In re A.S. CA4/2

I. BACKGROUND

A.S. (born 2020), L.R. (born 2021), and H.R. (born 2023) resided with defendant

and appellant P.S. (Mother) in Hemet. L.R. and H.R.’s father is defendant and appellant

S.R. (Father), but A.S. has a different father who is not a party to this appeal.

In April 2024, plaintiff and respondent Riverside County Department of Public

Social Services (the department) was informed that two of Father’s other children—step-

siblings of L.R. and H.R.—had been removed from Father’s care in Orange County.

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code.

2 Those step-siblings reported that Father sometimes punished L.R. by burning him with a

cigarette lighter. Mother said that although Father did not live with A.S., L.R., and H.R.,

he frequently took care of them while Mother was at work. A medical summary

following an urgent care visit indicated that L.R. had scars on his stomach and on both

legs. Mother gave inconsistent stories regarding those scars, telling the social worker that

L.R. obtained the injuries from getting “wrapped up in dog wire” in the backyard but

telling the urgent care clinic that she did not know where they came…