Orange County Social Services Agency v. Alicia A.

Opinion

RYLAARSDAM, J. Alicia A., mother of Carissa G., born July 19, 1994, appeals from an order dismissing a juvenile dependency petition after a contested jurisdictional hearing. Mother contends the evidence does not support the dismissal. We conclude she lacks standing to challenge the juvenile court’s decision and dismiss the appeal.

Facts

Mother and father divorced in 1996. A family law court awarded the parents joint legal custody of minor; mother was granted physical custody and the court authorized visitation with father.

In early 1998, the parents began seeing each other again. During one visit, father took minor to her bedroom to get her to take a nap. Mother claimed that shortly thereafter minor told her, “Daddy touched my vagina,” but would not give any further details. She told father what minor had said and he denied the incident occurred. Several days later, minor repeated the allegation. Mother contacted father and they agreed to have minor examined by her pediatrician. The pediatrician found everything normal and intact, and did not observe anything suspicious. The parents also took minor to a therapist who handles cases involving sexual abuse.

Father subsequently attempted to take minor for a weekend visit, but mother objected and called the police. Ultimately, father agreed not to exercise his visitation rights. The parents filed ex parte requests with the family law court concerning custody and visitation. When the family law court declined mother’s request to limit father’s visitation, she contacted the Orange County Social Services Agency (SSA).

SSA commenced an investigation, which included several interviews of minor, and filed the petition in this proceeding. The petition alleged father sexually abused minor on one occasion and mother “failed to heed” minor’s complaint “following the . . . incident.” (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 300, subd. (d); all further statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code [734]unless otherwise noted.) SSA recommended the juvenile court declare minor a dependent and proposed a case plan which, in part, required both parents to participate in counseling and complete parenting classes.

Throughout the proceedings, father denied improperly touching minor. After a contested jurisdictional hearing, the juvenile court dismissed the petition, citing the absence of “physical findings” indicating minor had been sexually abused, and the fact “a split situation” existed concerning “what [minor] said and when she said it and what she said to different people [in] different settings” to support its ruling.