In re I.H. CA4/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 31, 2022
DocketE078454
StatusUnpublished

This text of In re I.H. CA4/2 (In re I.H. 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 I.H. CA4/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

Filed 5/31/22 In re I.H. 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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 I.H. et al., Persons Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES, E078454

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super.Ct.Nos. J282885; J282886)

v. OPINION

G.H.,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of San Bernardino County. Erin K. Alexander,

Judge. Reversed and remanded with directions.

Rich Pfeiffer, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and

Appellant.

Tom Bunton, County Counsel, and Dawn M. Martin, Deputy County Counsel, for

Plaintiff and Respondent. 1 G.H. (father) appeals from orders terminating his parental rights to his daughters

E.H. and I.H. (collectively children). The mother of the children claimed to have

Cherokee, Blackfoot, and/or Sioux ancestry. Pursuant to the Indian Child Welfare Act

(25 U.S.C. § 1901 et seq.) (ICWA) and related federal and state law, Children and Family

Services (CFS)1 sent notice of the proceedings to all such tribes; none of them responded

that the children were members or eligible to become members.

After that notice was sent, the father and his mother claimed to be descended from

Pocahontas. The father now contends that CFS failed to adequately investigate that claim

and failed to give notice to any Pocahontas-related tribe.

We will hold that CFS erred by failing to make any ICWA inquiry to the father’s

father. However, we will also hold that, based on the inquiries that it did make, CFS had

no duty to give notice to any to any Pocahontas-related tribe. Accordingly, we will

reverse, but only conditionally; if the father’s father provides no information rising to the

level of reason to believe that the children are Indian children, the juvenile court must

reinstate the order terminating parental rights.

1 This case was initially filed in Los Angeles County, then transferred to San Bernardino County. We will use “CFS” to refer to the social services agency that was responsible for the case at the relevant time, whether it was the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services or San Bernardino County Children and Family Services.

2 I

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

The father and J.M. (mother) lived together for four years. They have two

daughters together, E.H. and I.H. (collectively children). Both children tested positive for

marijuana at birth.

In November 2018, the father slapped and punched the mother, knocking her

down. He then left with the children and did not return.

In December 2018, the mother called police and reported that the father had raped

her. The father maintained that the alleged rape was consensual sex.2

Each parent accused the other of previous domestic violence. The father said that

the mother had been diagnosed with multiple mental illnesses but refused to take her

medication.

Accordingly, in February 2019 — when E.H. was seventeen months old and I.H.

was four months old — CFS filed a dependency petition regarding them. At that point,

the father was incarcerated. He was released in April 2019.

Initially, the children were left in the mother’s care, with family maintenance

services. The mother, however, repeatedly left or was asked to leave her housing

situations, because she was noncompliant, abrasive, and/or confrontational. She did not

drug test regularly as required.

2 He was never charged with rape.

3 In April 2019, in violation of a restraining order, the mother took the children to

see the father; she also tried to contact him on Facebook. Because she had made remarks

about leaving the state, CFS believed she was “a flight risk.”

For these reasons, in April 2019, CFS removed the children from the mother’s

custody and placed them in a foster home.

In May 2019, at the jurisdictional hearing, both parents pleaded no contest. The

juvenile court found jurisdiction based on a risk of serious physical harm and failure to

protect. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 300, subds. (a), (b).)3

In June 2019, the father was arrested; he served a prison term.

In October 2019, at the dispositional hearing, the juvenile court formally removed

the children from the parents’ custody. It ordered reunification services for both parents.

In October 2020, the father was arrested again. He remained in custody

throughout the rest of the case.

In June 2021, at the 18-month review hearing, the juvenile court terminated

reunification services and set a section 366.26 hearing.

In February 2022, at the section 366.26 hearing, the juvenile court found that the

children were adoptable and that there was no applicable exception to termination.

Accordingly, it terminated parental rights.

3 All further statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code unless specified.

4 II

STATEMENT OF FACTS

In February 2019, the mother claimed to have Cherokee, Blackfoot, and/or Sioux

ancestry. She said the father also had Indian ancestry. The juvenile court ordered CFS to

investigate the father’s Indian ancestry.

The father told a social worker that he did not have any Indian ancestry. The

father’s mother (Margaret) likewise told a social worker that the father had no Indian

ancestry on either side. There is no indication that any social worker ever asked the

father’s father (Wesley) about the father’s Indian ancestry.

In March 2019, CFS sent an ICWA notice (March notice) to 24 Cherokee,

Blackfoot, and Sioux tribes and to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As to the father, the

March notice included:

(1) The father’s name, address, date of birth, and place of birth.

(2) Margaret’s name, address, date of birth, and place of birth.

(3) Wesley’s name and date of birth; all other information about him and his

parents was listed as either “unknown” or “[the paternal grandmother] did not have this

information.”

(4) Margaret’s mother’s name, date of birth, date of death, and place of death.

(5) Margaret’s father’s name, partial date of birth, and place of birth.

The March notice indicated that the mother had Indian ancestry, but the father did

not (e.g., as to his “[t]ribe,” it stated, “Does not apply”).

5 None of the tribes that responded claimed the children as members or as eligible

for membership.

Meanwhile, in April 2019, at his first court appearance, the father contradicted his

earlier denial and claimed that he did have Indian ancestry; his grandmother had told him

that he “was related to Pocahontas.” Margaret then also contradicted her earlier denial

and said that the father was related to Pocahontas’s tribe through her mother, Virginia.

The juvenile court ordered CFS to continue to investigate the father’s Indian ancestry.

The social worker determined that Pocahontas’s tribe would be the “Pumankey

Tribe.”4 According to the social worker, in May 2019, an ICWA notice (May notice)

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In re I.H. CA4/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-ih-ca42-calctapp-2022.