Danielle A. v. Sup. Ct.

Filed 1/31/07  Danielle A. v. Sup. Ct. CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b).  This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

                        Original proceedings; petition for a writ of mandate/prohibition to challenge an order of the Superior Court of Orange County, Carolyn Kirkwood, Judge.  Petition denied.

                        Juvenile Defenders and Lawrence A. Aufill for Petitioner.

                        No appearance for Respondent.

                        Benjamin P. deMayo, County Counsel, Karen L. Christensen, and Paula A. Whaley, Deputy County Counsel for Real Party in Interest.

*          *          *

                        Petitioner Danielle A. (mother) seeks writ review (Welf. & Inst. Code, §  366.26, subd. (l); Cal. Rules of Court, rules 8.450 & 8.452)[1] of orders issued at the 12-month review hearing, where the court terminated family reunification services and scheduled a .26 hearing to select a permanent plan for mother's four children, all under 10 years of age.  Mother contends the evidence does not support the court's finding regarding the improbability of the children's safe return within the statutory period.  She further contends the court substituted its own subjective standards as justifying its orders, rather than following the legislative mandate established by the relevant statutes.   

                        The case presents an unfortunate situation in which mother's serious physical and mental health issues have contributed to her inability to provide the level of care her young children need to ensure their safety and well-being.  During a previous dependency, Orange County Social Services (SSA) provided comprehensive supportive services to this family, particularly designed to meet their specific and far-ranging needs.  Now, more than one year into the second dependency, the same issues relating to mother's health and attendant neglect continue to place the children at risk.  The juvenile court correctly decided there was no reasonable expectation of the children's safe return within the statutory period, and it was time to move the case forward to a permanent plan.

FACTS

                        This case has an extensive history.  Chronic substantiated allegations of neglect date back to 2000.  A prior dependency was initiated in February 2001, when, due to mother's hospitalization for treatment of blood clots and pneumonia,  SSA detained mother's four preschool age children -- a daughter, Malia A., born in January 1997, twin daughters, Tatiana and Briana A., born less than 11 months later, in December  1997, and a son, Jonah A., born in September 1999.  During the 18 months of that dependency, mother, whose ongoing and often debilitating health problems include bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, obesity, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and seizures, received comprehensive services.  The first dependency was terminated in September 2002 with exit orders regarding the presumed father's (father) visitations.[2]

                        As it turned out, there was little relief in sight.  On two separate occasions thereafter, mother received voluntary family services, but issues pertaining to her health, regimen of prescription drugs, and neglect placed the children at continued risk.  Mother and the maternal grandmother, who shared the residence, engaged in physical altercations and angry shouting exchanges.  The children's attendance at school in 2004 was so sporadic the family was referred to the Orange County District Attorney's Office and the school review board for intervention.  There were also repeated issues involving unsanitary conditions in the home and the children's lack of hygiene.  They repeatedly had to be sent home from school with live head lice, and when mother was told treatment with mayonnaise might be effective, the children appeared at school with mayonnaise in their hair.  Mother reported she was hospitalized 15 times in a one-year period due to her compromised immune system; her prescription drugs left her without strength or energy.  The children confirmed that the medications impaired mother's daily functioning, saying she sometimes fell asleep on her food.  On one occasion, police found the children in the care of an unrelated 11-year-old babysitter while mother attended a doctor's appointment; on another, five-year-old Jonah was skateboarding one-half block from home, out of the family's sight and without any adult supervision.  

                        The unsupervised skateboarding episode, coupled with SSA's discovery of unhealthy and unfit conditions in the home,[3] resulted in the children again being taken into protective custody in August 2005, just short of three years after the end of the first dependency.  Mother had been hospitalized several times that summer for seizures and pneumonia and was, by her own assessment, â€