In Re Alexis M.

California Court of Appeal Mar 28, 1997 No. G019950Published

Before: Sills

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Holding. The court held that an appeal challenging the denial of reunification services is moot when the appellant has been convicted of felony child abuse resulting in the death of another child, as such circumstances render the possibility of reunification services for the surviving child legally and practically untenable.

Issues

Whether an appeal regarding the denial of reunification services is rendered moot by the parent's subsequent conviction for felony child abuse resulting in the death of another child.

Disposition. dismissed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“The appeal is dismissed as moot.”

“the idea of reunification with another infant must be considered as bordering on the frivolous.”

“it would have been, in the wake of the conviction, an abuse of the juvenile court's discretion to have offered Christopher reunification services.”

54 Cal.App.4th 848 (1997) In re ALEXIS M., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.

ORANGE COUNTY SOCIAL SERVICES AGENCY, Plaintiff and Respondent,

CHRISTOPHER M., Defendant and Appellant;

WENDY S., Intervener and Respondent.

Docket No. G019950. Court of Appeals of California, Fourth District, Division Three.

March 28, 1997. [849] COUNSEL

Steven D. Schatz, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Laurence M. Watson, County Counsel, and Dana J. Stits, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Carolyn L. Silva for Intervener and Respondent.

Harold LaFlamme and Linda M. O'Neil for Minor.

[850] OPINION

SILLS, P.J.

After this appeal was filed, the appellant, Christopher M., was convicted of felony child abuse arising out of the death of a four-month-old child. (See Pen. Code, § 273a, subd. (a).) Christopher is now serving a six-year term in Wasco state prison.

In particular, Christopher's conviction arose out of the January 1994 death of four-month-old Alexander M., who, if he had lived, would have been the elder brother of Alexis M., who was born in September 1994. Christopher was arrested for child abuse on November 16, 1994, two months after the birth of Alexis, and was convicted in September 1996. A petition to declare Alexis a dependent of the juvenile court was filed the day of the arrest. Christopher pled no contest to the allegations in the petition, which were based on the death of Alexander.

Christopher filed this appeal from orders made at a six-month review completed in May 1996, arguing that the juvenile court should have found him to be a presumed father at the dispositional hearing in September 1995 and therefore entitled to reunification services. Christopher was accorded presumed father status in March of 1996 and given reunification services then, but the services were terminated again in November 1996, when the juvenile court found, at a 12-month review, that reunification would be detrimental to Alexis. While Christopher had been convicted of felony child abuse arising out of the death of Alexander by November 1996, that fact was not one of the bases of the trial court's decision. (1) After learning of the conviction, this court specifically requested supplemental briefing on the question of whether Christopher's appeal should not be dismissed as moot, or the judgment otherwise affirmed, because of it.

In Re Alexis M.

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SILLS, P.J.

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