In re M.F. CA2/8

Filed 9/13/23 In re M.F. CA2/8 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 M.F. et al., Persons Coming B322440 Under the Juvenile Court Law. Los Angeles County LOS ANGELES COUNTY Super. Ct. No. 22CCJP01258A-B DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. MARVIN F., Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from orders of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Tara Newman, Judge. Affirmed. Benjamin Ekenes, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Dawyn R. Harrison, County Counsel, Kim Nemoy, Assistant County Counsel, and Kelly G. Emling, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent. _______________________

The juvenile court sustained jurisdictional allegations that Marvin F., the father of two teenaged boys, M.F. and A.F., had a history of substance abuse, was a daily abuser of alcohol and marijuana, and had mental and emotional problems rendering him incapable of providing regular care of the children. The court removed the boys from father’s custody and placed restrictions on his visitation. The children remained in their mother’s custody. Father challenges the court’s jurisdictional findings and dispositional orders, contending the findings were not supported by substantial evidence. We disagree and affirm. BACKGROUND The family came to the attention of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (Department) on February 21, 2022, when father started a fire on the stove in the kitchen of the family’s home, resulting in father’s arrest on an arson charge. According to the police report, father was outside when the fire department arrived, yelled that he did it, got on a bicycle and crashed into a concrete light post, and was restrained by fire personnel at whom he shouted obscenities and who could smell alcohol on his breath. No one was injured in the incident; the children were not in the home when the fire started, but were outside in the car waiting for mother to return from the house with the dogs. After an investigation, the children were detained from father and remained with mother. The Department made four allegations under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300, subdivision (b). (Further statutory references are to that Code.) Two of them were not sustained: an allegation that father endangered the children by setting their home on fire, and an