In re A.B. CA4/2

BACKGROUND

On October 24, 2022, when the child was six years old, officers from the Riverside

County Sheriff’s Department picked up the child and his 15-year-old half-brother, L.J.,

after mother had contacted law enforcement in the wee hours of the morning to report

that L.J. had taken the child from home the day before and were staying in a motel.

A social worker at the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services (the

Department) took the children into protective custody, and transported them to the

Department’s welcome center, in Beaumont, California. L.J. told the social worker that

he, the child, their 18-year-old half-sister J.V., and their mother lived with the maternal

grandmother until the maternal grandmother’s death (in December 2021). L.J. said

1 All further statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code unless otherwise designated.

2 References to the rules are to the California Rules of Court.

2 mother had not been taking care of them well and he decided to go to a hotel and took the

child with him. It was not the first time that L.J. had left home with the child because he

did not feel mother was taking proper care of the child.…