In re C.A. CA4/2

BACKGROUND

Father has been in a relationship with mother for about 20 years. C.A. (born 2007)

is their only child together and father’s only child. When this dependency started, the

child was a junior in high school and lived with his mother and father in a short-term

rental.

A previous dependency with the same parties was based on sustained allegations

of domestic violence. The child, six years old when the dependency started in 2013, told

the department that mother either threw a plate at father or pushed him, and father reacted

by pulling her hair, throwing her to the ground, and choking her. The child tried to

intervene, but father grabbed his left wrist and threw him into a chair. Father claimed he

and mother were only yelling until she initiated physical violence by biting his arm. The

dependency lasted from September 2013 to July 2014, and ended with the child returned

to his parents.

In 2013, the department received another domestic violence allegation but

determined it was unfounded after the department lost contact with the family. At the

time, mother had a no contact restraining order against father. However, despite father

2 violating this order, mother…