In re J.G. CA2/4

INTRODUCTION

E.M. (mother) and C.G. (father) appeal the juvenile court’s disposition order removing the couple’s four children from mother’s care. The family came to the attention of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) after the children’s minor cousin reported that father sent her sexually explicit text messages. The children were detained from father and placed with mother. For the next several months, mother told DCFS that she did not know where father was. As it turned out, however, mother, father, and the children were living together. Mother did not restrict father’s access to the children, and she coached the children to lie to the social workers about being with father. The children were then detained from mother as well. By the time of the jurisdiction and disposition hearing nearly a year after the case began, mother had become more compliant with DCFS, and she had completed most of her court- ordered programs. The court exercised jurisdiction over the children under Welfare and Institutions Code, section 300, subdivisions (b)(1) and (d),1 based in part on a finding that

1All further statutory references are to the Welfare and…