In re A.F. CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (the Department) received a call from Mother in January 2021. She informed the Department that Father sent her a suicide note via text message two days earlier. Father was subsequently hospitalized on an involuntary psychiatric hold and diagnosed with Severe Major Depression, single episode. During its investigation of the family’s welfare, the Department discovered a history of household violence between Mother and Father. Mother slapped Father with an open hand on one occasion before Minor was born. In another incident, which occurred after Minor’s birth, Father slapped Mother with an open hand and Mother pushed Father; Mother told the Department that either she or Father was holding Minor during this fight. In 2021—during the Department’s investigation— Father grabbed Mother’s arms “really hard,” pushed her, and trapped her in the bathroom. Minor was in the home and may have witnessed the violence because he later told his maternal grandmother that “daddy hit mommy.”

2 The Department filed a dependency petition in March 2021 alleging the household violence and Father’s mental and emotional…