In re A.M. CA2/8

Filed 9/1/16 In re A.M. CA2/8 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 EIGHT

In re A.M., et al., Persons Coming Under B268772 the Juvenile Court Law. LOS ANGELES COUNTY (Los Angeles County DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND Super. Ct. No. DK13283) FAMILY SERVICES,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

A.R.,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Philip L. Soto, Judge. Affirmed as modified.

Valerie N. Lankford, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Mary C. Wickham, County Counsel, R. Keith Davis, Assistant County Counsel, Jessica Paulson-Duffy, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

__________________________

A.R. (mother) appeals from the order adjudicating her three sons, aged 7 to 12, as persons described by Welfare and Institutions Code section 300, subdivision (b), and from the dispositional order terminating jurisdiction and placing the children with their father, J.M.1 Mother contends the orders were not supported by substantial evidence. We modify the jurisdiction order to correct a conceded error, but otherwise affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND The facts are not in dispute. The family came to the attention of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) on August 17, 2015, when DCFS received a referral that mother had abandoned the children with her mother, the children’s maternal grandmother, for several months. Although DCFS concluded that referral was unfounded, its investigation revealed a family in crisis. Mother and the children were living with maternal grandmother. Mother had been suffering from depression since 2010 and, for the past year, had ceased taking her medication and attending therapy. She was depressed, anxious, and worried. Mother was cutting herself; she had cut her wrist with a razor two days before the social worker’s investigation. Mother had tried to check herself into a medical center on an involuntary psychiatric hold, but had been told that she did not meet the necessary criteria. In addition to her mental illness, mother was a substance abuser, regularly using methamphetamine and marijuana. She had last smoked methamphetamine the week before the social worker arrived. Mother did not have a job and was not enrolled in school. She slept at her mother’s house most nights; she spent her days out of the house with her boyfriend. Sometimes she would go away for three or four days at a time; when she returned she would sleep all day. Her untreated depression caused her to always be sad; the children reported that she cried a lot. She did not take care of the children; maternal grandmother took on that responsibility “at all times due to [mother] not knowing much about her children’s care.” It appears that mother’s only contribution to raising the children was to