Ovalle v. Salinas-Cardosi

2003 OK 1, 65 P.3d 587, 74 O.B.A.J. 210, 2003 Okla. LEXIS 1
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 14, 2003
DocketNo. 96,396
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2003 OK 1 (Ovalle v. Salinas-Cardosi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ovalle v. Salinas-Cardosi, 2003 OK 1, 65 P.3d 587, 74 O.B.A.J. 210, 2003 Okla. LEXIS 1 (Okla. 2003).

Opinion

WINCHESTER, J.

¶ 1 The issue before this Court is whether a mother who placed her minor child with her mother as guardian has met her burden to show that the guardianship should be terminated. We hold that she has not.

FACTS

¶ 2 On October 16, 2000, Gregorio H. Ovalle petitioned for appointment as a co-guardian of A.G.S. Ovalle’s wife, Maria Del Carmen Ovalle’s, the maternal grandmother of A.G.S., had been the guardian since September 19, 1996. The Petition for the Appointment of a General Guardian, which Mrs. [588]*588Ovalle filed August 26, 1996, and resulted in her being appointed as guardian, stated that A.G.S. had resided with her since his birth on May, 20, 1996. The Ovalles are the appellants before this Court. On November 1, 2000, Joann Salinas-Cardosi, the appellee and mother of A.G.S., filed an application to terminate guardianship over her son. Salinas-Cardosi represented herself.

¶3 At the hearing on this matter, Sali!>,nas-Cardosi testified to the conditions that led to the guardianship. On December 6, 1995, Elifonsol P. Lopez, Jr., Salinas-Cardo-si’s boyfriend, was charged with the murder of Salinas-Cardosi’s 23-month-old daughter. She died on August 13, 1995. Because Salinas-Cardosi was present in the apartment when her daughter was injured,' she became a suspect. Between her daughter’s death and the murder trial, Salinas-Cardosi gave birth to A.G.S. She testified that the district attorney’s office advised her to arrange a guardianship for her son. Salinas-Cardosi agreed, fearing she could be jailed. At the termination hearing she testified that she had known nothing about her daughter’s injuries, but agreed when she was cross examined that the medical evidence showed multiple injuries over a period of time. She testified she didn’t know anything about those injuries since her daughter “didn’t act any different.”

¶4 The Ovalles offered several exhibits into evidence to which Salinas-Cardosi stated she had no objection. Exhibit number 2, “Certificate of Live Birth,” reveals that A.G.S. was born about nine months after the murder. The petition to terminate the guardianship named the father of A.G.S.; it was neither Lopez nor her husband, Cardosi. Exhibit number 5 includes an “Information” charging Lopez with Murder in the First Degree, filed December 6, 1995. An order attached to the exhibit reflects Lopez was convicted and sentenced to life without parole on October 29,1998.

¶ 5 Exhibit number 3, Salinas-Cardosi’s petition for divorce, reveals she married Anthony Cardosi on December 5, 1997. That same exhibit also reveals Salinas-Cardosi filed for divorce within three months of her marriage to Cardosi. Exhibit number 1 is her petition for a protective order. The petition alleges that Cardosi threatened “bodily harm with imminent serious physical harm.” It also alleges that Cardosi had stalked and threatened Salinas-Cardosi at home and at work. The petition stated, “Anthony has a very violent temper always wanting to beat someone up.” The petition also stated that Salinas-Cardosi was pregnant from their union. The district court granted a temporary protective order and set a hearing for March 23, 1998, the same date that Salinas-Cardosi filed her petition for divorce. In Cardosi’s answer to the petition for divorce, he claimed he was not the father of the unborn child, and asked for a DNA test.

¶ 6 Salinas-Cardosi testified that she and Cardosi had reconciled and blamed her mother for all of their problems. She denied that Cardosi ever hit her but admitted that they had been evicted from one of their apartments for arguing and fighting. She testified that neither she nor Cardosi use drugs, that no governmental agency had investigated their home, and that she had never been convicted of any crime of violence against children. She admitted that Cardosi was unemployed, that she worked part-time, and that the couple had financial problems. In response to questions by the trial judge, Salinas-Cardosi testified that she and Cardo-si have two children, who have resided with them since their births. She did not call any other witnesses.

¶ 7 The Ovalles first witness was a homicide detective from the Oklahoma City Police Department. He investigated the death of Salinas-Cardosi’s daughter. He testified that at the time of the investigation Salinas-Cardosi lived with her daughter in an apartment in which Lopez occasionally stayed. Lopez was not the girl’s father. Her father was incarcerated at the time of the murder. The detective testified that, while Salinas-Cardosi was asleep, her daughter received the injury that resulted in her death. The detective testified that the dress the girl was wearing had been ripped in several places and that she died of blunt trauma resulting in subdural hematoma. The detective further testified that although Salinas-Cardosi was investigated as a suspect, she passed a [589]*589polygraph examination and became a witness in the murder trial. Because of that, the district attorney determined not to charge her.

¶ 8 One of Mrs. Ovalle’s co-workers, who had known her for four years, testified that she had seen Salinas-Cardosi at the Ovalles’ home. Salinas-Cardosi had a bruise on her cheek. An affidavit of that witness was admitted as evidence. It stated that the witness had seen Salinas-Cardosi with bruises on her face at least two times, that she always seemed scared and withdrawn and in a hurry to return home before her husband found out she was at the Ovalles’ home.

¶ 9 Michael Anthony Glossbrenner, who is married to Salinas-Cardosi’s sister, testified that she and Cardosi had been to the Gloss-brenner’s house. Cardosi was drunk and upset and started yelling before the night was over. Glossbrenner testified he had seen the bruises on Salinas-Cardosi’s face under her makeup and that Cardosi admitted to him that he had hit his wife. Glossbren-ner testified that A.G.S. told him that Cardo-si both yelled at and hit A.G.S. Glossbrenner testified that he and his wife lived with the Ovalles from February to July of 2000, and that Salinas-Cardosi did not come by once to see her son. Glossbrenner’s wife, Rosemary, testified that Cardosi was very violent and had even beaten Glossbrenner’s brother. She also testified to bruises she had seen on her sister. Mrs. Glossbrenner testified that one time Cardosi had grabbed her face to force her to look at him while he argued with her. When she wanted to leave, he grabbed her wrist to hold her down.

¶ 10 Mrs. Ovalle testified that her daughter decided she wanted to became pregnant as a reaction to her daughter’s death; that she wanted another little girl. Salinas-Car-dosi became pregnant within two weeks of her daughter’s murder. Mrs. Ovalle told the court that Salinas-Cardosi told her that if the baby was a boy, Mrs. Ovalle could have him, that she did not need a boy. Although Salinas-Cardosi cross examined Mrs. Ovalle, she did not question her on this subject.

¶ 11 Mrs. Ovalle testified that her daughter had been beaten by Cardosi. She testified that Cardosi habitually struck a fist into his other hand, threatening to beat up or kill someone. He even threatened Mrs. Ovalle. She stated that she obtained a Victim’s Protective Order against Cardosi for that reason. Mrs. Ovalle testified that she and her husband had supported A.G.S. for the last four years, but had recently applied for child support. It was not until then that Salinas-Cardosi filed to have the guardianship terminated. Ovalle testified that she had seen bruises and bite marks on her daughter. She testified that A.G.S.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bart v. Hamby
2007 OK CIV APP 75 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2003 OK 1, 65 P.3d 587, 74 O.B.A.J. 210, 2003 Okla. LEXIS 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ovalle-v-salinas-cardosi-okla-2003.