## Facts

- The state filed a child protection petition for Ashley S., age two, alleging severe neglect, domestic violence, and parental mental health problems, and sought immediate removal.
- Police responded to the family’s apartment after the mother reported that Ashley’s two-month-old brother had died in his sleep.
- Officers found the infant dead and Ashley living in an extraordinarily unsanitary and dangerous apartment.
- Evidence showed Ashley was confined in a room and left in filthy conditions without adequate care; the infant was left in a car seat near the father’s bed.
- The record supported that for many hours overnight and into the next day, neither parent attended to either child; the infant had been dead for hours before help was called, and the father neither noticed the death nor cared for Ashley during that period.
- The family had prior child welfare involvement for neglect and abuse concerns; services had been provided, and improvement reportedly stopped after supervision ended.
- After a multi-day hearing, the trial court found Ashley in circumstances of jeopardy, awarded custody to the state agency, found “aggravated circumstances,” and relieved the agency of providing reunification services to the father.
- The father did not appeal the jeopardy determination; he appealed only the aggravated-circumstances finding and the resulting denial of reunification efforts.

## Issues

1. Whether the father’s extreme neglect constituted “aggravated circumstances,” defined as treatment “heinous or abhorrent to society,” permitting the state to forgo reunification efforts.
2. Whether “aggravated circumstances” is limited to criminal conduct, as the father argued.

## Decision

- The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine affirmed.
- The court held that the father’s gross neglect and failure to provide basic care under the circumstances met the statutory definition of aggravated circumstances.
- The court rejected the argument that only criminal acts can qualify as “heinous or abhorrent” treatment.
- Because aggravated circumstances were established, the state agency was properly relieved of its statutory obligation to pursue reunification services with the father.

## Legal Principles

- “Aggravated circumstances” under Maine’s child protection statutes are not limited to criminal behavior; extreme neglect may qualify as treatment “heinous or abhorrent to society.”
- When aggravated circumstances are found, the court may authorize the state agency not to undertake reunification efforts otherwise required in child protection cases.
- Appellate review in child protection matters gives substantial deference to the trial court’s credibility determinations and factual findings, given its superior position to evaluate evidence.
- Statutory provisions implementing federal permanency policy allow bypassing reunification efforts when parental conduct is so severe that further services would be inconsistent with the child’s safety and permanency plan.

## Conclusion

The court upheld a finding that a father’s severe, sustained neglect of his toddler—coupled with prolonged inattention surrounding an infant sibling’s death and prior failed services—constituted aggravated circumstances, allowing the state to discontinue reunification efforts and focus on the child’s safety and permanency.


In re Ashley S., 762 A.2d 941 (Me. 2000)