Miscellaneous

I sat through a whole day of termination of parental rights trial yesterday. My client is the father of one of the kids and he was in federal prison for most of the child in need of assistance action. I finally met him a couple weeks ago when he showed up for an in-court review. This was after the termination petition had been filed.

He thought he might try to fight the termination at that time, but very quickly dropped off the face of the earth after that day. Actually, I guess his parole was revoked and he’s heading back to prison, but I never heard from him after that review in February.

So, I was stuck in this trial. I asked no questions of any witness, made a short professional statement concerning my understanding of my client’s situation and otherwise sat. Not really a fun time in the basement of the Linn County Courthouse, but, hey. The State will pay me for it.