Turtle Talk

Here is the opinion in In re the Interest of Leslie S. An excerpt:

The juvenile court found good cause to deny the motion to transfer, relying on the facts that a previous motion to transfer had been denied, that the case had advanced to the stage where a motion for termination of parental rights had been filed, and that the court had jurisdiction over multiple cases involving several of the children. The court also found that the transfer would not be in the children’s best interests.

Upon our de novo review, we are unable to say that the juvenile court abused its discretion in denying the motion to transfer. One of the stated circumstances set forth in the non-binding regulations noted above is clearly present in this case; namely, the advanced stage of the proceeding. Francis did not file the motion to transfer until well after 2 years following the filing of the juvenile petition, during which time Francis did very little to participate in the case. At the time of the hearing on this motion to transfer, proceedings had begun to terminate both parents’ parental rights. In addition, the fact that other cases involving some of the children were to remain in the juvenile court is essentially a forum non conveniens matter, which is a valid basis for good cause to deny transfer. See In re Interest of Brittany C. et al., 13 Neb.App. 411, 693 N.W.2d 592 (2005). We observe that because Francis is the biological father of only Iyn and Rena, he did not have standing to seek a transfer relative to Leslie, Glory, and Crystal. Neither the Tribe nor Kinda has appealed from the juvenile court’s decision. Accordingly, our opinion applies only to the ruling relative to Iyn and Rena.