Dependency Law Finder

         FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
                STATE OF FLORIDA
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                        No. 1D2022-4158
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M.L.K. III, father of M.L.K. and M.C.K., minor children,

    Appellant,

    v.

DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES,

    Appellee.
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On appeal from the Circuit Court for Leon County. Anthony B. Miller, Judge.

                        December 4, 2024


PER CURIAM.

     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., 

, 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., 

(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”).

LEWIS, BILBREY, and WINOKUR, JJ., concur.

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    Not final until disposition of any timely and
    authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
    9.331.
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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.