In re O.M.-P CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. Dependency Investigation In addition to O.M.-P. (born in 2014), S.M.-P. (born in 2016), and E.M.-P. (born in 2019), Mother has three older minor children from previous relationships, including M.L.-P. (born in 2007). In early 2020, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (the Department) received information that Father physically abused Mother and that Mother and some of the children were sleeping in a car. Mother told a Department social worker that she and the three youngest children lived with Father for a few months at the end of 2019. Mother and Father were not in a relationship at the time, and she moved into the home on the understanding that Father would be moving out. (A 10-year criminal protective order, issued in 2016, prohibited Father from having contact with

2 Mother.) Father remained in the home, however, and their frequent arguments sometimes escalated to physical violence. Father denied living with Mother and the children in 2019 and he also denied any ongoing domestic violence. The Department filed a dependency petition alleging all six children were at substantial risk of serious physical harm because, among other…