In re L.B. CA3

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

In light of our disposition, we need not set out the history of the case in great detail. In April and July 2009, the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services (the Department) filed section 300 petitions as to all of the minors in the present case except A.B., who had not yet been born. The juvenile court sustained the petitions as amended, exercised jurisdiction over the minors, placed them in foster care, and ordered reunification services for the parents. After returning the minors to the parents’ custody in 2010, the court terminated dependency jurisdiction in May 2011. In September 2013, the Department filed new petitions as to all six minors, alleging grounds for jurisdiction under section 300, subdivisions (a), (b), and (j). Under subdivision (a) (serious physical harm), the petitions alleged: “a-1 There is a substantial risk that the children . . . will suffer serious physical harm inflicted nonaccidentally by the father . . . in that the father has a history of using excessive corporal punishment on the children’s sibling, J[.B.]. The acts of excessive corporal punishment include, but are not limited to[:] the father holding a knife…