In re E.V.

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 1728

Syllabus

Contempt; direct contempt; indirect contempt; civil contempt; criminal contempt; trial in absentia; neglected child; emergency custody; temporary custody; due process; manifest weight; abuse of discretion; adjudication; disposition; show cause order; purge conditions; incarceration; warrant; habeas corpus; magistrate; juvenile court; case plan; reunification; objections to magistrate's decision; standard of proof; clear and convincing evidence; proof beyond a reasonable doubt; preponderance of the evidence; educational neglect; truancy; parental engagement; R.C. 2705.01; R.C. 2705.02; R.C. 2705.03; R.C. 2151.03; R.C. 2151.011; R.C. 2151.28; R.C. 2151.35; R.C. 2151.353; Juv.R. 40; Civ.R. 53. Judgment affirmed in part, reversed in part, vacated in part, and remanded. The juvenile court erred in holding mother in direct contempt and imposing a jail sentence without affording her required due-process protections. Even if mother's underlying conduct, failure to comply with an emergency custody order, constituted indirect contempt, the court did not hold a proper evidentiary hearing with mother present, nor did it find her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt before imposing an unconditional term of confinement, a criminal-contempt sanction. The resulting contempt finding and jail term are vacated. The court properly adjudicated E.V. to be a neglected child. Evidence showed that he was chronically truant and ultimately expelled from school after minimal attendance. The agency made repeated but unsuccessful efforts to contact the parents, and the mother failed to attend a virtual expulsion hearing and ignored the agency's attempts to have her participate in diversion programs. The juvenile court reasonably found that the child's educational neglect and the lack of parental engagement supported a neglect adjudication under R.C. 2151.03(A)(3). The dispositional order placing E.V. in the temporary custody of the child welfare agency is also affirmed. The agency demonstrated reaso