In Re Zeth S.

Melissa A. Chaitin, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for the Minor.

SILLS P.J.

The remarkable thing about this juvenile dependency case is the diametrically opposite positions taken by the two attorneys who, respectively, have been minor's counsel at trial and on appeal. At the Welfare and Institutions Code section 366.26 hearing (.26 hearing) held in May 2000, involving then-27-month-old Zeth, minor's trial counsel was adamantly in favor of the termination of parental rights. The minor's trial counsel, in fact, led the charge against mother Stacy, usually being the first to object to questions from Stacy's counsel that would have shown that Zeth had a strong relationship with his mother. [1] Zeth's trial counsel was the most aggressive lawyer in the cross-examination of his mother, relentlessly emphasizing that Stacy had had a relapse into taking illegal drugs in March. [2] And in oral argument at the .26 hearing, Zeth's trial counsel confidently assured the court that Zeth's then current caretaker, his maternal grandfather, was "ready, willing and able to adopt."

It is a different story on appeal, where Zeth's independent appellate counsel now supports the mother. In…