TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN NO. 03-18-000622-CV E. T.- M., Appellant v. Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and M. L., Appellees FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF BELL COUNTY, 146TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT NO. 294,332-B, HONORABLE JACK WELDON JONES, JUDGE PRESIDING MEMORANDUM OPINION Appellant E.T.-M. (Mother) appeals the trial court’s final order in this suit affecting the parent-child relationship. In one issue, Mother challenges that portion of the order granting M.L. (Father) the exclusive right to determine the primary residence of the couple’s child. Finding no abuse of discretion, we will affirm the trial court’s order. BACKGROUND Mother and Father’s child, M.A. L.-T. (or “M.A.”), was born on September 30, 2009. When Mother and Father divorced in 2013, the trial court appointed Mother the sole managing conservator of M.A. and appointed Father the possessory conservator. In July 2017, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services received a report of neglectful supervision arising from Mother’s suicide attempt, made while M.A. and a child by a previous relationship were in her care. The Department filed an original petition for protection of the children and, if necessary, for termination of Mother’s parental rights. According to the affidavit of the Department investigator, which was attached to the Department’s original petition, Mother admitted to the investigator that she had been home alone with her children, heavily intoxicated and depressed, when she attempted to overdose on ibuprofen. M.A.’s half-sibling called 9-1-1 when Mother became unresponsive. According to the investigator’s affidavit, Mother had “attempted suicide three times in her past, all due to domestic violence by her significant others.” The Department removed the children from Mother’s custody, and the court designated the Department as temporary managing conservator. M.A. was placed in the care of Father, subject to monitoring by the Department, and Mother was granted supervised visits with M.A. A final hearing began on January 17, 2018, and reconvened on March 7, 2018.1 At the final hearing, the trial court heard testimony from the Department caseworker and from Father. Documents admitted as exhibits at the hearing included copies of the Department’s “final permanency report to the court”; a report from an August 2017 psychological evaluation of Mother; negative results from a random drug test performed on Mother in January 2018; and a one-page “counseling note” signed by Mother’s individual counselor on January 29, 2018, recommending M.A.’s return to Mother. At the close of the hearing, the Department, along with the attorney ad litem and guardian ad litem, recommended that the trial court modify the divorce decree to appoint Father and Mother as joint managing conservators and to designate Father as the conservator with the exclusive right to establish M.A.’s primary residence. The trial court subsequently signed a final 1 Following the final hearing, Mother was appointed as sole managing conservator of M.A.’s half-sibling, whose father could not be located. No party has appealed this conservatorship decision. Therefore, we examine the trial court’s rulings and evidence only as it relates to M.A. 2 order ...
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