In re Athena C. CA4/2

BACKGROUND

I. Family background

Mother and Father are the parents of four children: Athena C. (born in May

2008), Sean C. (born in March 2022), P.C. (female, birthdate unknown), and Michael C.

(birthdate unknown). (We refer to Athena and Sean collectively as “the children”

because P.C. and Michael are not involved in this dependency proceeding.) The parents

were married for 15 years and divorced in Colorado in 2022. The family had a

dependency history in Colorado with substantiated allegations against both parents

between 2017 and 2020.

2 When the parents divorced, a Colorado court ordered custody of the four children

split between the parents, awarding Father primary custody of P.C. and Michael and

Mother primary custody of Athena and Sean. The court reasoned that ordering primary

custody of Athena to Mother was supported because Athena was “aligned with” Mother

and Athena did not have a good relationship with Father. The court awarded Mother

primary custody of Sean because he was still breastfeeding.

Sometime in late 2022, Mother moved to California with Athena and Sean, even

though the Colorado court had twice denied Mother’s request to make that move and…