In re Julienne B. CA2/7

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 12, 2013
DocketB245265
StatusUnpublished

This text of In re Julienne B. CA2/7 (In re Julienne B. CA2/7) 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 Julienne B. CA2/7, (Cal. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Filed 11/12/13 In re Julienne B. CA2/7 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 SEVEN

In re Julienne B. et al., Persons Coming B245265 Under the Juvenile Court Law. (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. CK91713)

LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES,

Plaintiff and Appellant,

v.

ALEXIS K.T. et al.,

Defendants and Appellants.

APPEALS from orders of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Mark A. Borenstein, Judge. Affirmed in part and reversed in part. John F. Krattli, County Counsel, James M. Owens, Assistant County Counsel, Jacklyn K. Louie, Principal Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Appellant. Linda Rehm, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant, Alexis K.T. Christopher R. Booth, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant, S.B. _____________ Alexis K.T. (Mother) and S.B. (Father), the parents of 16-year-old Julienne B. and three other children, appeal from the juvenile court’s jurisdiction findings and disposition order declaring Julienne a dependent child of the court under Welfare and Institutions 1 Code section 300, subdivision (c) (serious emotional damage), removing the child from Father’s care and custody and placing her with Mother under the supervision of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (Department). The Department cross-appeals from the court’s dismissal of the sexual abuse allegations in the dependency petition under section 300, subdivisions (b) (failure to protect), (d) (sexual abuse) and (j) (abuse of sibling), and its dismissal of the petition as to Julienne’s 10-year- old sister J.B. We affirm the dismissal as to J.B., reverse the subdivision (c) jurisdiction findings and disposition order regarding Julienne and remand the matter for further proceedings in the juvenile court. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND On February 3, 2012 the Department filed a dependency petition on behalf of Julienne, J.B. and their two brothers (one then 16 years old, the other 15 months old), alleging Father had been sexually abusing Julienne since she was seven years old, including fondling her breasts, digitally penetrating her vagina and forcibly raping her. The petition additionally alleged Mother knew of the sexual abuse and failed to protect Julienne. The Department alleged the ongoing sexual abuse placed all four children at risk of serious harm under section 300, subdivisions (b) and (d). The petition further alleged Julienne’s three siblings were at risk that they would be abused or neglected pursuant to section 300, subdivision (j). Julienne had disclosed instances of sexual abuse by Father to her older brother and several of her friends and described the abuse in detail to police officers who interviewed her following the initial referral of the matter to the Department through its child abuse hotline. She confirmed the abuse in sessions with the Department’s investigator and

1 Statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code unless otherwise indicated. 2 social workers and to mental health professionals, providing consistent descriptions of Father’s improper actions. Father denied the allegations. Mother also denied any sexual abuse of Julienne or her younger sister had occurred. The children were detained from Father and Mother and then released to Mother once the Department could verify Father had moved out of the family home. By March 31, 2012 Julienne had recanted her abuse charges, explaining she was angry with Father, who was very strict and disapproved of her clothing, dating boys and use of social media late at night; she was also upset by the continuing arguments between Mother and Father about their increasingly desperate financial situation following the failure of the family business (a donut shop). Mother reported to the dependency investigator she had examined Julienne’s journal after the children had been detained and found no mention at all of sexual abuse, only Julienne’s notes that she hated Father and thought her parents did not belong together. Mother believed Julienne was fabricating the sexual abuse allegations to force Father out of the home. Father described himself as a conservative, strict Asian parent and attributed Julienne’s false charges to her anger at his attempts to discipline her and control her behavior by setting rules. At the jurisdiction hearing held over several days in September 2012, the Department introduced into evidence its detention report dated February 3, 2012 with attachments including the police reports made following the initial sexual abuse allegations, its jurisdiction/disposition report dated March 28, 2012 and a March 13, 2012 report of forensic interview of Julienne by Dr. Lydia Joseph-Hernandez, a clinical psychologist affiliated with Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center. The Department also submitted a DVD and transcript of the interview. All of this material predated Julienne’s recantation on March 31, 2012. Finally, the Department introduced an interim review report dated May 7, 2012, which attached a multidisciplinary assessment team (MAT) report. The Department’s position was that Julienne’s original charges of sexual abuse were true and her retraction the result of pressure and lack of support from Mother.

3 Julienne, called by Father, was the only witness at the hearing. She testified in chambers, yet again stating the abuse allegations were not true and insisting no one had coached her or encouraged her to recant the charges. She explained her desire for more freedom in her personal life, her frustration with Father’s strictness and her unhappiness with her parents’ arguing led her to research what she could do to use against Father. One of her friends told her about another girl who had been raped by her stepfather, which gave Julienne the idea of making the sexual abuse allegations that precipitated the dependency petition. She subsequently learned the consequences of her false allegations were far more serious than she had anticipated and was now telling the truth. After the close of evidence and argument of counsel on September 21, 2012, the court ruled the Department had not met its burden of proof with respect to the section 300, subdivisions (b), (d) and (j) counts. The court explained, after viewing the DVD recording of her forensic interview, which occurred several days before she recanted, and observing Julienne’s demeanor during her live testimony and while in court as counsel and the court discussed what had or had not occurred, it found her to be “exceptionally intelligent, but manipulative and immature. . . . I think based on the evidence and burdens of proof that Julienne concocted a plan that included the most violent, offensive and repulsive allegations one can make against a parent, especially by a daughter against a father. And I don’t believe that any of these allegations were true.” The court determined the statements Julienne made during the forensic interview were not believable, noting her unemotional, matter-of-fact demeanor when describing years of alleged sexual abuse by her father. And it emphasized that, when still asserting in the recorded interview that Father had raped and otherwise violently abused her for years, Julienne showed no anger or disgust toward Father and no desire to have him sent to prison or even kept away from her or her younger sister.

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In re Julienne B. CA2/7, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-julienne-b-ca27-calctapp-2013.