In re Scarlett S. CA4/2

FACTS

A. Detention and Petition

In March 2019, mother, who was 37 weeks pregnant, went to the hospital with

abdominal pain and heavy bleeding and reported she had used methamphetamine and

heroin that day. She gave birth to Scarlett by caesarian section, and both mother and child

tested positive for opiates. Mother also tested positive for methamphetamine. She

reported Scarlett’s father also used drugs.

A social worker visited the parents in the hospital the next day. Father said he and

mother had been in a relationship for about a year but weren’t married. He said each lived

with their own families, but he sometimes stayed with mother at her mother’s home and

planned to move in with her there.

Father said he had worked at his family’s furniture business for 12 years, most

recently managing the warehouse. He had prior drug possession charges and had served

2 about two months at a rehabilitation center in early 2019. He learned mother was

pregnant with Scarlett when he was released from the rehabilitation center. He said he

was excited about becoming a father and realized he “needed to return to work and be on

the ‘straight and narrow.’” Nevertheless, he admitted…