San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency v. Fidel S.

In this case, a mother took her minor children to Mexico knowing that the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency (Agency) planned to file juvenile dependency petitions on their behalf based on their exposure to domestic violence. The Agency filed the petitions and the juvenile court conducted the detention, jurisdiction and disposition hearings and the six-month and 12-month review hearings in their absence, in the absence of the presumed father and without appointing counsel on behalf of the parents. After the family reappeared in California almost a year later, the juvenile court ordered the children into foster care and provided reunification services to the parents even though there had been no recent incidents of domestic violence.

The mother contends the court erred as a matter of law when it took jurisdiction because she had custody of the children when she left the United States and took them to Mexico. She asserts the court should have held the original jurisdiction hearing when the family returned and then terminated the proceedings at that time because there was no substantial evidence of a current risk to the children. The presumed father maintains…