In re M.D. CA1/1

BACKGROUND

M.D. was born in 2002 to his then-married parents. In 2004, there was a domestic dispute. Father said mother had made a habit of locking herself in a room with M.D. On one occasion, mother would not come out or respond to father. Afraid for M.D.’s safety and angry, father forced the door open. Mother said she hid in the room with M.D. because father had threatened her life. Father was arrested for making criminal threats. Following this, M.D.’s parents separated and then divorced. Mother retained primary physical custody of M.D. Thereafter, both mother and father made numerous reports to Child Protective Services, all of which were determined to be unfounded. Through this same decade, the parents’ family court battle over dissolution issues, including custody, support, and visitation, raged on. Accusations of November and December 2012 In late November 2012, mother reported M.D., then age nine, had been sexually abused by father. Mother and a family friend, who provided acupuncture services to mother and M.D., said they both heard M.D. talk about father putting father’s “pee pee” in M.D.’s “butt.” In a November 26 forensic interview at the Keller Center, M.D. reported…