State Ex Rel. Children, Youth & Families Dep't v. Mercer-Smith

PETRA JIMENEZ MAES, Justice.

{1} While the parties in this case litigated contempt proceedings over the course of seven years, the children at the center of the case aged out of the system and became peripheral to a nearly $4,000,000 judgment in favor of Respondents Janet and James Mercer-Smith (the Mercer-Smiths), who had pleaded no contest to allegations of abuse against their two minor daughters Julia and Rachel. This case was initiated in 2001 as an abuse and neglect proceeding and turned into a dispute over whether the Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) had violated the…