Los Angeles County Department of Children & Family Services v. D.E.

[3]Opinion

FLIER, J. In October 2007, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) filed a Welfare and Institutions Code section 300 petition on behalf of then six-year-old A.E. and three-year-old H.E. The father, D.E., and the mother, who is not a party to this appeal, were in the process of divorcing after an eight-year marriage. The parents shared legal custody of the children; mother had primary physical custody and father had visitation rights. DCFS’s petition was sparked by A.E.’s complaint to father that mother struck H.E. with a spatula hard enough to leave a black bruise, a matter that mother admitted. Father, in turn, reported this to the police in a 911 call.

On February 20, 2008, the court entered several orders, only one of which is the subject of this appeal. That is an order directing both parents to participate in DCFS-approved “programs of parent education [and] individual counseling addressing all issues including anger management.” Father appeals from the order directing him to participate in parent education classes and counseling, claiming that this order violates his right to due process. We reject father’s contention and affirm the order.

FACTS

At least five concrete areas of concern emerge from the tangled relationships of the parents, the two children and mother’s boyfriend with whom mother resided together with her children.

First, mother on several occasions struck both children with hard objects, violently enough to leave black and blue bruises. This was so even though mother had participated in counseling and anger management classes. Second, in the hearing held on February 20, 2008, father attributed the corporal punishment of the children to mother’s Korean culture. Father testified on February 20, 2008, that the girl’s mother was not an angry or “explosive” person. Third, father unaccountably went from alarm about the beatings to having no real issues about mother and her parenting at the hearing held on February 20, 2008. During that hearing, he stated that he made the original complaint that brought DCFS into the picture because “more of my anger with the divorce and other issues.” In that hearing, he also admitted that on occasion he hit his daughter with a spatula. Fourth, while at the inception of the proceedings in the fall of 2007 father had voiced understandable concerns about mother’s boyfriend who had a prior conviction for having sex with a minor and who also spoke disparagingly about father to the children, by February 20, 2008, father had no problems with the boyfriend.