF APPEALS
DIVISION ONE

IN RE TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS AS TO M.L. and Y.L.

No. 1 CA-JV 25-0014
FILED 10-02-2025

Appeal from the Superior Court in Maricopa County
No. JD510807
The Honorable Adele Ponce, Judge

AFFIRMED

COUNSEL

David W. Bell, Attorney at Law, Higley
By David W. Bell
Counsel for Appellant

Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Tucson
By Jennifer L. Thorson
Counsel for Appellee Department of Child Safety

Law Office of Laurae Kerchenko, PLLC, Phoenix
By Laurae Kerchenko
Counsel for Appellees Y.L. and M.L.

Logan Mussman Law, PLLC, Phoenix
By Logan Mussman
Guardian ad Litem for Appellees Y.L. and M.L.
 IN RE TERM OF PARENTAL RIGHTS AS TO M.L. and Y.L.
Decision of the Court

MEMORANDUM DECISION

Judge Kent E. Cattani delivered the decision of the Court, in which
Presiding Judge Paul J. McMurdie and Judge Samuel A. Thumma joined.

C A T T A N I, Judge:

¶1 Raylien L. (“Mother”) appeals the superior court’s order
terminating her parental rights as to her daughters. For reasons that follow,
we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶2 Mother and Brandon L. (“Father”) are the biological parents
of Y.L. (born in July 2012) and M.L. (born in February 2014).1

¶3 In August 2021, Mother and Father drove with the children to
Father’s parents’ house, where Father shot and killed his brother and
parents. The children were in the backseat when Father declared his intent
to kill his relatives, and Y.L. heard six shots and people screaming after
Father left the car.2 Mother drove away with the children after the shooting,
instructing them not to tell anyone (especially the police or the government)
about what had happened.

¶4 Mother was arrested days later and charged with hindering
prosecution and witness tampering. She pleaded guilty to hindering
prosecution (later amended to tampering with physical evidence) and
remained incarcerated until September 2023.

¶5 Meanwhile, the Department of Child Safety (“DCS”) took Y.L.
and M.L. into care, and the superior court found them dependent as to
Mother, adopting a case plan of family reunification. After removal, DCS
discovered that the children had received minimal medical and no dental

1 Father’s parental rights were also terminated, but he is not a party to
this appeal.

2 Father was arrested, charged with and convicted of three counts of
first degree murder, and sentenced to three consecutive terms of natural life
in prison. Father is now subject to lifetime no-contact injunctions that
prohibit any contact with Y.L. or M.L.

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care, and each needed to have teeth extracted due to decay. The children
had never attended school and displayed “extreme academic deficits,” and
they lacked “almost all social skills.” Over time, the children disclosed
additional details about their past, including multiple incidents of domestic
violence between their parents, physical abuse, and stints of homelessness
and hunger.

¶6 The children also faced significant behavioral and emotional
challenges. After months of trauma therapy and with the stability of a
therapeutic foster home, however, they made significant progress
behaviorally, emotionally, and academically.

¶7 Contact between Mother and the children was restricted
throughout the dependency. Initially, the criminal court presiding over
Mother’s prosecution entered a no-contact order prohibiting all contact
between Mother and the children. That prohibition remained in place until
August 2023 (the month before Mother’s release), when the criminal court
ceded authority to the juvenile court to determine and implement plans for
appropriate contact between Mother and the children as part of the
dependency proceeding.

¶8 In the dependency, Mother’s statements minimizing and
invalidating the children’s experiences and her failure to take
accountability for her role in the children’s trauma—positions that the
children’s therapist flagged as being severely detrimental to their emotional
health—became key barriers to instituting visitation. DCS thus
recommended that Mother engage in individual therapy to build self-
awareness, take accountability for her actions and how they affected the
children, and learn appropriate boundaries for interacting with the children
without jeopardizing their well-being.

¶9 Just before her release from prison, Mother requested that the
court order DCS to provide supervised visitation, but the court found a
more gradual process (individual therapy followed by a slow introduction
of therapeutic visitation, with input from the children’s therapist to avoid
undermining the children’s progress) was necessary to avoid endangering
the children’s health. After her release, Mother began individual therapy.
But she reportedly believed therapy to be unnecessary, and she declined to
discuss “what happened” on the advice of her criminal attorney. Even by
January 2024, when the DCS case manager met jointly with the children’s
therapist and Mother’s therapist to discuss a path toward visitation, Mother
still had not disclosed to her therapist the circumstances leading to DCS
involvement. After the case manager and the children’s therapist explained

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the case background to Mother’s therapist and described the concerns
preventing visitation, Mother promptly fired her therapist.

¶10 By March 2024, Mother had participated in a psychological
evaluation, which noted Mother’s responses were “very guarded” and
appeared to deliberately avoid admitting maladaptive behavior, leaving
open questions as to whether she had “a clear notion of what her children
[had] experienced or her duty to protect them.” The children had also made
new disclosures about prior physical abuse, domestic violence, and other
neglect, but Mother either denied or refused to discuss those concerns.
Mother did, however, regularly send the children gifts, and she began
sending them cards as well.

¶11 At Mother’s request, the superior court held an evidentiary
hearing to consider the issue of visitation. In a May 2024 order, the court
denied visitation, finding that visits would seriously endanger the
children’s mental and emotional health. The court specifically noted that
“[p]rofessionals who have assessed them have concluded that the risk they
will be retraumatized by contact with Mother is too high at this time,
particularly if Mother is not approaching reunification prepared to respect
their feelings and perspectives about her behaviors.” The court
concurrently ordered, however, that DCS “provide Mother with a clear
outline of the ways Mother can demonstrate accountability, insight and her
ability [to] respect the children’s perspectives in order to help lower the risk
they will be retraumatized” within two weeks and provide monthly
updates on her progress.

¶12 The DCS case manager then emailed the children’s therapist
seeking input on what Mother would need to do before the therapist would
recommend in-person visitation. Expressly noting her opinion that it
would be “detrimental to have visits/contact especially now,” the
children’s therapist responded that Mother would need to “[c]onsistently
participat[e] in her own therapy to work on her role in [the] children’s
trauma,” not “blam[e] DCS or anyone else about what has happened,” and
begin with supervised telephonic contact (before in-person visits) to ensure
Mother could abide by guidelines for interaction. DCS then sent Mother an
outline of behavioral changes required before beginning contact with the
children, including articulation of how Mother’s actions had contributed to
the trauma and how to avoid invalidating the children’s experience. DCS
also requested that Mother’s therapist communicate with DCS monthly
(during which DCS could provide information from the children’s
therapist) and noted that both therapists would be invited to case plan
meetings.

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Decision of the Court

¶13 When the DCS case manager and supervisor communicated
with Mother’s therapist in July, however, the therapist was still unaware of
the triple homicide that led to DCS intervention and of the prior domestic
violence and medical, dental, and educational neglect the children had
experienced. Even by September 2024, Mother’s therapist reported to DCS
that Mother continued to struggle to understand the children’s trauma and
did not want to take accountability for the ramifications of the murders
because she was not at fault.

¶14 Meanwhile, the superior court changed the case plan to
severance and adoption in July 2024, and DCS moved to terminate Mother’s
parental rights based on neglect and 15 months’ out-of-home placement.
See A.R.S. § 8-533(B)(2), (8)(c). Around the same time, the children stepped
down from their therapeutic foster home to placement in a licensed foster
home in a different part of the state. Given the move, they began seeing a
different therapist. The DCS case manager suggested that Mother’s
therapist collaborate with the children’s new therapist once they
established care. And when the children’s new therapist expressed
uncertainty about meeting with Mother’s therapist, DCS organized a
consultation with the unit psychologist to explain how collaboration would
assist Mother’s therapist (and then Mother) in gaining understanding of the
children’s trauma experiences.

¶15 In September 2024, the children moved for an order
permitting visitation with Mother. DCS opposed the motion based on
Mother’s lack of progress in therapy. DCS records at that time still showed
that, although Mother expressed love and affection for the children, she
continued to minimize or deny the children’s experiences and had not
developed insight or taken accountability for the trauma they experienced
when in her care.

¶16 With the parties’ agreement and given the interrelated issues
presented, the superior court considered the children’s motion for visitation
and DCS’s termination motion together, based on evidence presented at
three days of hearings in October and November 2024. The court ultimately
terminated Mother’s parental rights (and denied the children’s request for
visitation), finding statutory grounds for termination based on neglect and
15 months’ out-of-home placement and that termination would be in the
children’s best interests.

¶17 Mother timely appealed, and we have jurisdiction under
A.R.S. § 8-235(A).

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DISCUSSION

¶18 The superior court may terminate a parent–child relationship
if clear and convincing evidence establishes at least one statutory ground
for termination and a preponderance of the evidence shows termination to
be in the child’s best interests. A.R.S. § 8-533(B); Kent K. v. Bobby M., 210
Ariz. 279, 284, ¶ 22 (2005). On review, we accept the court’s factual findings
if supported by reasonable evidence, giving due regard to that court’s
unique ability to weigh the evidence and assess witness credibility. Brionna
J. v. Dep’t of Child Safety, 255 Ariz. 471, 478, ¶ 30 (2023); see also Alma S. v.
Dep’t of Child Safety, 245 Ariz. 146, 151, ¶ 18 (2018) (reiterating that the
appellate court does not reweigh even “sharply disputed” evidence
(citation omitted)). We uphold the court’s legal conclusions unless clearly
erroneous. Brionna J., 255 Ariz. at 478–79, ¶ 31.

I. Statutory Grounds.

¶19 Mother argues that, by failing to institute visitation with the
children, DCS failed to meet its obligation to make a diligent effort to
provide appropriate reunification services. She thus asserts that the
superior court erred by finding grounds for termination based on 15
months’ out-of-home placement.

¶20 Among other elements, termination on an out-of-home-
placement statutory ground requires proof that “[DCS] has made a diligent
effort to provide appropriate reunification services.” A.R.S. § 8-533(B)(8).
To fulfill this obligation, DCS must provide services with a “reasonable
prospect of success” to afford the parent the time and opportunity to
become, if possible, a safe and effective parent. See Mary Ellen C. v. Ariz.
Dep’t of Econ. Sec., 193 Ariz. 185, 192, ¶¶ 34, 37 (App. 1999); Maricopa Cnty.
Juv. Action No. JS–501904, 180 Ariz. 348, 353 (App. 1994). Visitation between
parent and child “is perhaps the most basic and essential of these services”
and should be denied “only under extraordinary circumstances.” Michael
M. v. Arizona Dep’t of Econ. Sec., 202 Ariz. 198, 200, ¶ 9 (App. 2002); Maricopa
Cnty. Juv. Action No. JD-5312, 178 Ariz. 372, 375 (App. 1994). Nevertheless,
the superior court retains discretion to restrict visitation if visits would
seriously endanger or adversely affect the child. Michael M., 202 Ariz. at
201, ¶ 11; JD-5312, 178 Ariz. at 376.

¶21 Here, Mother argues that both her therapist and the children’s
therapist recommended beginning visitation several months before the
termination trial, but DCS blocked the process. Although Mother asserts
that the children’s therapist had recommended starting telephonic visits in

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Decision of the Court

May 2024, the email on which she relies in fact reflects the children’s
therapist’s opinion that visits (or any contact) would be “detrimental” at
that time. Based on recommendations from the children’s therapist, DCS
outlined actions or adjustments that Mother would need to take (e.g.,
engaging in individual therapy to gain insight into the children’s trauma
and accepting accountability for her role) before visitation could begin, but
Mother did not comply.

¶22 Mother correctly notes that the children made significant
progress in therapy. Still, the children’s therapist continued to express
concern that contact with Mother would risk unwinding that progress and
retraumatizing them, given Mother’s continued minimization and
invalidation of the children’s experiences. Mother relies on her therapist’s
positive statements about the progress she was making. But other evidence
suggested that Mother was not forthcoming with her therapist and that she
continued to avoid accepting accountability even into fall 2024. And
although Mother asserts that DCS blocked necessary communication
between Mother’s and the children’s therapists, the record shows that the
case managers coordinated direct contact early on, offered regular
communication at case plan meetings, and recommended and attempted to
facilitate contact with the children’s new therapist. At the core, Mother’s
challenge is directed to how the superior court weighed the evidence, an
assessment we will not disturb on appeal. See Alma S., 245 Ariz. at 151, ¶
18.

¶23 Mother does not challenge the superior court’s findings as to
the other elements of the 15-months’ out-of-home placement ground, and
the record supports them. See A.R.S. § 8-533(B)(8)(c) (in addition to services,
requiring proof of 15 months’ time in care, parent’s inability to remedy the
circumstances necessitating out-of-home placement, and “a substantial
likelihood that the parent will not be capable of exercising proper and
effective parental care and control in the near future”). And because we
affirm on this basis, we need not address the alternative statutory ground
of neglect. See Jesus M. v. Ariz. Dep’t of Econ. Sec., 203 Ariz. 278, 280, ¶ 3
(App. 2002).

II. Best Interests.

¶24 The superior court may find termination to be in a child’s best
interests if the child would benefit from severance or be harmed by a denial
of severance. Alma S., 245 Ariz. at 150, ¶ 13. The court considers the totality
of the circumstances, including prospects for adoption, whether the
placement is meeting the child’s needs, and the parent’s rehabilitative

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Decision of the Court

efforts. Id. at 148, 150–51, ¶¶ 1, 13; Demetrius L. v. Joshlynn F., 239 Ariz. 1, 3–
4, ¶ 12 (2016). The child’s stability and security are primary considerations.
Demetrius L., 239 Ariz. at 4, ¶ 15.

¶25 The superior court here considered Mother’s bond with the
children as well as the children’s love for and desire to maintain contact
with her. The court nevertheless concluded that maintaining the
relationship would be detrimental given the degree of neglect the children
suffered in Mother’s care and her unwillingness to recognize it. The court
further found that the children were adoptable (and adoption probable)
even though no adoptive plan was yet in place, and that the current
placement was meeting the children’s needs and was willing to keep them
until they found a permanent placement.

¶26 Mother specifically challenges the court’s finding of
adoptability, asserting that the children (who are at or near the age at which
their consent is required) oppose adoption and wish to reunify. In Mother’s
view, termination of her parental rights gives no benefit (and denial no
detriment) since the children’s opposition to adoption means they would
remain parentless. But while Mother relies on avowals of the children’s
attorney and guardian ad litem to suggest the children oppose adoption,
the case worker and the children’s therapist testified that the children had
mentioned wanting to be adopted (and never had expressed to the contrary
that they opposed adoption). To the extent this reflects a factual dispute,
the superior court’s ruling is well-grounded in the record, and we do not
reweigh the evidence on appeal. See Alma S., 245 Ariz. at 151, ¶ 18.

CONCLUSION

¶27 We affirm.

MATTHEW J. MARTIN • Clerk of the Court
FILED: JR

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