The state Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a 10-year-old girl can seek to have her mother's parental rights terminated.
Samantha Frazer, with the help of a national child rights' group, asked the state Supreme Court this month to let her challenge a Family Court decision to reunite her with her mother.Kent County Family Court Judge William Walls ruled in March that state family services officials had not done enough to try to reunite Samantha with her mother, Victoria Frazer. Frazer was described in court documents as a former crack cocaine and marijuana addict who has been rehabilitated and now lives in South Carolina.
Samantha, who was 6 when her mother left, lived in four foster homes. She has said she wants to stay in Hartly, where her former therapist wants to adopt her.
But a court-appointed child advocate had recommended to Walls that Frazer keep her parental rights, and the judge agreed.
The Supreme Court justices wrote in their opinion that the court-appointed advocate had a conflict of interest and her claim that she acted in Samantha's best interest "is open to significant doubt."