In re C.B. CA4/2

California Court of Appeal·Decided June 5, 2026·No. E087200·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 6/5/26 In re C.B. CA4/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 TWO

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

RIVERSIDE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES, E087200

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super.Ct.No. DPIN2400084)

v. OPINION K.K., Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. Susanne S. Cho, Judge.

Affirmed.

John P. McCurley, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Minh C. Tran, County Counsel, Jamila T. Purnell, Assistant County Counsel, and Julie Jarvi, Deputy County Counsel for Plaintiff and Respondent.

In this dependency case, a father appeals the termination of his reunification services at the 12-month review hearing. He argues no substantial evidence supports three findings underlying that order: that returning his four daughters to his care would create a substantial risk of detriment, that he was provided with reasonable services, and

that there was no reasonable probability the children would be returned if the matter was

1

continued to the 18-month review hearing. We affirm.

I. FACTS

Defendant and appellant K.K. (father) has four daughters—C.B. (born 2014), R.K.

2

(born 2017), A.K. (born 2018), and V.K. (born 2020)—with their mother M.B. (mother).

Mother also has a son, Z.B. (born 2023), with a different man. According to father, only after Z.B. was born did he learn he was not the boy’s father, and after attempts to “work things out” with mother were unsuccessful, he moved out of the family home.

In March 2024, the five children resided with mother. Plaintiff and respondent Riverside County Department of Public Social Services (the department) responded to a report that the maternal grandfather had sexually abused C.B. That alleged abuse was committed after mother allowed the maternal grandfather to stay with the family temporarily even though she knew he was a registered sex offender and had a history of

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code.

2 Father is C.B’s biological father, but he was not on the birth certificate or present for her birth because mother (born 1998) was a minor at the time and father was an adult (born 1991). He was present for the births of their other children, he is on their birth certificates, and he was living with mother at the time of their births.

substance abuse. The department also learned that mother had been leaving the children at home alone without any adult supervision, and there were concerns about mother’s own substance abuse and mental health. A social worker who visited the home found it “was messy and smelled musty.” The children were “disheveled, but without any marks or bruises.”

The department contacted father, who was living in Nevada. He said he was willing to care for his children, but he was unemployed and his living arrangement, renting a room, meant he lacked space for them. He said he had maintained communication with the children through video chat, but had not seen them in person since October 2023. He admitted to a “criminal history nine years ago [for] ‘weed’ possession and being with the mother when she was underage.” He and mother engaged in verbal domestic violence with one another near the end of their relationship.

Mother had told father about C.B. being sexually abused by the maternal grandfather, and he knew that police were involved. He said he had not known that maternal grandfather was a registered sex offender. When asked about mother leaving the children home unsupervised, he “indicated he was not surprised.” He said that when he was living with mother, and even after he moved out, C.B. would call him when mother would leave her home alone with the other children, and he would “rush home.” The last time C.B. had told him about being home unsupervised with the other children was in November 2023 “when she had her own phone”; now his only communication with the children is “with [] mother present.” He said he tried to contact law enforcement

about the children being left alone, but got “no help.” He said that C.B. had told him that mother “would be gone for hours and it happens at least three to four times a week.” Father was concerned that alcohol “gets the best of” mother. He said he would like help with housing so “he could better care for the children.”

The department filed a dependency petition as to all five children on April 18, 2024, but did not immediately detain them out of mother’s care. About two weeks later, however, the department filed an amended petition, took the children into protective

custody, and placed them in foster care, after a report that mother again left the children

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unsupervised and that she had hit R.K. with a belt, causing marks. At the detention

hearing in May 2024, the juvenile court detained the children. It found father was the presumed parent of the four older children.

The department’s investigation of father’s criminal history showed he had previously been required to register as a sex offender under Penal Code section 290. He had been free of that requirement under California law since December 2019, but he “may be required to register in other jurisdictions.”

The two oldest children recalled witnessing domestic violence between mother and father. When the social worker asked C.B. to describe father, she said he is “‘really nice but plays too rough sometimes.’” When asked to explain what that meant, she said “we just mess around too much,” and did not elaborate further. C.B. also said she would

3 The dependency petition would be amended twice more before the jurisdiction hearing. For our purposes, it is unnecessary to track the changes made by these amendments.

tell father what was happening at home when they talked on the phone, but “they did not always talk.”

Father told a social worker he knew mother was leaving the children alone and she was using cocaine and alcohol. He said that he knew about the lack of supervision by February 2024, because the children would tell him two or three times a week that they were alone. He would tell them to go to a neighbor’s house. Father expressed his belief the children should be placed in his care because the children had been removed because of mother’s mistakes, and he did not feel he had done anything wrong.

In June 2024, father moved to North Dakota. He provided the department his new address.

In July 2024, the children’s caregiver called the social worker about an “ongoing Zoom visit” between father and the children, during which father was “screaming” at her, and telling the children that the caregiver had “kidnapped” them so they “are allowed to misbehave.” When the social worker called father, he “continued to yell,” saying that his rights were being infringed and that he would be suing her “due to kidnapping his children.” Father followed up this phone call with text messages in the same vein.

Later that month, mother was sober, having recently checked into an in-patient treatment program, and she “felt inclined to share information” about father. She said father would slap the children across the head when he became mad, that he has threatened to kill himself, and that he blames her for the children being removed from

their care. She said that when she and father lived together, he did not care for the children.

At a July 2024 hearing, the department requested an order authorizing it to obtain C.B.’s birth certificate from the appropriate Nevada agency, which the court provided orally and in a minute order.

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