A Boulder County judge did not have sufficient facts to definitively conclude a man had neglected his child, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week in reversing the trial court’s decision.

In child welfare proceedings, formally known as dependency and neglect cases, a judge’s finding of neglect can eventually lead to the termination of the legal relationship between a parent and their child. Boulder County initiated one such case in March 2021 involving a boy, A.G., and his father, I.G. The county was concerned about domestic violence, I.G.’s drinking and the mental health of the child’s mother.

I.G. agreed to submit to sobriety monitoring and abstain from substance use, but he ended up missing most of his urinalysis tests. Further, the majority of tests he did take indicated the presence of alcohol. 

Boulder County asked for Chief Judge Ingrid S. Bakke to find A.G. lacked proper parental care because of I.G.’s failure to stay sober. Bakke granted summary judgment for the county, which enables judges to decide a case without a trial if the facts clearly point to only one outcome under the law.

Based on her decision, Bakke required A.G. to remain in foster care.

I.G. appealed the summary judgment decision and a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals acknowledged I.G.’s alcohol use was not something to shrug off. However, it disagreed the only conclusion to be drawn from the evidence was that I.G. had neglected his son.

For instance, an email from Boulder County suggested the government did not refer I.G. to drug testing in his area until he had already missed 12 tests. And even though Boulder County claimed I.G. had been charged with drunk driving, it submitted no evidence of his alleged criminal case.

“Moreover, nothing in the summary judgment motion or attached exhibits indicates that father ever cared for the child while drinking or while intoxicated,” wrote Judge Elizabeth L. Harris in the panel’s Sept. 22 opinion.

Finally, the appeals court addressed the statements of an experienced caseworker in Boulder County, who had told the trial court she did not feel she could return A.G. to his father’s custody given the alcohol use. 

“But we are not convinced that the missed and alcohol-positive tests alone establish, as a matter of law, that the child would lack proper parental care if returned to father,” Harris countered.

The panel reversed the finding of neglect for A.G.

The case is People in the Interest of A.G.