C.M.

BACKGROUND

In July 2014, respondent Contra Costa County Children and Family Services Bureau (the Bureau) filed a petition alleging that A.C., aged five months, was subject to the juvenile court’s jurisdiction under section 300, subdivisions (b) (failure to protect) and (e) (severe physical abuse of a child under five years of age). The petition alleged that on or about July 4, 2014, while A.C. was in mother’s care and custody, mother failed to supervise the child adequately and, as a result, the child sustained an unexplained, nonaccidental fracture to her upper left arm. The detention/jurisdiction report filed by the Bureau stated that mother brought A.C. to Sutter Medical Center on July 5, where the child was found to have three breaks in her upper left arm. Father also sought treatment at Sutter that day for a hand injury. Mother gave conflicting accounts to the medical staff, first stating that she left A.C. with an older cousin and later stating that she was with the baby the whole time. A.C. was transferred from Sutter to Children’s Hospital in Oakland. The social worker interviewed mother and father at Children’s Hospital on July 7. Mother recounted that she hosted a…