San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency v. Kent B.

*1131 Opinion

Kent B. appeals the order declaring his daughter, S.A., a dependent of the juvenile court under Welfare and Institutions 1 Code section 300, subdivision (d). 2 Kent contends we must reverse the jurisdictional order because of the ineffective assistance of S.A.’s appointed counsel in not interviewing her therapist, the juvenile court’s abuse of discretion in excluding the therapist’s prehearing statements and limiting her testimony on the ground of S.A.’s invocation of the psychotherapist-patient privilege, and the lack of evidentiary support for the court’s finding that Kent sexually molested S.A. We conclude Kent lacks standing to raise the ineffective assistance of counsel issue, and his other contentions lack merit. We affirm the order.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

S.A. was bom in Trinidad in 1993. Her parents divorced when she was about eight years old, and she lived under difficult circumstances. When she was about nine years old, a neighbor sexually molested her. Her father found out and beat her. In 2003 S.A.’s maternal great-aunt, R.G., and Kent, her former husband, who live in San Diego, obtained permission from her parents to bring her here to live…