People in Interest of A.F.

2025 COA 76
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 4, 2025
Docket25CA0033
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 COA 76 (People in Interest of A.F.) 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
People in Interest of A.F., 2025 COA 76 (Colo. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

The summaries of the Colorado Court of Appeals published opinions constitute no part of the opinion of the division but have been prepared by the division for the convenience of the reader. The summaries may not be cited or relied upon as they are not the official language of the division. Any discrepancy between the language in the summary and in the opinion should be resolved in favor of the language in the opinion.

SUMMARY September 4, 2025

2025COA76

No. 25CA0033, People in Interest of A.F. — Family Law — Dependency and Neglect — Caseworker Expert Testimony; Evidence — Testimony by Experts — Shreck Findings — Exclusion of Relevant Evidence on Grounds of Prejudice, Confusion, or Waste of Time

A division of the court of appeals clarifies that caseworker

expert testimony in dependency and neglect proceedings is subject

to CRE 702 and the analysis outlined in People v. Shreck, 22 P.3d

68 (Colo. 2001), including the requirement of specific findings as to

admissibility. Thus, when a parent objects to the admissibility of

caseworker expert testimony under CRE 702, the juvenile court

must, before admitting such testimony, make specific findings

regarding (1) the reliability of the principles upon which the

testimony is based; (2) the qualifications of the witnesses; (3) the

usefulness of the testimony; and (4) the CRE 403 balancing test.

Because the juvenile court did not do so in this case and its error was not harmless, the division reverses the dependency or neglect

adjudication and remands the case for a new adjudicatory trial. COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS 2025COA76

Court of Appeals No. 25CA0033 Arapahoe County District Court No. 23JV455 Honorable Shay K. Whitaker, Judge

The People of the State of Colorado,

Appellee,

In the Interest of A.F., a Child,

and Concerning C.A., a/k/a C.K.,

Appellant.

JUDGMENT REVERSED AND CASE REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS

Division III Opinion by JUDGE SCHOCK Dunn and Brown, JJ., concur

Announced September 4, 2025

Ron Carl, County Attorney, Sarah Simchowitz, Assistant County Attorney, Aurora, Colorado, for Appellee

Sheena Knight, Guardian Ad Litem

Patrick R. Henson, Office of Respondent Parents’ Counsel, Chelsea A. Carr, Office of Respondent Parents’ Counsel, Denver, Colorado, for Appellant ¶1 C.A. (mother), a/k/a C.K., appeals the order adjudicating A.F.

(the child) dependent or neglected. She argues, among other

things, that the juvenile court erred by admitting expert testimony

from three caseworkers without making the findings required by

People v. Shreck, 22 P.3d 68 (Colo. 2001). Because we agree, we

reverse the adjudication, vacate the corresponding dispositional

order, and remand the case for a new adjudicatory trial.

¶2 In doing so, we clarify that CRE 702 and Shreck — including

the required findings — apply to caseworker expert testimony in

dependency and neglect proceedings, just as they do to any other

expert testimony. Thus, when a parent properly objects to the

admissibility of such testimony, the juvenile court must make

findings regarding the reliability of the underlying principles, the

qualifications of the witness, the usefulness of the testimony, and

the considerations in CRE 403. See Shreck, 22 P.3d at 70.

I. Background

¶3 The Arapahoe County Department of Human Services (the

Department) filed a petition in dependency or neglect based on

concerns about mother’s substance use and erratic behavior toward

caseworkers and law enforcement. The petition alleged that the

1 child lacked proper parental care and was in an injurious

environment. Mother requested an adjudicatory jury trial.

¶4 Before trial, mother moved to exclude expert testimony from

Department caseworkers as unreliable, unhelpful, and unduly

prejudicial. Alternatively, she requested a Shreck hearing and

specific findings concerning the reliability and relevance of the

proposed expert opinions. Among other things, mother argued that

the proposed testimony — particularly regarding child safety and

the implications of parent distrust of caseworkers — did not rest on

the application of objective and reasonably reliable principles.

¶5 At a pretrial conference, the juvenile court denied mother’s

request for a hearing, noting that the challenged testimony did not

concern “scientific evidence,” as it did in Shreck. The court

acknowledged that it “would still need to make findings that the

evidence [was] reliable, relevant, and not unfairly prejudicial.” But

it declined to make those findings before trial. Instead, it elected to

“defer” that determination until trial when the witnesses would be

tendered as experts and mother’s counsel could conduct voir dire.

¶6 At a second pretrial conference, mother’s counsel reminded

the court that it had not made a pretrial finding as to the

2 admissibility of the caseworker expert testimony and that it would

need to do so when the caseworkers were offered as experts at trial.

¶7 At trial, the Department offered three caseworkers — the

intake caseworker, the ongoing caseworker, and a caseworker from

the child’s prior dependency and neglect action — as experts in

“casework with an emphasis in child protection.” For each witness,

mother’s counsel, father’s counsel,1 or both conducted a similar voir

dire that included questions about the witness’s training, what

“objective modality” they used to determine if a child was in danger,

and whether their processes had been the subject of published

research, testing, or peer review. Mother objected to each witness

under CRE 702. The juvenile court overruled mother’s objections,

each time saying only that it would “qualify [the witness] as an

expert in casework with an emphasis in child protection.”

¶8 The caseworkers testified to their opinions on several matters,

including that (1) the child was not or would not be in a safe

environment with mother; (2) the child displayed unusual behavior

during her removal; (3) father lacked the protective capacity to keep

1 The child’s father was also named in the Department’s petition,

and the adjudicatory trial concerned both mother and father.

3 the child safe if mother was using substances; and (4) returning the

child to her parents’ care risked her physical and emotional safety.

¶9 The jury returned special verdicts finding that the child’s

environment was injurious to her welfare and that the child lacked

proper parental care through the actions or omissions of mother.

See § 19-3-102(1)(b), (c), C.R.S. 2025. The juvenile court entered an

order adjudicating the child dependent or neglected. It then

entered a dispositional order adopting a treatment plan for mother.

II. Analysis

¶ 10 Mother argues that the juvenile court erred by denying her

request for a Shreck hearing on the admissibility of the caseworkers’

expert testimony and by failing to make the required findings before

admitting that testimony. We conclude that although the court was

not necessarily required to hold a hearing, it erred by admitting the

testimony without making the specific findings required by CRE

702 and Shreck. Because this error was not harmless, we reverse

the adjudication and remand the case to the juvenile court.

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2025 COA 76, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-in-interest-of-af-coloctapp-2025.