In re C.A. CA4/3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 3, 2021
DocketG059464
StatusUnpublished

This text of In re C.A. CA4/3 (In re C.A. CA4/3) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re C.A. CA4/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

Filed 3/3/21 In re C.A. CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

In re C.A. et al., Persons Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.

ORANGE COUNTY SOCIAL SERVICES AGENCY, G059464 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. Nos. 18DP1052, v. 18DP1053, 18DP1054)

K.A., OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from postjudgment orders of the Superior Court of Orange County, Antony C. Ufland, Judge. Affirmed. Elizabeth Klippi, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Leon J. Page, County Counsel, Karen L. Christensen and Jeannie Su, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent. No appearance by Minors. * * * K.A. (mother) appeals from an order terminating her parental rights over her three children and finding they are adoptable and denying her Welfare and Institutions Code section 388 petition for return of the children.1 She contends the court erred in three ways. First, it denied a continuance of the section 366.26 hearing (.26 hearing) that mother had requested because she claimed to be ill on the day of the hearing. The court, however, did not believe mother’s claim of illness. The visitation center called mother that same day and asked standard questions concerning COVID-19 symptoms, and mother denied all symptoms—the very same symptoms she claimed to have had to justify a continuance. The evidence supports the court’s finding that mother was being deceitful. Second, mother claims the court erred in concluding the two older children were adoptable. But substantial evidence supports the conclusion that the older siblings were intelligent and well-behaved and thus generally adoptable notwithstanding their age. Moreover, the maternal grandmother had already been cleared for adoption and thus they were also specifically adoptable. Mother’s argument that the maternal grandfather had not yet been cleared for adoption is irrelevant because there is no indication that the grandmother would refuse adoption if the grandfather were not approved, and the older children had been living with both grandmother and grandfather during nearly the entire proceeding. Third, Mother claims the court erred in not finding the parental-bond exception applied to prevent terminating her parental rights. But nothing in the record suggests the parent-child bond was so strong that terminating parental rights would harm the children, and thus the exception did not apply. Accordingly, we affirm the orders.

1 All statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code unless otherwise stated.

2 FACTS

Unlike the prior appeal in this proceeding, which concerned only R.W., who was one year old at the time of detention, this appeal additionally concerns his two older half-sisters, who we refer to as the sisters throughout this opinion. S.W. (father) is the biological father of R.W. The sisters considered father their stepfather. Mother and father were not married, however, and their relationship had broken down to the point that, early in the dependency proceeding, a restraining order from a criminal court prevented the two from seeing each other, except to transfer the children to one another.

Detention Mother has an extensive history of methamphetamine abuse and a related criminal history, which includes court-ordered substance abuse treatment. She had been arrested twice for driving under the influence of methamphetamine. Mother had enrolled in a drug rehabilitation program three times, in each case after she became pregnant. Her most recent relapse began around December 2017, which is when father found methamphetamine in mother’s glove compartment (for point of reference, the detention occurred in October 2018). Father observed that mother’s drug abuse and mental health issues had substantially escalated in August and September of 2018, culminating in an incident in which mother, apparently out of a paranoid fear that father would kill her, planted drugs and drug paraphernalia in father’s car, then called 911 in an attempt to frame him. On September 17, 2018, mother was placed on a three-day involuntary psychiatric hold after abusing methamphetamine. She had been experiencing hallucinations and paranoia. She would wake the children up in the middle of the night and drive them to a motel or to a friend’s house because she thought the house was not safe. This behavior continued in the days preceding the detention. Mother refused to

3 sleep at home, fearing there were people in the attic out to get her, and instead bounced back and forth between hotels and friends’ houses with the children. This involved driving around with the children as late as 1:00 a.m. The 10-year-old sister reported she was not happy because she did not know where she would be sleeping each night. Father ignored them; mother was hearing voices. Prior to the detention, the maternal grandmother told the assigned social worker that mother’s substance abuse and mental health were getting worse. The maternal grandmother was frustrated and concerned for the children’s lives. This sentiment was echoed by mother’s friends. Mother’s best friend told a social worker that she was concerned about the children because mother’s paranoia and delusions had escalated in the previous four weeks. As reported by the social worker, the best friend “stated the mother ‘continues to call me’ and will say there is ‘something in the backyard, someone running out of the house.’ [The friend] stated she can hear the mother screaming at the kids and she tells [her] there is no need to scream.” The friend described mother as “neurotic, frantic, and behaving with paranoid delusions.” She added, “nothing she says makes sense, and the mother cannot be believed.” Mother had showed up at the friend’s house at 4:00 a.m. out of paranoid fear of her own home. The maternal aunt had been living with mother the prior two years to ensure the children were cared for. However, the maternal aunt was moving out due to mother’s combativeness while high on methamphetamine. The older sister described their home as “sad.” She reported that her life has “never been quite normal.” However, she denied being abused or seeing domestic violence. She generally confirmed mother’s constant paranoia. The middle sister also confirmed the late night escapes from the house to go either to a motel or to a friend’s house. She described her mother as “cuckoo.” By the beginning of October 2018, The Orange County Social Services Agency (SSA) had determined that the chaos of the children’s home warranted detaining

4 the children.2 It sought a protective custody warrant, which was granted. Rather than turn the children over, however, mother grew angry and absconded with them. She thought better of it a few days later and agreed to leave the children with a former caretaker. The children were placed with the maternal grandparents.

Jurisdiction/Disposition Mother denied she had any mental health problems, other than post- traumatic stress disorder, which she claimed was a result of an abusive relationship with her late ex-husband (the biological father of the two sisters). While she admitted her history of methamphetamine use, she denied she had an unresolved problem, describing herself as “in recovery.” The social worker urged mother to begin a drug treatment program. Mother demurred, however, stating that she could not afford to participate in an in-patient program, and that she had already completed out-patient programs.

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Bluebook (online)
In re C.A. CA4/3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-ca-ca43-calctapp-2021.