Peo in Interest of SP

CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 18, 2026
Docket25CA2186
StatusUnpublished

This text of Peo in Interest of SP (Peo in Interest of SP) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Peo in Interest of SP, (Colo. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

25CA2186 Peo in Interest of SP 06-18-2026

COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS

Court of Appeals No. 25CA2186 Weld County District Court No. 24JV21 Honorable Troy Hause, Judge

The People of the State of Colorado,

Petitioner,

In the Interest of S.P., a Child,

and Concerning M.P. and Z.K.,

Appellants.

JUDGMENT AFFIRMED

Division IV Opinion by JUDGE LUM Welling and Schock, JJ., concur

NOT PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO C.A.R. 35(e) Announced June 18, 2026

No Appearance for Petitioner

Josie Burt, Guardian Ad Litem

Just Law Group, LLC, John F. Poor, Denver, Colorado, for Appellant M.P.

Patrick R. Henson, Office of Respondent Parents’ Counsel, Justin Twardowski, Office of Respondent Parents’ Counsel, Denver, Colorado, for Appellant Z.K. ¶1 In this dependency and neglect action, M.P. (mother) and Z.K.

(father) appeal the judgment allocating parental responsibilities for

S.P. (the child) to father’s sister and her husband (aunt and uncle).

We affirm.

I. Background

¶2 The Weld County Department of Human Services filed a

petition in dependency or neglect after receiving reports that mother

tested positive for methamphetamine at the time of birth and that

the newborn child was exhibiting symptoms of drug withdrawal.

The court granted temporary legal custody of the child to the

Department, who placed her with aunt and uncle.

¶3 With respect to mother, the juvenile court adjudicated the

child dependent or neglected. The court later adopted a treatment

plan for mother by agreement of the parties. Father admitted the

petition, and the court adopted a treatment plan for him, as well.

¶4 The parents’ treatment plans required them, as relevant here,

to (1) address substance abuse by completing evaluations,

developing treatment goals, and submitting to substance abuse

monitoring; (2) participate in parenting time and demonstrate

appropriate parenting skills; and (3) address any mental health

1 issues by completing evaluations and following any

recommendations.

¶5 The guardian ad litem (GAL) later moved to allocate parental

responsibilities to aunt and uncle, who had served as the child’s

placement provider since birth. The Department supported the

GAL’s motion.

¶6 Over twenty months after the petition was filed, and after a

contested hearing, the juvenile court entered an allocation of

parental responsibilities (APR) and closed the dependency and

neglect action.

¶7 Both parents appeal. Mother contends that the court erred by

(1) awarding custody to aunt and uncle in the absence of evidence

that mother was an unfit parent or that the child’s health and

safety would be at risk in her care; and (2) qualifying the ongoing

caseworkers as expert witnesses. Father contends the court erred

by (1) finding that he was unfit; (2) awarding custody to aunt and

uncle because father had substantially complied with his treatment

plan and father’s proposal to return the child to him and mother

was in the child’s best interest; and (3) denying his motion to

2 continue the APR hearing. We consider and reject each of these

contentions in turn.

II. Continuance

¶8 First, we disagree with father’s contention that the juvenile

court erred by denying his motion to continue the APR hearing.

A. Applicable Law and Standard of Review

¶9 The Colorado Children’s Code directs courts to “proceed with

all possible speed to a legal determination that will serve the best

interests of the child.” § 19-1-102(1)(c), C.R.S. 2025. Thus, when

ruling on a motion to continue, the juvenile court “should balance

the need for orderly and expeditious administration of justice

against the facts underlying the motion and the child’s need for

permanency.” People in Interest of R.J.B., 2021 COA 4, ¶ 11.

When, as here, a case is subject to expedited permanency planning

(EPP) standards, the court must not delay or continue any hearing

“unless good cause is shown and unless the court finds that the

best interests of the child will be served by granting a delay or

continuance.” § 19-3-104, C.R.S. 2025.

¶ 10 We review a juvenile court’s denial of a motion to continue for

an abuse of discretion. R.J.B., ¶ 13. A court abuses its discretion

3 “when its decision is manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable, or unfair,

or when it misapplies or misconstrues the law.” People in Interest of

E.B., 2022 CO 55, ¶ 14.

B. Additional Background

¶ 11 Two months before the APR hearing, new counsel substituted

into the case to represent father. At the pretrial readiness

conference, held two weeks before the APR hearing, counsel

declared “ready to proceed” with the hearing, but noted that “the

Department still has their twenty-one-day window to provide us

with our initial discovery request.” The Department responded that

it did not have a discovery request from father.

¶ 12 Two days later, father filed a motion to continue the APR

hearing, arguing that “[c]ounsel’s communication to the court that

he was prepared to move forward with the hearing was based on

this belief that he would have access to discovery prior to the APR

hearing.” Father’s counsel noted that he was “mistaken” in his

belief that discovery had been requested and said that he requested

discovery as soon as he realized this mistake. The Department

objected to father’s continuance request. The Department noted

that father’s counsel had fifty-three days to request discovery

4 following the substitution of counsel and prior to the pretrial

readiness conference and argued that a continuance was not in the

child’s best interest. The juvenile court denied father’s request,

finding “that discovery was not timely requested and a continuance

[was] not in the child’s best interests.”

¶ 13 Father renewed his request at the beginning of the APR

hearing, arguing that counsel received the requested discovery less

than twenty-four hours before the hearing and did not have

adequate time to review it. The Department and GAL objected to

father’s request, and the GAL noted that this EPP case had been

open almost seventeen months. The court again denied the

request, finding that it was not in the child’s best interests to

continue the matter and that the discovery request was not made

timely.

C. Analysis

¶ 14 Father argues that he was prejudiced by not having discovery

until the day before the hearing because it did not allow counsel to

“comprehensively plan and prepare for the case.” But father does

not explain what specific discovery he required from the

Department to “comprehensively plan and prepare” to rebut the

5 GAL’s APR motion. And he does not identify how additional time to

review discovery would have changed the juvenile court’s

assessment of whether the requested APR was in the child’s best

interest.

¶ 15 Additionally, the case had been open for over twenty months

by the time the juvenile court issued its judgment, the EPP

provisions applied, and mother’s counsel did not provide any reason

for finding that a delay would serve the child’s best interests. See

§ 19-3-104.

¶ 16 Thus, father has failed to establish that the juvenile court

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Peo in Interest of SP, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peo-in-interest-of-sp-coloctapp-2026.