Waterford — Employees with the Department of Children and Families testified Tuesday that they tried to help the Groton couple whose parental rights they seek to terminate, but the parents cannot care for their children.

DCF is seeking to terminate the parental rights of Kirsten Fauquet of Groton to her five children, and terminate the parental rights of her partner, John Stratzman, biological father of three of the children. The agency's care of the couple's son, now age 3, was the subject of an investigation by the Office of the Child Advocate last year after he nearly died in an unlicensed foster home after being removed from his parents' home.

The parents want to be reunited with their children, while DCF has petitioned to sever their parental rights. The trial began Tuesday in Superior Court for Juvenile Matters in Waterford, before Judge John C. Driscoll.

Lisa Vincent, Fauquet’s lawyer, asked that the child advocate's report be admitted into evidence, but her request was denied. Vincent said the report showed the agency deprived the mother of her constitutional rights by holding her to one standard and removing her children, then knowingly placing them in foster homes that failed to meet the same standard. Vincent also argued unsuccessfully to include evidence on the financial support given to the children's foster parents, arguing that the state subsidized foster parents while failing to make reasonable efforts to help the biological parents.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Vitelli, who is representing DCF, and Lyme attorney Priscilla Hammond, the lawyer for the boy injured in DCF care, opposed including the report by the Office of the Child Advocate as evidence. Hammond said she was concerned about the child's privacy.

To terminate parental rights, the state must prove by "clear and convincing evidence" that the parents have not rehabilitated themselves to the degree that they can appropriately care for the children. The state also must prove it made "reasonable efforts" to reunite the family and that terminating parental rights is in the best interests of the children.

Karina Klemm, a caseworker in the DCF Norwich office, worked with the family from May 2014 until June 2015, right before the children were removed from the couple’s home. At the time she was assigned in 2014, the parents were homeless, with Fauquet living in a shelter with three of the children and Stratzman staying with relatives, Klemm said. The children were behind on medical appointments, she said.

Klemm referred the family to an intensive supportive housing program, got them into housing, referred Fauquet to counseling and worked closely with the couple on parenting issues, Klemm said. DCF assisted the couple with partial rent payments in November 2014 and May 2015, she said. She described the family as “marginal” and said it made progress in several areas.

Klemm said she observed Fauquet’s “mood or emotions to go up and down at different times." But Klemm testified that she never saw Fauquet take out her frustration on her children or display aggressive behavior. The house was at times messy and at times clean; it did not reach a level to require removing the children from the home, Klemm testified.

DCF's protective supervision was due to expire in June 2015, when the agency received a call from the children’s pediatrician, Klemm said. The doctor's office reported that the couple left an appointment with their infant in a carrier on Fauquet's chest and no car seat.

DCF treatment worker Natasha Reed visited the house to investigate, she testified. It was 90 degrees outside, hot in the house, and it smelled of garbage, she said. Fauquet's infant daughter was in a swing under a quilt with a bottle propped up. It was so hot inside that Reed said, “I put my hand on the baby to make sure she was breathing.”

Reed said the floor was covered with food and the children were eating food off the floor. Fauquet had just had a baby, wasn’t feeling well and at one point, Reed said, the mother was “doubled over in pain.” Reed said she stayed for five or six hours because Fauquet could not care for the children and Reed was concerned about the children's safety and her safety. The children were brought to stay elsewhere for the night and Reed said she later filed an affidavit seeking an order of temporary custody after talking to supervisors.

Cynthia Cunningham, a DCF worker from Willimantic, was assigned the case in September 2016, she said. Fauqet and Stratzman were referred to counseling but missed appointments, she said. The couple now is living in a relative's home, and sleeping on a mattress on a cement floor near a water heater in an unfinished room, with their belongings piled floor to ceiling on either side.

Vincent, the mother’s attorney, questioned Cunningham's experience in handling cases. Cunningham, who earned her bachelor’s degree in 2014, was a trainee with DCF when she took the couple's case, she said. When asked how many other cases she'd worked before then, she said at least 10.

 The trial continues Wednesday at 10 a.m.

d.straszheim@theday.com