In re Z.S. CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. Z.S. Reports Mother Abused Her Father and Mother, who were no longer in a relationship, had an existing, agreed-upon schedule for sharing visitation with Z.S. Z.S. was visiting Father one weekend in March 2020 when she told him Mother had hit her with a broom, kicked her in the stomach, and pushed her into a wall. Father called the police, and an officer asked Father to bring Z.S. to the police station. Once there, a law enforcement officer interviewed Z.S.— then six years old—alone. Z.S. disclosed during the police station interview that Mother hit her with a broom and pushed her into a wall; she also said this abuse occurred between one to three weeks earlier. The interviewing officer found Z.S.’s answers to his questions about the abuse very vague, and the officer found it significant she responded “I don’t know” to numerous questions (many of which were not open-ended). The officer also presented Z.S. with a broom and asked her to demonstrate how Mother used a broom to hit her; Z.S., however, said she could not. During the police station interview, the officer inspected Z.S.’s back. The officer observed light red marks (described as resembling scratches)…