In re Ethan B. CA2/1

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 26, 2025
DocketB345077
StatusUnpublished

This text of In re Ethan B. CA2/1 (In re Ethan B. CA2/1) 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 Ethan B. CA2/1, (Cal. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

Filed 12/26/25 In re Ethan B. CA2/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

In re ETHAN B. et al., Persons B345077 Coming Under Juvenile Court Law. (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. 24LJJP00305)

LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES,

Plaintiff and Appellant,

v.

JOSE B.,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from orders of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Debra L. Gonzales, Judge Pro Tempore. Dismissed in part, affirmed in part. Janette Freeman Cochran, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Dawyn R. Harrison, County Counsel, Kim Nemoy, Assistant County Counsel, and Peter Ferrera, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Appellant.

__________________________________

In 2024, plaintiff and appellant Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) filed a petition under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300 on behalf of Aidan M. and Audrey G. (children of mother Roxana B.) and Ethan B. and N.B. (children of both Mother and defendant and appellant father Jose B.).1 Father appeals the juvenile court’s orders: (1) finding jurisdiction over Aidan, Ethan, and N.B.; (2) removing Ethan and N.B. from his custody; and (3) ordering his visits with Ethan and N.B. be monitored. DCFS states that, in the event we agree the court erred in finding jurisdiction over Ethan and N.B., it cross- appeals the juvenile court’s order striking Ethan and N.B. from certain counts in the petition. After appellate proceedings commenced, the court issued a subsequent order that Father have unmonitored visits with Ethan and N.B. Nothing in the record indicates any party appealed this order. Therefore, Father’s appeal regarding monitored visitation is moot. We additionally conclude substantial evidence supports the court’s orders finding jurisdiction over Aidan, Ethan, and N.B., and removing Ethan and N.B. from Father’s custody. Because we

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Welfare and

Institutions Code. Mother is not a party to this appeal.

2 are affirming the court’s finding of jurisdiction over Ethan and N.B., we need not consider DCFS’s contention of error. Therefore, we dismiss as moot DCFS’s cross-appeal and the portion of Father’s appeal regarding monitored visitation and otherwise affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Mother has five children: Y.M.,2 Aidan M. (born September 2008), Audrey G. (born July 2010), Ethan B. (born March 2014), and N.B. (born July 2019). Mario M. is the father of Y.M. and Aidan, Jaime G. is the father of Audrey, and Jose B. (Father) is the father of Ethan and N.B. Mother and Father met in 2012 and married in 2016.

A. DCFS Investigates a Referral

1. Initial Investigation In September 2024, DCFS received a report that Aidan told Y.M. that Father was sexually abusing Audrey by putting his penis in her while she was sleeping. When Aidan told Mother, Father “got mad” and tried to “put hands on” Aidan; Father also tried to “change things around,” accusing Aidan of going into Audrey’s room and pushing her. The reporting party stated that “[r]ight before” Y.M. moved out of the family home in August 2024, Y.M. witnessed Father put his finger in Audrey’s vagina. Additionally, the reporting party claimed Father committed domestic violence towards Mother in the children’s presence, and once hit Mother in the stomach when she was pregnant with N.B.

2 The record does not reveal Y.M.’s birthdate but notes she

was 18 years old in September 2024.

3 (a) Y.M. A children’s social worker (CSW) called Y.M., who reported an incident where Father punched a hole in the door to Aidan’s room, after Ethan complained to Father that Aidan was being loud. Y.M. heard Aidan say, “You’re dirty[,] you raped my little sister.” Father then grabbed a phone charger and started hitting Aidan. Y.M. then jumped on Father and told him to stop. After this incident, Y.M. witnessed Father stick his fingers in Audrey’s vagina. The sisters shared a room and one night, Y.M. saw Father enter the room, go to Audrey’s bed, remove her pants, and put his fingers inside of her. Y.M. did not know what to do, so she said, “Audrey get up!” Audrey awoke, and Father became angry. Although Audrey was very private, she revealed to Y.M. that Father had “touched [Audrey] everywhere,” and Y.M. recalled that she had previously heard Audrey “threaten [Mother] about social workers.” Y.M. recalled that when she was younger, Father “did that to me,” disclosing that Father also removed her clothes and put his fingers in her vagina. He touched “everything” on her body and put his penis inside her vagina three to four times. Father told her not to tell Mother, and Y.M. never did. Y.M. stated the last time it happened, she was in middle school.

(b) Maternal Grandmother The CSW spoke with the maternal grandmother (MGM), with whom Y.M. was staying. MGM confirmed Y.M. had told her the things she told the CSW, and MGM had told Y.M. that, if the allegations were true, Y.M. needed to report it. MGM claimed Father was controlling and forbade Mother from talking to Mother’s sisters. MGM recounted a recent call in which Mother was crying because Father “was cheating on Mother again” and

4 wanted to leave her. MGM told Mother she deserved better, but Mother said she would not leave Father “because of economic support.”

(c) Aidan The next day, the CSW interviewed Aidan and Audrey at their school. Aidan confirmed Father hit him twice in the leg with a cell-phone charger, after Aidan refused Father’s demand that he vacate the room he shared with Ethan and go sleep in the living room. Aidan then angrily yelled at Father, “You’re dirty. You raped my sister.” Aidan said that sometimes at night, when he could not sleep and Mother was at work, he would hear “sexual moaning from Audrey’s room,” which was next to his. Once, when he opened the door, he saw Father sitting on the edge of the bed, and Audrey facing the wall. Aidan also related that Audrey had told him while crying that Father “stuck his penis in her.” Aidan stated the last time he remembered seeing Father in Audrey’s room was “a couple of weeks ago.” Aidan expressed his belief that Mother knew of the situation because, the night Father hit him and he accused Father of raping Audrey, Mother, Y.M., Audrey, and Father “were arguing,” and Father “left the house that night.” Father and Mother later told Aidan not to talk to Y.M. because, if he did, Father “is going to go to jail.” When asked when he last spoke with his father, Mario, Aidan responded, “[Father] doesn’t let us talk to him.” When asked how he was disciplined, Aidan said Father “disciplines him with a belt, hanger, or charger” and the parents “also yell at him.” He added Ethan “gets ‘whooped’ with a belt, but his youngest brother [N.B.] does not.” Aidan claimed Father was “nicer” to Ethan and N.B. and that Ethan would never say

5 anything bad about Father. Aidan also remembered Father hitting Mother when she was pregnant with N.B.

(d) Audrey When the CSW spoke with Audrey and asked if she had ever seen Father hit Aidan, Audrey immediately said, “[Y.M.] is making it up. She left the house because she likes going out and doing her own thing. She’s mad at my parents.

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In re Ethan B. CA2/1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-ethan-b-ca21-calctapp-2025.