In re Madison S.

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 13, 2017
DocketA144936
StatusPublished

This text of In re Madison S. (In re Madison S.) 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 Madison S., (Cal. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

Filed 8/15/17; Certified for Publication 9/13/17 (order attached)

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FOUR

In re Madison S. et al., Persons Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.

ALAMEDA COUNTY SOCIAL SERVICES AGENCY, Plaintiff and Respondent, A144936 & A145352 v. (Alameda County Super. Ct. Nos. MARINA F. et al., SJ14023569 & SJ14023570) Defendants and Appellants.

Andrew C. (minor) came to the attention of the dependency system on September 20, 2014, when—at less than one month old—he was admitted to the hospital with injuries including a skull fracture, bilateral hematomas on both sides of the brain, diffused retinal hemorrhage in his right eye, and multiple old fractures of the ribs. After an extended contested hearing held between February 6 and April 24, 2015, the juvenile court concluded that Andrew’s father, L.C. (father), was responsible for the infant’s serious injuries and denied father reunification services. Last year, we issued an opinion in response to writ petitions filed by Marina F. (mother) and father seeking extraordinary relief from the juvenile court order terminating mother’s reunification services with respect to Andrew and setting a permanency planning hearing pursuant to section 366.26

1 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.1 (Marina F. v. Superior Court (June 13, 2016, A147266 [nonpub. opn.].) We denied both petitions, concluding that the bulk of the parents’ arguments were not cognizable by writ as they involved challenges to the juvenile court’s jurisdictional finding that father was responsible for Andrew’s injuries and the resulting dispositional order denying father reunification services. (Id. at pp. 10- 11.) These matters, we opined, should be considered only in an appeal from the dispositional order in the case. (Ibid.) This is now that appeal, and the issue of father’s culpability is squarely before us, albeit through the lens of our deferential standard of review. Having reviewed the record in detail—now on two occasions—we conclude that substantial evidence does support the juvenile court’s jurisdictional findings and dispositional orders in this case. We therefore affirm. I. BACKGROUND On September 23, 2014, the Alameda County Social Services Agency (Agency) filed a juvenile dependency petition pursuant to subdivisions (a), (b), (e), and (j) of section 300, alleging that one-month-old Andrew and his five-year-old half sibling, Madison S., were at substantial risk of harm due to the serious injuries described above that had been inflicted nonaccidentally on Andrew. According to Dr. Yered, one of Andrew’s treating physicians, an MRI conducted on September 22, 2014, showed “devastating and irreversible” injuries to the infant’s brain caused by “ ‘a lot of force.’ ” Further, medical opinion supported the conclusion that the injuries were the result of nonaccidental trauma. Specifically, Dr. Kim, another treating physician, opined that the skull fracture was acute—that is, it had happened in the last 72 hours—and that Andrew’s injuries were of a type usually caused by blunt force trauma or shaking. The parents reported that the minor was not left alone or around other caretakers and that they did not know how the injuries occurred. They did state that they noticed a bump on Andrew’s head on September 18, along with a rash and some missing hair. In addition, they saw some bruising behind the minor’s ear the next morning. The parents

1 All statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code unless otherwise specified.

2 emailed a photograph of the minor’s head to Andrew’s pediatrician later that day, but did not receive a reply. Mother finally brought Andrew to the hospital on September 20. The minor was taken into protective custody while hospitalized on September 21, 2014, and Madison was taken into protective custody on September 23. Both children were formally detained at the detention hearing on September 24, 2014. Ultimately, Andrew was placed with his maternal great-grandparents and Madison was placed with her presumed father, Jesse S. (Jesse). Also on September 24, mother informed the Agency that she had separated from father and was living elsewhere.2 On September 26, 2014, mother further reported to the Agency that father had confessed to her that he physically abused Andrew, apparently by expressing feelings of remorse about “ ‘what happened’ ” to the minor. Specifically, on the previous day—September 25, 2014—mother had cooperated with the police in making and recording a telephone call to father in an attempt to get him to elaborate on the abuse incident (Pretext Phone Call). During the Pretext Phone Call, father told mother: “You have to decide whether or not you think you can forgive me. . . . [Y]ou have to decide whether or not I’m an evil person at heart or whether or not people make mistakes and those mistakes are forgivable.” He elaborated: “I think I need to fully explain to you what happened and—and show you what I think happened and show you what I did and show you why I did what I did and . . . the pieces of the puzzle will all come together and everything will make sense and you’ll say okay, now I see why that happened.” Indeed, father offered repeatedly to “demonstrate what happened,” even offering to show mother “the exact motion” that caused Andrew’s injuries. When mother asked whether father was sleep deprived or stressed or whether she was not helping enough, father replied: “[M]aybe it was the stress, maybe it was his crying, maybe it was, um, mostly the sleep deprivation.” With respect to the earlier injuries to Andrew’s ribs, in contrast, father stated: “[T]hat part I don’t understand . . . . I don’t understand how—how it was just more than once.” He confirmed: “[E]verything else was an

2 Mother and father are not married. Father, however, has been declared the presumed father of Andrew, and the two were cohabiting at the time of the incident.

3 accident but all these multiple injuries just don’t make sense to me.” Later, father acknowledged: “I need to beg for forgiveness from you and for—from (Andrew) and then I need to pray to God for—to be forgiven. . . . I’m sorry that I didn’t protect our son.” He also indicated that he took “full responsibility” and would get Andrew whatever treatments he needed moving forward. As a result of the Pretext Phone Call, father was arrested on September 26, 2014, for violation of Penal Code section 273d, willful injury to a child. An amended petition was filed on October 7, 2014, adding, among other things, an allegation detailing this arrest. Nevertheless, both parents continued to deny causing Andrew’s injuries. In its initial jurisdictional and dispositional report filed on October 8, the Agency recommended that both mother and father be offered reunification services with respect to Andrew. In contrast, it was recommended that Madison be placed with Jesse under a family maintenance plan. However, the matter was continued multiple times, and in an Addendum Report filed on December 3, 2014, the Agency changed its position with respect to Andrew, recommending that both parents be denied reunification services pursuant to subdivisions (b)(5) and (b)(6) of section 361.5.3 Thereafter, in an Addendum Report filed on February 6, 2015, the Agency reported that mother had reconciled with father and moved back in with him. Further, mother had sought an outside medical opinion and as a result—despite father’s statements during the Pretext Phone Call—had concluded that Andrew’s injuries were the result of birth trauma. She claimed that when she worked with the police to obtain father’s taped confession she had done so under duress.

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Bluebook (online)
In re Madison S., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-madison-s-calctapp-2017.