In re Lillyanne D.

Syllabus

The respondent parents filed separate appeals with this court from the judgment of the trial court terminating their parental rights with respect to their minor child, R, who had been in foster care since his discharge from a hospital after his birth. The Department of Children and Families became involved with the respondents when the respondent mother threatened to harm their daughter, L. The mother had a previous history with the department in connection with incidents involving her older children. After L had been adjudicated neglected and committed to the custody of the petitioner, the Commissioner of Children and Families, the respondents' second child, R, was born, and the petitioner filed a motion for an order of temporary custody and a neglect petition on the basis of predictive neglect. That same day, the court granted the order of temporary custody and ordered specific steps with which the respon- dents were required to comply. R thereafter was adjudicated neglected and committed to the custody of the petitioner. The trial court found that the department had made reasonable efforts to reunify R with the respondents but that the respondents were unwilling or unable to benefit from the services the department offered. The court found that the mother had resisted the department's efforts to address the key issues underlying her history of threats or acts of violence against R and her other children and that the father had demonstrated an inability to accurately evaluate the risk she posed to R. The court thus concluded, inter alia, that, pursuant to statute (§ 17a-112 (j) (3) (B) (i)), the respon- dents had failed to achieve such a degree of personal rehabilitation as would encourage the belief that, within a reasonable time, they could assume responsible positions in R's life. Held: 1. The respondent mother could not prevail on her claim that the trial court committed harmful error when it admitted into evidence under the residual exception to the hearsay r