In re A.K. CA4/2

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

Detention—May 2013

In April 2013, mother gave birth to the child in a hotel room and did not alert

medical or other authorities about the child’s birth. Mother did not seek medical

assistance for the birth, or for the child afterward, because she had an open dependency

case regarding the child’s siblings,1 and feared the child would be removed from her.

1 The child’s siblings, then ages three and one, were detained in Los Angeles County in January of 2012 while mother was incarcerated for assault with a deadly weapon on the father of one of the children. Mother failed to make appropriate provisions for the siblings’ care in that she left them with her own mother (maternal grandmother), who was homeless and lived with the siblings in a vehicle. Although the maternal grandmother fed the children and took them to day care, and although they appeared to be bonded with her, personnel responding to a concerned citizen’s report found the children to be extremely dirty. The car in which they were living had a broken rear window and smelled strongly of urine. In addition, the maternal grandmother [footnote continued on next page]

2 The child’s existence came to…