In re E.T.
Filed 9/19/13 In re E.T. CA4/1
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 This opinion has not been certified for
publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115
COURT
OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION
ONE
STATE
OF CALIFORNIA
In re E.T., et al, Persons Coming
Under the Juvenile Court Law.
SAN DIEGO
COUNTY HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY,
Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
JENNIFER T.,
Defendant and Appellant.
D063962
(Super. Ct.
No. J518643A-B)
APPEAL from
orders of the Superior Court
of
County, Carol Isackson, Judge.
Affirmed.
Neale B.
Gold, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Thomas E.
Montgomery, County Counsel, John E. Philips, Chief Deputy County Counsel, and
Caitlin E. Rae, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Jennifer T.
appeals juvenile court jurisdictional and dispositional orders concerning her
children, E.T. and R.T. She contends the
court erred by removing the children from her care, and it abused its
discretion and violated her due process rights when it limited her right to
direct the children's education. We
grant the motion by the San Diego
County Health and Human Services Agency (the Agency) to augment the record
with the juvenile court minute order of August
15, 2013, which shows the court has reinstated Jennifer's
educational rights. We thus conclude
this issue is moot. As to the other matters
Jennifer raises, we hold substantial
evidence supports the orders removing the children from her custody, and
she has not shown a denial of due process.
We affirm the orders.
FACTUAL AND
PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
On March
12, 2013, the Agency petitioned on behalf of six-year-old E.T. and two-year-old
R.T. under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300, subdivision (b), alleging
the children were at substantial risk because Jennifer left them unattended and
unsupervised from March 7 until March 10, during which time she was arrested
and then transferred to a psychiatric hospital.
(Statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code.) The petitions also alleged Jennifer was
mentally ill. The court ordered the
children detained and ordered Jennifer would have
On March 7
at 6:50 a.m., police arrested
Jennifer when her taxi driver said she refused to pay her taxi fare. The officers reported Jennifer appeared
disoriented, had a blank stare and made bizarre comments. At the jail and at the psychiatric hospital
she was uncooperative and aggressive and spoke in gibberish. She refused to take medication and was
resistant to treatment. On March 10,
Jennifer told hospital staff she did not know who was taking care of her
children. When police went to the home
to investigate, they found E.T. and R.T. there alone. E.T. said she did not know how long they had
been there, but she had been fixing food and taking care of R.T.
The
maternal grandmother said Jennifer had moved from New
York to California
to start her own business. The
grandmother had come to San Diego
in February 2013 to help her, but Jennifer seemed agitated and delusional and
talked about connecting with her late husband, who had committed suicide three
years earlier. One night, after an
argument, Jennifer told the grandmother to leave. When the grandparents returned to
San Diego after the children were detained, Jennifer followed them in her
car and accused them of trying to take the children.
At a visit
on March 22, Jennifer attempted to take the children with her. She called police and said her bodyguard was
there to protect her. When the police
officer showed her documentation indicating the children were being detained
and her visits supervised, she apologized to E.T. and said she would take her
home on the next Monday.
The social
worker stated Jennifer appeared calmer when he met with her in late April. Jennifer said that on the evening before her
arrest, she had put the children to bed and then remembered she had left
something she needed at her new business.
She left a note for a neighbor who had babysat for the children in the past,
and later yelled to the neighbor that she was leaving and asking her to watch
the children for 30 minutes. She said
her car got stuck several miles from home and she hailed a taxi. When she arrived at her apartment, the driver
would not allow her to go inside for money to pay the fare, but locked the
doors and drove to the police station.
Jennifer's
neighbor said she had stopped babysitting the children for Jennifer because
Jennifer was unpredictable. Jennifer
owed her money, accused her of making a referral to the Agency and threatened
her. She described how Jennifer had
played loud music and acted erratically the night before the incident that
resulted in her arrest and hospitalization.
At the
jurisdictional/dispositional hearing Jennifer testified she had been studying
to become a holistic health practitioner.
She said after her husband died she had been in therapy, but there had
been no concerns about her mental health.
She had been working long hours in preparation of opening up her
business, and on the night she left the children, she believed her neighbors
had agreed to watch them although they had not had a specific conversation
about it. She said she told the police
officer who arrested her and staff at the jail and the psychiatric hospital
that she had children at home, but they did not listen. She testified she believed she had the right
to take her children home on the day she attempted to remove them from the
visitation center.
After
considering the evidence and argument by counsel, the court found the
allegations of the petitions to be true as amended. The court removed custody from Jennifer and
suspended her educational rights.
DISCUSSION
Jennifer
contends the court erred by removing the children from her custody. She argues the evidence was insufficient to
show they were at a risk of harm in her care, a single incident led to their
dependencies, and by the time of the disposition hearing she was able to care
for them.
A reviewing
court must uphold a juvenile court's findings and orders if they are supported
by substantial
evidence. (In re
Amos L. (1981) 124 Cal.App.3d 1031, 1036-1037.) "[W]e must indulge in all reasonable
inferences to support the findings of the juvenile court [citation], and we
must also ' . . . view the record in the light most
favorable to the orders of the juvenile court.' " (In re Luwanna S. (1973) 31
Cal.App.3d 112, 114.) The appellant
bears the burden to show the evidence
is insufficient to support the court's findings. (In re Geoffrey G. (1979) 98
Cal.App.3d 412, 420.)
Section 361, subdivision (c)(1) provides a
child may not be taken from the custody of his or her parents unless the
juvenile court finds by clear and convincing evidence:
"There is or would be a substantial danger to the physical health, safety, protection, or
physical or emotional well-being of the minor if the minor were returned home,
and there are no reasonable means by which the minor's physical health can be
protected without removing the minor from the minor's parent's . . . physical
custody."
"The
juvenile court has broad discretion to determine what would best serve and
protect the child's interest and to fashion a dispositional order in accordance
with this discretion." (In re
Jose M. (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 1098, 1103-1104.) The focus of the dependency statutes is to
prevent harm to the child. (In re
Jamie M. (1982) 134 Cal.App.3d 530, 536.)
Jennifer
has not shown error. Her behavior
leading up to the incident which resulted in the children being detained and
her actions in the weeks after that time showed the children would be at
substantial risk in her care. The
grandmother said that she had been concerned about Jennifer. She said Jennifer's behavior had been
"off" during the two weeks she stayed with her to help care for the
children. Jennifer seemed delusional and
everything irritated her. Her neighbor
described Jennifer as unpredictable.
While she was in the psychiatric hospital, she smeared food, talked in
gibberish, and was agitated, psychotic, delusional and paranoid. The psychiatrist diagnosed her with
"Psychosis Not Otherwise Specified, Rule out Paranoid Schizophrenia, and
Bipolar Disorder."
After
Jennifer was released from the psychiatric hospital, she told the social worker
she was a psychiatrist, and staff at the hospital should have recognized
this. She brought a
"bodyguard" to protect her at a visit with the children, attempted to
take them from the visitation facility, swore and told the children to spit on
the floor. She accused the grandparents
of trying to steal the children and followed them in a car while videotaping
and screaming at them.
Even though
Jennifer was calmer and more rational by the time of the hearing, she never
took responsibility for leaving the children alone, but blamed the police
officer, the taxi driver and staff at the mental health facility. She had not yet engaged in therapy, did not
have any local support and had been evicted from her apartment. Although she appeared to be gaining some
insight, she continued to be aggressive and impulsive. Substantial evidence supports the order
removing the children from Jennifer's custody.
DISPOSITION
The orders are affirmed.
McINTYRE, J.
WE CONCUR:
McDONALD, J.
AARON, J.
