SANDPOINT — The Idaho Supreme Court is upholding the termination of parental rights of a homeless registered sex offender in California.

The unidentified child, now eight, was born in a Vallejo, Calif., household in which drugs were used, according to court documents. When the girl was six months old, her maternal grandmother filed for legal guardianship of her and her half-sister in Solano County.

The unidentified father would subsequently plead guilty for engaging in lewd conduct with the girl’s half sister and was imprisoned. The father was paroled in 2014.

The girl’s grandparents moved to Priest River in 2015, although they did so without a California court’s approval, court records indicate.

The father sold the Vallejo home in 2016 and used some of the proceeds to hire private investigators to determine the location of his daughter. The grandparents ultimately adopted the girl in Idaho, against the wishes of the father.

Following a two-day trial, Judge Barry E. Watson ruled in 2017 that the father had abandoned the girl and termination of his parental rights was in the child’s best interests. The father appealed those rulings to the high court.

On appeal, the father challenged the court’s finding that he willfully failed to maintain a normal parental relationship.

The supreme court, however, found that there was no evidence he had ever financially supported the child or even attempted to do so. The court further ruled that terminating the parental rights were in the best interests of the child because she has only known her guardians as her parents and the father was living in a drug and alcohol facility in California, which would not provide a suitable home for her.

“Father is also currently on parole and is a registered sex offender for a sexual offense he committed against (the child’s) half-sister,” Justice Robyn M. Brodie said in an eight-page opinion published on Thursday.

Chief Justice Roger Burdick and justices Richard Bevan, John Stegner and Gregory Moller concurred with Brody’s ruling.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.