In Re: Tonjia M.

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed the circuit court's termination of Dorlen M.'s parental rights to his daughter Tonjia M. The court held that the finding of abuse and neglect was not clearly erroneous given the testimony of three expert evaluators, that the denial of supervised visitation was justified by the father's inappropriate behavior and the grandmother's coaching, that the denial of a post-adjudicatory improvement period was within the circuit court's discretion because the father refused to acknowledge the abuse, and that any error in admitting sexually explicit photographs was harmless given the overwhelming evidence.