In re A.W. CA1/1

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL

BACKGROUND

Respondent Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency, Children and Family System of Care (Agency) has been involved with this family since at least August 2009, when it filed a dependency petition relating to mother’s and father’s two older children and an older child of mother who is unrelated to father (and who is not the subject of this appeal). The juvenile court sustained allegations that the children were at substantial risk of harm due to domestic violence between father and mother, which included incidents in which father was arrested and charged with abuse; that father and mother both violated a stay-away restraining order imposed as a condition of placing the children with mother after the dependency petition was first filed; and that father had a history of substance abuse, evidenced by several alcohol-related arrests, hindering his ability to protect and parent his children. The children were placed with mother, and services were ordered for father. Shortly thereafter, the minors were detained when the Agency filed a supplemental petition alleging that father was living with mother in violation of the court’s stay-away…