In Re JL

Conrad S. Lee, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Intervener and Respondent.

Dennis Bunting, County Counsel, Azniv Darbinian, Assistant County Counsel, Lori Mazzella, Deputy County Counsel for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Certified for Partial Publication. [*]

MARGULIES, J.

Appellant Adrian L. executed a voluntary declaration of paternity upon the birth of J.L. and lived with J.L. and his mother, Kristi G. (Mother), for the first year of J.L.'s life. When J.L. was 13 months old, Adrian and Mother left without warning on a trip to Mexico, abandoning J.L. with friends. As a result, the Solano County Health and Social Services Department (Agency) detained J.L. and filed a petition under section 300 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.

Within two weeks after J.L. was abandoned, before Adrian and Mother had returned from Mexico, Christopher W. appeared at a hearing and told the juvenile court that he suspected he was J.L.'s biological father. After the results of a paternity test confirmed these suspicions, the court' adjudged Christopher to be J.L.'s legal father.

Because Adrian had been jailed immediately upon his return from Mexico on the basis of Mother's allegations…