Termination of Parental Rights

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WI Court of Appeals – District I

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. D. K.

Case No.: 2023AP000292

Officials: Geenen, J.

Focus: Termination of Parental Rights

Daniel appeals the circuit court’s order terminating his parental rights to Alice and Corey arguing that his due process rights were violated when he knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily entered a no contest plea to one of the grounds alleged in the State’s petitions to terminate his parental rights (specifically, continuing CHIPS) in exchange for unsupervised visitation with Alice and Corey, a service that had been denied up to that point. In particular, he claims that trading a plea for a previously denied service calls into question the reasonableness of the prior denials of the service and that the lack of an adversarial trial at the grounds stage creates an undue risk of erroneous findings upon which a court will rely at the dispositional phase to sever the parental relationship. Daniel also contends that after the circuit court accepted his plea, there was insufficient evidence presented at the prove-up hearing to support the factual basis of the plea, namely, that Daniel failed to meet the conditions set forth in the dispositional CHIPS order.

A review of the record satisfies us that the circuit court “logically interpreted the facts, applied the proper legal standard, and used a demonstrated, rational process to reach a conclusion that a reasonable judge could reach.” Accordingly, there was sufficient evidence that Daniel failed to meet the CHIPS conditions.

Affirmed.

Decided 01/03/24

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