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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 2-057 / 11-0462 Filed March 28, 2012

IN THE INTEREST OF J.T.J. and J.A.J., Minor Children, A.T.J., Father, Appellant. ________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Linn County, Angeline M. Wilson, District Associate Judge.

In this private termination action, a father appeals a ruling terminating his parental rights to two of his sons. REVERSED.

Sharon D. Hallstoos of Hallstoos Law Office, Cedar Rapids, for appellant father. Edward F. Crowell, Cedar Rapids, for appellee mother. Anne Laverty of Mullin & Laverty, L.C., Cedar Rapids, for intervenor. Lori L. Klockau and Daniel L. Bray of Bray & Klockau, P.L.C., Iowa City, for minor children. Richard F. Mitvalsky of Gray, Stefani & Mitvalsky, P.L.C., Cedar Rapids, guardian ad litem for minor children.

Heard by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Mullins, JJ.

2 VAITHESWARAN, P.J. In this private termination action, a father appeals a ruling terminating his parental rights to two of his sons. I. Background Facts and Proceedings Anthony and Elizabeth had three children together. twins, born in 2009, are the subject of this appeal. When the twins were sixteen months old, Elizabeth expressed an interest in having them adopted. She contacted an adoption agency in Utah but did not provide the agency with Anthony's contact information, asserting she did not have it. The agency put her in touch with a couple from that state, who visited Iowa to meet the twins. adoption. A month later, Elizabeth changed her mind again. On July 8, 2010, she signed releases of custody for each of the twins and gave the releases to a local attorney who was to facilitate the interstate placement and adoption of the children. The Utah couple returned to Iowa and, on July 10, 2010, picked up the twins and took them to Utah. Elizabeth followed up by filing petitions to terminate her own parental rights as well as Anthony's parental rights. In the petitions, she alleged At that point, Elizabeth changed her mind about Only the couple's

Anthony's whereabouts were "unknown." In an attachment providing information about the birth father, she identified Anthony's permanent mailing address and telephone number as "unknown." Anthony responded with an application to revoke the releases of custody. He asserted that he had lived with the children since their birth, "had regular,

3 consistent contact with his children since their birth," and had "established and maintained a significant bond with the children from birth up until June 6, 2010, when [Elizabeth] was arrested for domestic assault on [him]." After this document was filed, Elizabeth once again changed her mind about adoption and asserted that she wished to revoke the releases. The district court considered the issue and concluded that the children's best interests would be served by allowing Elizabeth to revoke the releases of custody. The court reasoned that there did not appear to be sufficient evidence to terminate Anthony's parental rights based on abandonment, and "it does a great disservice to these innocent children and to [the Utah couple] if the children are left in their care any longer when there is very little possibility the adoption will become a reality." The court ordered the children returned to Iowa within forty days. Meanwhile, the attorney charged with placing the children for adoption was designated the children's custodian and, in that capacity, filed a request for a transition plan. She alleged there was domestic violence in the biological

parents' home and Anthony was selling drugs from the home. She asked the court "to fashion a plan to protect these children until the [Iowa] Department of Human Services can provide assistance to Elizabeth." She subsequently filed a petition to terminate both parents' rights to the twins. In response, the district court ordered a stay of its prior order requiring the return of the children, pending the outcome of the termination trial. The matter proceeded to trial on the attorney's termination petition. Additionally, the court stated it would reconsider its prior ruling on Elizabeth's request to revoke the releases of custody and would consider evidence on that

4 issue at the termination trial.1 Following trial, the district court terminated

Anthony's parental rights to the twins, reversed its prior grant of Elizabeth's request to revoke her releases of custody, and terminated her parental rights to the twins. Only Anthony filed an appeal. II. Analysis The district court determined that Anthony abandoned the twins.2 Anthony takes issue with this determination. "To abandon a minor child" means that a parent, putative father, custodian, or guardian rejects the duties imposed by the parentchild relationship, guardianship, or custodianship, which may be evinced by the person, while being able to do so, making no provision or making only a marginal effort to provide for the support of the child or to communicate with the child. Iowa Code

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