In re D.T. CA3

Filed 10/15/15 In re D.T. CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Sacramento) ----

In re D.T., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court C078501 Law.

SACRAMENTO COUNTY DEPARTMENT (Super. Ct. No. JD233283) OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

Deborah S.,

Defendant and Appellant.

Deborah S., mother of the minor, appeals from orders of the juvenile court denying her petitions for modification and terminating her parental rights. (Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 388, 366.26, 395.)1 Mother contends the juvenile court abused its discretion in summarily denying her two petitions for modification without granting a hearing. Many

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code.

1

of the facts mother alleged as changed circumstances existed at the time the juvenile court terminated reunification services. As for the new facts alleged, at most they demonstrated changing circumstances, not changed circumstances. Furthermore, mother’s conclusory assertions that a changed order would be in the minor’s best interests are insufficient. We conclude there was no abuse of discretion and affirm. BACKGROUND Three days after she was born, a Sacramento County Emergency Response social worker placed the minor into protective custody because of mother’s drug use and history of domestic violence with father. In April 2013, the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services (the Department) filed a section 300 petition alleging the minor was at substantial risk of suffering serious physical harm, abuse or neglect as a result of the parent’s history of domestic violence; mother’s history of substance abuse dating back to at least March 2005; and mother’s failure to reunify with, and termination of her parental rights to, the minor’s half siblings as a result of her substance abuse problems. (§ 300, subds. (b) & (j).) Father was incarcerated at the time the Department filed the petition. The juvenile court sustained the petition, finding true the allegations that the minor was at substantial risk due to mother’s history of substance abuse and the failure to reunify with the minor’s half siblings. The juvenile court dismissed the domestic violence allegation. In earlier dependency proceedings involving the half siblings, mother graduated from a residential drug treatment program in 2005 and transitioned to outpatient treatment. She had relapsed repeatedly after her drug treatment in 2005, at one point smoking marijuana every two days for 18 months until June 2012. Mother failed to make progress in the reunification services and her parental rights to the half siblings were terminated in October 2006. In this case, mother had a history of drug use and prostitution. The prostitution supported her methamphetamine and marijuana drug habit. Mother admitted smoking