In re N. A.

Syllabus

The respondent mother appealed from the trial court's judgment terminating her parental rights with respect to her minor child. The mother claimed that the court improperly determined that she had failed to achieve a suffi- cient degree of personal rehabilitation, pursuant to statute (§ 17a-112 (j) (3) (B) (i)), as would encourage the belief that she could assume a responsible position in the child's life within a reasonable period of time. Held: The trial court properly found, by clear and convincing evidence, that the Department of Children and Families had made reasonable efforts to reunify the respondent mother with the child, the department having referred the mother for numerous services over the course of two years to address her alcohol use and history of intimate partner violence. The evidence was sufficient to support the trial court's determination that the respondent mother had failed to achieve the requisite degree of personal rehabilitation pursuant to § 17a-112 (j) (3) (B) (i), as the court, in reaching its conclusion, did not improperly rely, as the mother contended, on mes- sages she had sent to her incarcerated husband, who had assaulted her with a motor vehicle, that expressed her continued romantic commitment to him and referenced her continued alcohol use, and her claim that those messages undermined the testimony of the department's workers at trial constituted an improper request for this court to reweigh the evidence. The trial court's conclusion that termination of the respondent mother's parental rights was in the child's best interest was not clearly erroneous, as the court made written findings regarding each of the factors enumerated in § 17a-112 (k), and, contrary to the respondent's claim, it did not misstate the law regarding the role of the minor child's attorney, as no party argued In accordance with the spirit and intent of General Statutes § 46b-142 (b) and Practice Book § 79a-12, the names of the parties involved in this appeal a