In re C.S. CA2/3

Filed 11/19/20 In re C.S. CA2/3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 C.S., a Person Coming B299977 Under the Juvenile Court Law.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY (Los Angeles County DEPARTMENT OF Super. Ct. CHILDREN AND FAMILY No. 19CCJP03694A) SERVICES,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

ERICA M.,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Jana M. Seng, Judge. Reversed. Patricia G. Bell, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Mary C. Wickham, County Counsel, Kristine P. Miles, Assistant County Counsel, and Sally Son, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent. _______________________ After declaring 14-year-old C.S. a dependent because his father inappropriately disciplined him, the court removed the child from the custody of his nonoffending, noncustodial mother, Erica M. (mother). Mother appeals contending that the court was not statutorily obligated to remove the child from her custody, and that the findings underpinning the removal order were not supported by substantial evidence. We reverse because the evidence does not support a finding by clear and convincing evidence that placing C.S. with mother would harm the child. BACKGROUND C.S. lived with father and paternal grandparents. He believed that mother died when he was born. However, father told the social worker that C.S. lived with mother in prison for the first six months of his life. The child was sent to live with maternal grandmother when mother was moved to a federal prison that prohibited children. Father took C.S. around 2010. Mother’s burglary conviction the year C.S. was born is her last recorded criminal conviction. She was released from prison in 2012 and began searching for C.S., but the paternal grandparents told her that father and the child had moved out of state. C.S. had no recollection of mother and no contact with or knowledge of his maternal family. He never asked father about mother because the child did not want to cry in front of father. Mother’s whereabouts were unknown when the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) filed a