In re S.O. CA1/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 1, 2024
DocketA169246
StatusUnpublished

This text of In re S.O. CA1/2 (In re S.O. CA1/2) 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 S.O. CA1/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

Filed 10/31/24 In re S.O. CA1/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

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

ALAMEDA COUNTY SOCIAL SERVICES AGENCY, Plaintiff and Respondent, A169246 v. (Alameda County Super. Ct. R.R., Nos. JD03680101 & JD03680201) Defendant and Appellant.

After S.O. and T.O., aged three and two, were found locked in a room in a house without electricity, food, or any adult present, the Alameda County Social Services Agency (Agency) removed them from the custody of R.R. (Mother). The juvenile court awarded custody to V.O. (Father), the previously noncustodial parent, who lives out of state; terminated dependency jurisdiction; and denied Mother’s request for phone or video visitation. The court found that such visits would be detrimental and signed an order drafted by counsel stating that substance abuse had led Mother “to act violently and neglectfully towards the children.” Mother contends the court erred in denying visitation, as no one alleged she had been violent towards the children and there is no substantial evidence of detriment. But

1 the court did not need to find detriment to deny visitation, and its ruling was not an abuse of discretion. We modify the order to clarify that the reference to Mother having acted “violently” was not directed at the children; rather, she had acted violently towards Father and neglectfully towards the children. We affirm the order as modified. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 1. Initiation of the Case In October 2023, Oakland police officers responded to a report that Mother had left the children alone overnight. The officers found the children locked in a room with no working doorknob. Mother returned and said she had been gone only briefly. The next day, a social worker visited the home and found it had no electricity, refrigeration, or food, and the room in which the children were found was cluttered with unsafe objects and lit by Christmas lights attached to a car battery. S.O. said Mother left her and T.O. alone for long periods. The Agency took protective custody of the children, placed them with maternal aunt S.R., and filed a dependency petition. The petition alleged the children were subject to dependency jurisdiction because of a serious risk they would suffer physical harm or injury as a result of Mother’s failure to supervise them (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 300, subd. (b)(1)(A)),1 and because Mother had left them with no provision for support (id., subd. (g)). The detention report stated that the home where the children were found is known to the police as a chop shop and site of criminal activity. The report noted allegations that Mother used methamphetamine and heroin. Father was reached by phone and said he would like to care for his children but had moved out of state because Mother had put a gun to his head and

1 Undesignated references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code.

2 had induced her friends to beat him up. At the time, Father’s paternity status had been alleged but not presumed. Regardless, if the children were detained, the Agency planned to arrange supervised visitation for Mother. The juvenile court ordered the children detained and set a jurisdiction/disposition hearing three weeks later, on November 9, 2023. 2. The Initial Jurisdiction/Disposition Hearing The Agency’s report for the November 9 hearing recommended that the court either declare the children dependents and order reunification services for Mother or, if the court found Father to be the presumed father, release the children to his care and dismiss the case with a custody and visitation order (often called an “exit order”). The report said Mother’s whereabouts were unknown; records showed she had been arrested on November 5. The report noted that, in a “Child and Family Team” (CFT) meeting the day the children were removed, S.R. said the children had been crying and missing Mother. A day later, S.R. reported that Mother had come to S.R.’s home but “stayed for only two minutes.” S.R. said Father was a good parent who had been forced to move after assaults and threats by Mother and her friends. S.R. described Mother as “violent” and said she had been violent to Father; S.R. did not represent that Mother had been violent towards the children. The Agency telephoned Mother to participate in a CFT meeting two weeks later, but she did not answer; S.R. said she was in jail. S.R. said the children had adjusted well to her home, and she hoped they ended up with Father. Father hoped to bring the children to live with his family—mother, stepfather, and siblings—out of state. Father said he left California in 2022 after Mother’s friends hit him with a gun and broke his arm. Father stated he saw methamphetamine and cocaine in Mother’s backpack and believed she

3 was in the Norteño gang. The local social services agency had agreed to assess Father’s home for placement but had not yet done so. The Agency submitted a proposed exit order under section 362.4 that terminated dependency jurisdiction, awarded custody to Father as a formerly noncustodial parent, and gave Mother supervised visitation. At the November 9 hearing, Father appeared; Mother did not. Father submitted an acknowledgment of paternity. The court deemed him a presumed father; stated that it was inclined to release the children to his custody, subject to the local social services agency’s assessment of his home; and continued the hearing for three weeks. 3. The Final Hearing, Oral Argument, and Exit Order For the November 28 hearing, the Department submitted five police reports, which the court admitted into evidence. Two were from October 2023, when officers found the children and, the next day, accompanied a social worker inspecting the home. A third was from 2019, before the children were born, and described Mother’s arrest for vandalism and domestic violence after she allegedly got drunk, tried to choke Father, and broke a window. The fourth report was from 2020, when S.O. was an infant. Police came to Mother’s home after reports of a woman firing a gun in the air. Mother said her brother had left a gun with her, and she had put it in a drawer in S.O’s room. Mother denied having fired the gun, but she resembled the woman seen firing a gun on nearby security camera footage. In the fifth report, also from 2020, Father claimed that, during an argument, Mother punched him, broke a window, and, when he dropped his keys, drove off in his truck. In contrast, Mother said Father had hit her first and let her drive the truck. At the November 28 hearing, Father appeared; Mother again did not. Mother’s counsel said she had not made contact with Mother. The Agency’s

4 counsel, noting that the Father’s home had been approved, renewed the request to release the children to his custody. The Agency’s counsel also asked the court to modify the proposed order by deleting the visitation term. Given the distance to Father’s home and the “new information contained in the police report[s] about the level of danger to the children,” the Agency no longer believed in-person visitation was in the children’s best interest. It requested instead “an order either finding a detriment . . . [or] allowing for other forms of supervised contact such as video or telephone contact.” After confirming Mother was no longer incarcerated, the court found clear and convincing evidence of a need to remove the children from Mother’s custody.

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Bluebook (online)
In re S.O. CA1/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-so-ca12-calctapp-2024.