III v. DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES (2024)

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

M.L.K. III, father of M.L.K. and M.C.K., minor children, Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, Appellee.

No. 1D2022-4158

Decided: December 04, 2024

Thomas J. Butler of Thomas Butler, P.A., Miami Beach, for Appellant. Sarah J. Rumph, Appellate Counsel, Children's Legal Services, Tallahassee; Sara Elizabeth Goldfarb, Statewide Director of Appeals, and Mercy Almaguer, Senior Attorney, Appellate Division, Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

Affirmed. See § 92.55(2), Fla. Stat. (allowing a court, when testimony is sought from “a sexual offense victim or witness” to “enter any order necessary to protect the victim or witness in any judicial proceeding ․ from severe emotional harm or mental harm due to the presence of the defendant”); see also M.S. v. Dep't of Child. & Fams., 346 So. 3d 678, 682 (Fla. 3d DCA 2022) (applying § 92.55, Fla. Stat., to a termination of parental rights proceeding); S.D. v. Dep't of Child. & Fams., 208 So. 3d 320, 322 (Fla. 3d DCA 2017) (holding that “dependency proceedings” including termination of parental rights “are civil in nature, not criminal, and the constitutional right to confront witnesses is not implicated in a civil dependency proceeding”).

Per Curiam.

Lewis, Bilbrey, and Winokur, JJ., concur.

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