In re Katrina B.
This case involves a petition by the County of Santa Clara (the County) for disclosure of juvenile dependency records pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 827 (hereafter section 827). The County was a defendant in a federal action alleging misconduct and constitutional violations on the part of County social workers. A mother of four children who had been subjects of juvenile dependency proceedings had submitted a declaration in the federal action, asserting that in the course of the dependency proceedings certain County social workers had made statements violating her rights of association. In its petition under section 827, the County sought access to the juvenile court files in order to be able to counter the contentions in the mother’s declaration in the federal action.
Following two hearings in July of 2005, the juvenile court granted the County’s petition and ruled that the County attorney could examine all files in the dependency cases, but must make copies of the documents he wished to utilize and show them to the court before using them in the federal action. The court included protective orders providing that the documents not be used outside of the federal action.
The mother appealed the order and court reviewed it in an unpublished opinion. Court found that it was unclear from the record before us if the mother’s declaration in the federal case had been submitted to the juvenile court as the factual basis for the County’s section 827 petition. The declaration was not included in the record on appeal, and the court did not mention or specifically refer to it during the hearing. Although the record was later augmented with a copy of the declaration, it was not file-stamped or authenticated in any way. Court therefore remanded the matter so that the record could be perfected with the necessary declaration. However, in order to avoid the necessity of a second appeal and further delay, court proceeded to address the other arguments raised by the mother challenging the disclosure of the juvenile court records, and court rejected all of those arguments. Judgment Affirmed.
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