San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency v. Daria D.

70 Cal. App. 4th 38, 99 Daily Journal DAR 1647, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1328, 82 Cal. Rptr. 2d 426, 1999 Cal. App. LEXIS 141
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 22, 1999
DocketNo. D031252
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 70 Cal. App. 4th 38 (San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency v. Daria D.) 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
San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency v. Daria D., 70 Cal. App. 4th 38, 99 Daily Journal DAR 1647, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1328, 82 Cal. Rptr. 2d 426, 1999 Cal. App. LEXIS 141 (Cal. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

Opinion

KREMER, P. J.

J.Daria D. and Vincent D., the parents of Casey D., appeal the court’s denial of their Welfare and Institutions Code1 section 388 petitions seeking custody of Casey or a plan of long-term foster care and the court’s decision to terminate their parental rights.

On appeal, the parents contend reversal is required because the termination of reunification services at the six-month review hearing constituted a violation of their due process rights; their section 388 petitions established changed circumstances indicating a return of Casey to their custody or a plan of long-term foster care would be in Casey’s best interests; and parental rights should not have been terminated because the evidence showed a [42]*42beneficial parent/child relationship existed between Casey and her mother. We affirm.

Facts

Casey was bom in December 1996 with a positive toxicology for morphine/heroin. Both parents had a long history of drug abuse problems and were heroin addicts. There had been previous contacts with the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency (Agency). In 1993 there was a voluntary contract between the parents and Agency involving their daughter Veronica, who was bom in June 1989. Daria did well in a drag treatment program and the case was closed in May 1994. Calls were made to Agency hotline in December 1994 about a lack of supervision and in June 1995 about the caretaker using drugs. In October 1995 the parents had their second child, Amber, who, like Casey, was bom with a positive toxicology for morphine/heroin and was removed from parental custody and Agency intervened. When Casey was born in December 1996, Amber was living with her maternal grandmother and the parents were noncompliant in their plan to reunify with Amber.

In March 1997 the court declared Casey a dependent child, removed her from parental custody and ordered reunification services for the parents, including participating in a drug treatment program, attending Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and drug testing. The court found there were no relatives available for placement. At the time of the six-month review hearing held October 29, 1997, the parents had still not complied with their reunification plan. The court terminated reunification services and set the matter for a section 366.26 permanency planning hearing. The parents filed a writ petition in this court challenging the constitutionality of terminating reunification services at the six-month review hearing and the sufficiency of the evidence to support the court’s findings as to the reasonableness of reunification services and that it would be detrimental to return Casey to their custody. We upheld the constitutionality of the statute allowing termination of reunification services at the six-month review hearing and affirmed the trial court’s decision in Daria D. v. Superior Court (1998) 61 Cal.App.4th 606 [71 Cal.Rptr.2d 668],

Just days before the scheduled March 31 permanency planning hearing (which had been continued from February 25, 1998), the parents separately filed section 388 petitions alleging changed circumstances and seeking return of Casey to their custody dr the selection of a long-term plan of foster care and the provision of reunification services to the parents.

The evidence presented at the hearing indicated Vincent had been sober since early July 1997; was taking the drug, Orlaam, for his heroin addiction; [43]*43was randomly drug testing; attending NA meetings three to four times a week; was working on step five of a twelve-step program; had a sponsor and was employed. Vincent had supervised visitation with Casey once a week. Daria was invited to attend Vincent’s visits. In January 1998 Vincent began visiting Casey after admittedly “a long time” of not visiting. During the February and March visits, the parents arrived late and left early several times. By the time of the hearing, Casey was just beginning to be calm around Vincent if Daria was also present.

Daria had attended the Options for Recovery (Options) drug treatment program “off and on” for more than three years. During 1997 Daria had at least three or four relapses between January and October. During each relapse, Daria probably used drugs more than once. During a relapse involving heroin, an individual could be “unavailable” to parent a child for about a 24-hour period.

Beginning in November 1997, Daria switched from methadone treatment for her heroin addiction to Orlaam. Daria’s drug treatment counselor noticed Daria was less depressed, taking care of necessary tasks, obtaining treatment and taking care of her responsibilities at home much better while on the Orlaam than she had on the methadone. Daria began regularly attending the Options program three days a week from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. She regularly attended NA meetings and had had a sponsor for about four months. Daria, however, was not yet working on a 12-step program and had not yet written her autobiography, which was “a significant part of the recovery process” in the drug treatment program in which Daria was enrolled.

Daria had begun an anger management class but had not completed it due to the cost of the class. The social worker reported two weeks earlier Vincent had called the social worker to discuss changing his visitation. Daria was talking very loudly in the background. When Vincent asked her to be quiet, Daria “went off verbally, escalated, started screaming obscenities, threatening to take [the social worker] to court” and was “threatening obscenities about [the social worker’s] supervisor.” At some point the social worker no longer heard Daria in the background. Vincent explained the Options van had arrived and picked up Daria. The social worker also testified the foster mother had reported when she spoke with Vincent on the phone, Daria was constantly on the phone, coaching Vincent, would get upset and irritated and one time made threats to the foster mother’s adult daughter.

Daria had supervised visits with Casey at the Options program. The program coordinator at the Options program believed Daria and Casey were [44]*44“very well bonded” with Casey willingly going to Daria when she was dropped off. The bonding between Casey and her mother had increased, with Casey preferring to be held by Daria rather than the counselor. Daria showed “really good mothering” and believed Casey could safely be returned to her parents’ custody. Daria’s case manager stated Casey and Daria were “emotionally attached” and the case manager stated she would “have no problem” with Casey being immediately returned to her parents’ physical custody. She believed Casey should live with her parents. She was unfamiliar with Vincent’s drug history, but knew he was on Orlaam and was employed.

The social worker disagreed with the opinions of Daria’s counselors that Casey could be immediately returned to the parents’ physical custody. She stated the parents had “a very cyclical history” of drug use, drug treatment and relapse over a period of four and a half years. There was “a very discernible pattern” where once Agency intervened, the parents would involve themselves in various services when required by outside agencies in order to reunify their family. Once the pressure of the outside agencies or the requirements were lifted, the parents were unable to sustain their efforts and Agency was required to intervene again.

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

Related

In Re Casey D.
82 Cal. Rptr. 2d 426 (California Court of Appeal, 1999)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
70 Cal. App. 4th 38, 99 Daily Journal DAR 1647, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1328, 82 Cal. Rptr. 2d 426, 1999 Cal. App. LEXIS 141, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/san-diego-county-health-human-services-agency-v-daria-d-calctapp-1999.