Harper v. Jackson County Department of Pensions & Security

EDWARD N. SCRUGGS, Retired Circuit Judge.

This is a parental rights termination case where only the father has appealed. He presents four issues through his most able appellate counsel.

After a petition was filed which alleged that the father’s one-day-old child was dependent, the trial court entered an ex parte order that the baby be taken into immediate custody. Because of the presentation of a sworn statement which placed in serious question the ability of both parents to provide care to the child, and since a decision as to the child’s immediate safety had to be made before the baby would…