In re G.M. CA4/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 26, 2023
DocketE079836
StatusUnpublished

This text of In re G.M. CA4/2 (In re G.M. CA4/2) 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 G.M. CA4/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

Filed 4/26/23 In re G.M. 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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 G.M., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.

RIVERSIDE COUNTY DEPARTMENT E079836 OF PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES, (Super.Ct.No. RIJ2200408) Plaintiff and Respondent, OPINION v.

G.M. et al.,

Defendants and Appellants.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. Cheryl C. Murphy, Judge.

Affirmed.

Robert McLaughlin, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and

Appellant G.M.

Megan Turkat Schirn, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant

and Appellant S.M.

1 Minh C. Tran, County Counsel, and Teresa K.B. Beecham and Prabhath Shettigar,

Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

G.M. (mother) and S.M (father) appeal from orders asserting dependency

jurisdiction over their daughter G.M. (G.), leaving her in their custody, and ordering

family maintenance services.

When G. was eight or nine, she was sexually abused by the maternal grandfather,

who lived in the home. Around the same time, she developed anxiety and emetophobia

— fear of vomiting. She disclosed the sexual abuse to her mother a year later, by which

point it had stopped. When she was 13, however, she called a rape crisis hotline and

reported the sexual abuse. The hotline notified the police and the Department of Public

Social Services (Department) — hence this dependency.

The juvenile court found jurisdiction under Welfare and Institutions Code section

300, subdivision (b)1 (failure to protect from a substantial risk of serious physical harm)

and subdivision (d) (sexual abuse), in that G. had been sexually abused and the parents

had failed to protect her from sexual abuse. It further found jurisdiction under

subdivision (b), in that the parents had failed to obtain mental health services for G.

The parents contend that there was insufficient evidence to support these

jurisdictional findings.

1 All further statutory citations are to the Welfare and Institutions Code, unless otherwise specified. All further citations to an undesignated subdivision are to subdivisions of section 300.

2 We will hold that there was substantial evidence to support the finding of sexual

abuse, simply because G. had, in fact, been sexually abused. The parents contend that

there also had to be evidence that they failed to protect her from sexual abuse. Even if so,

the juvenile court could reasonably find that, once the sexual abuse was disclosed to

them, they did, in fact, fail to protect her from a risk of future sexual abuse. Finally, we

will also hold that there was substantial evidence to support the finding that the parents’

failure to obtain therapy for G. posed a substantial risk of serious physical injury to her,

in the form of suicide, cutting, and/or anorexia.

I

STATEMENT OF FACTS

A. Preface.

The evidence at the jurisdictional/dispositional hearing consisted of three social

workers’ reports, plus the oral testimony of the mother, the current social worker, and the

supervising social worker. We confine our consideration to that evidence, which showed

the following.

B. G.’s Call to a Rape Crisis Hotline.

The parents were married; they lived together with G. and their son, M.M. (M.).

When this dependency was filed, G. was 14 and M. was 12. The family lived with the

mother’s parents, F.P. (F.) and R.P. (R.), who owned the home.

In February 2022, G. phoned a rape crisis hotline. She said she wanted counseling

because her grandfather had raped her when she was eight years old. She was still living

3 with him. She felt safe in the home, except that she “felt unsafe when she was near

[him].” Recently, she had told her parents about it. They did not report it to anyone. She

said “she did not want to get her grandfather or parents in any trouble.” “She . . . felt

confused because she did not know what to do next, especially because F[.] is the head of

their household.”

The police were notified; they responded to the home. However, they concluded

that G. was “safe in the home at th[e] time.”

C. Initial Interviews.

The Department was also notified. In response, a social worker interviewed

members of the family.

G. said that, when she was eight, F. “touched her thighs, buttocks, and breast. He

also put his mouth on her vagina.” This happened “more than once over a period of a

week and a half” but did not happen again after that.

At nine, G. stopped eating and had to be hospitalized for malnutrition. She was

diagnosed as having anxiety; she believed she also had emetophobia (fear of vomiting).

After she was released from the hospital, she saw a therapist, but only once; she did not

discuss the sexual abuse with the therapist. G. also had “had a history of self-harm

(cutting) and thoughts of suicide.”

About a year after the sexual abuse, G. told the mother about it. The mother told

her later that she had gotten angry and yelled at F. “[A] few years ago,” G. reported, she

and the mother also told R. At that point, G. “was asked if she wanted the police called

4 or to have the maternal grandfather leave, and she stated no.” Recently, G. had also told

the father.

G. said she felt safe in the home. She said “she ‘loves and hates’ [F.] for what

happened but she did not want him to leave the home.”

M. also said he felt safe in the home and that no one made him feel

“uncomfortable.”

The mother confirmed that G. had anxiety and emetophobia, which had started

when she was eight or nine. She denied knowing what could have caused G.’s anxiety.

The father denied having known anything about the sexual abuse until the police told

him. The parents agreed to a safety plan that G. would never be left alone with F. At the

request of the police, the social worker did not interview the maternal grandparents.

D. March Social Worker’s Visit.

In March, the social worker made an unannounced home visit.

The father and G. both said the family was adhering to the safety plan. G. said she

had not started seeing a therapist for the sexual abuse because of the parents’ work

schedule. The social worker suggested therapy via Zoom. The mother “agreed to make

an appointment and ensure the child attends.”

The mother did not want to discuss the sexual abuse allegations. When pressed,

however, she admitted that, when G. was nine, she told her that F. “would have her sit on

his lap, he would touch her stomach when she was ill, and he would kiss her on the lips,

which made her uncomfortable.” When the mother confronted F., he admitted touching

5 G.’s stomach when she was ill, but he denied the other allegations. She told him not to

hug G., kiss G., or have G. sit on his lap. She asked G. if she wanted F. prosecuted, and

G. said no.

Around November 2021, G. had gone “into more details.” She said F.

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Bluebook (online)
In re G.M. CA4/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-gm-ca42-calctapp-2023.