In re Layla R. CA2/3

Filed 11/20/15 In re Layla R. CA2/3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

In re LAYLA R. et al., Persons Coming B262784 Under the Juvenile Court Law. (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. DK09274) LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

A.G.,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment and an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Marilyn Kading Martinez, Referee. Affirmed.

Claire Abrams for Defendant and Appellant.

Mary C. Wickham, Interim County Counsel, Dawyn R. Harrison, Assistant County Counsel, and Peter Ferrera, Principal Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent. _____________________

INTRODUCTION Mother A.G. appeals from the juvenile court’s judgment finding jurisdiction under Welfare and Institutions Code1 section 300 and dispositional order under section 361 removing her five-year-old daughter, Layla, and two-year-old son, Caden, from her custody. We affirm because the jurisdictional finding and the dispositional order were supported by substantial evidence that Mother’s participation in a conspiracy to smuggle narcotics to her gang-member boyfriend, who was incarcerated in county jail on murder charges, and Mother’s egregiously poor judgment endangered the children and placed them at substantial risk of harm. Short of removal from Mother’s custody, there were no reasonable means to avert harm to the children. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Mother has a five-year-old daughter, Layla, and a two-year-old son, Caden. The whereabouts of Layla’s presumed father, Jesse R., and Caden’s alleged father, Hector G., are unknown. Neither father has been involved in the children’s lives. At the time Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) became involved in this case, Mother lived in a one-room studio apartment with the maternal great- grandparents and the two children. On January 21, 2015, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested Mother and charged her with criminal conspiracy under Penal Code section 182(a)(1). Law enforcement recorded Mother on the phone with her then-incarcerated boyfriend, Travis, conspiring to smuggle drugs into and sell drugs in the county jail. Travis, an active Reseda gang member, was in custody on a murder charge. Mother dated Travis intermittently since high school, and was dating him steadily for about seven months before his arrest on the murder charges. By that point in time, Mother had instructed Layla to call Travis “Daddy,” and Mother had “Travis” tattooed on her left arm. Although Mother denied any knowledge regarding the basis for her arrest to a DCFS social worker, Mother later admitted to the police that she: paid four hundred