In re Z. Children

Citations

• 2019 Ohio 1617

Syllabus

CHILDREN – CUSTODY – APPELLATE REVIEW – PROCEDURE/RULES – EVIDENCE – HEARSAY: The juvenile court's decision adopting the magistrate's grant of permanent custody of two of mother's children to the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services and legal custody of another child to a third party was supported by sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence. Mother was limited on appeal to challenging the termination of her parental rights and could not assert that maternal grandmother should have been awarded custody where grandmother did not appeal the juvenile court's decision denying her custody petition. The juvenile court did not err in holding the permanent-custody hearing for two of mother's children and the legal-custody hearing for mother's other child together: while the Ohio Rules of Evidence apply in hearings on motions for permanent custody, the trial of the custody petitions together did not expose the permanent-custody proceeding to the taint of prejudicial hearsay where the magistrate safeguarded against any prejudice by explicitly stating that the stricter Rules of Evidence standard would apply. Any error in the admission of hearsay was harmless where it was cumulative of other evidence presented at trial.