In re J.S. CA1/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. Marin County Original Petition In August 2012, Marin County Health and Human Services (Marin HHS) filed a petition pursuant to section 300, subdivision (b), based on conduct of the two-year-old Minors’ mother (Mother).2 At the detention hearing, the juvenile court in Marin County declared Father to be the presumed father and appointed counsel to represent him. The jurisdiction report stated that in January 2010, about two months after Minors were born, Father was arrested for choking Mother. Mother obtained a restraining order that allowed peaceful contact between the parents. Father was back in the home by the following July, and two unsubstantiated reports of domestic violence were lodged four months later. Father was arrested for domestic violence against Mother in March and June of 2011. Minors reportedly had no contact with Father after June 2011, when they were about 19 months old. In October 2012, the court sustained the petition.

2 Mother filed no pleadings in this proceeding and has submitted only a letter to this court indicating her support for Father’s “position and arguments.”

2 Notice of the September 2012 jurisdiction hearing was mailed…