In re A.L. CA2/4

BACKGROUND

Jurisdiction/Disposition The jurisdictional and dispositional evidence is not relevant to this appeal. We note only that Mother had a history of drug abuse, and had abused A.’s older brother. Father was a registered sex offender with convictions of, among other crimes, lewd acts on a child. After six-week-old A. suffered second degree burns to his thigh, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) filed a section 300 petition, which the court adjudicated on December 2, 2014. The court sustained allegations under section 300, subdivisions (b) [failure to protect], (d) [substantial risk of sexual abuse], and (j) [abuse of a sibling]. On August 11, 2015, the court terminated mother and father’s parental rights.

ICWA Evidence As to the ICWA issue raised on appeal, the record is as follows.

1 All further section references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code. 2 In the Detention Report filed on October 16, 2014, DCFS reported that the caseworker had interviewed mother and father “regarding Indian [a]ncestry,” and that both stated that they did “not have any Indian ancestry in [their] blood.” However, a week later, on October 23, 2014,…