In re Briana A.
Filed 6/22/06 In re Briana A. CA2/8
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.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
SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION EIGHT
| In re BRIANA A., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law. | B185729 (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. CK 56296) |
| LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. JOSE I. et al., Defendants and Appellants. |
APPEAL from orders of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Stephen Marpet, Referee. Affirmed.
Joseph D. MacKenzie for Defendants and Appellants.
Raymond G. Fortner, Jr., County Counsel, Larry Cory, Assistant County Counsel, and Kim Nemoy, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
* * * * * *
Jose I. and Juana B. are a married couple who are relatives of the minor, Briana A., and her four siblings. They appeal the orders of the juvenile dependency court that denied (1) their request for de facto parent status as to Briana alone and (2) their petition for modification, pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 388, to relieve Briana from inclusion in a sibling group and return her to their care.[1]
Jose and Juana were the foster parents of Briana and her four siblings for slightly over six months, beginning in mid-January 2005. There was a factual issue below regarding where Briana lived prior to January 2005. Starting in June 2005, after Jose and Juana decided that they wanted to adopt Briana alone, they claimed for the first time that they had provided a home for her, but not her siblings, from the time of her birth until December 2004. That claim was contradicted by all of the other evidence in the case, including statements by the children's mother, their grandmother, another relative, and caseworkers from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (the Department). Except for the belated assertion by Jose and Juana, all of the other evidence before the dependency court showed that Briana lived with her older siblings at the home of her grandmother, Maria, until December 2004.
We conclude that there was sufficient evidence to justify the trial court's rulings that denied de facto parent status to Jose and Juana and denied their petition for modification. Therefore, we affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
The briefing by Jose and Juana mischaracterizes the evidence, by presenting, as actual fact, their version of the facts. To clarify the facts, we provide a detailed factual summary, including all of the available evidence about where Briana lived from the time of her birth until December 2004.
Briana is one of the five children of Marisa T., a current and historical user of drugs. In July 2004, Christopher was six years old; Robert, four; Jasmine, three; Briana, 15 months; and Desiree, one week. The children have different fathers, who are not involved with them or this case.
On July 22, 2004, the Department filed a juvenile dependency petition for all five of the children, after Marisa and Desiree tested positive for amphetamines when Desiree was born prematurely at a hospital. An accompanying detention report gave this information about where Briana resided in July 2004: â€
