IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 19-1667 Filed January 9, 2020 IN THE INTEREST OF N.N., Minor Child, N.K., Mother, Appellant. ________________________________________________________________ Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Buena Vista County, Mary L. Timko, Associate Juvenile Judge. A mother appeals the termination of her parental rights to her minor child. AFFIRMED. Lori J. Kolpin of Kolpin Law Firm, P.C., Aurelia, for appellant mother. Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Charles K. Phillips, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee State. Lisa K. Mazurek of Miller, Miller, Miller, P.C., Cherokee, attorney and guardian ad litem for minor child. Considered by Bower, C.J., and May and Greer, JJ. 2 GREER, Judge. N.K., the mother, appeals the termination of her parental rights to N.N. The mother argues she should have had an interpreter and attorney during N.N.’s delinquency proceedings1 and termination is not in N.N.’s best interests. We disagree and affirm the termination of parental rights. N.N. was born in Iowa in August 2004. N.N. first became involved with the juvenile court system in October 2015 when she was charged with theft at age eleven. The charge was dismissed with a warning. In January 2016, she was again charged with the theft. The family agreed to therapy, and this charge was also dismissed. However, N.N. became defiant and refused to attend therapy. Her family, including her stepfather, repeatedly contacted her juvenile court officer about her escalating behavior. Beginning in August, she was accused of committing a series of theft and fraud crimes. In January 2017, she was adjudicated delinquent on two counts of credit card fraud and placed on probation. She was removed from the family home and placed in a detention center, then a youth shelter, and eventually residential treatment as her behavior improved. On April 28, the juvenile court ordered N.N. placed on probation and returned to the custody of her mother and stepfather. N.N.’s behaviors regressed in the family home. At one point, the stepfather struck her, resulting in felony charges against him and his removal from the home. On July 10, the juvenile court found N.N. violated her probation, and it ordered her removed from the home and placed in a 1The mother was apparently born outside the country and immigrated to the United States before N.N.’s birth, but the record does not disclose when the mother immigrated. 3 detention facility. On September 8, the juvenile court, acting on a stipulation signed by the mother and other interested parties, ordered N.N. placed in foster care. The juvenile court held a series of permanency hearings to monitor N.N.’s progress. On April 3, 2019, the court issued an order finding the mother had failed to demonstrate N.N. could be returned to her custody and directing the State to file a petition to terminate her parental rights. On May 10, the State filed the termination petition. On September 3, the juvenile court held a termination hearing. On September 16, the court issued an order terminating the mother’s parental rights under Iowa ...
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