In re L.B. CA2/3

BACKGROUND

Mother and father are the parents of L.B., born April 2020. Father is not a party to this appeal. When this dependency case began in December 2020, mother lived in Los Angeles, and father lived in Iowa. Mother and father lived together in California from about January 2019 to March 2020, when father moved to Iowa to stay with family. Mother flew to Iowa in March to visit father, for about three and a half weeks, at paternal grandmother’s home. Mother returned to California in April 2020 and gave birth to L.B. In June 2020, mother and L.B. visited father in Iowa. After 28 days, on July 1, 2020, mother returned to California with L.B. The day before mother left Iowa, on June 30, 2020, father and paternal grandmother allegedly would not let mother leave with the baby. Police officers arrived, and mother told them she had hit father in the face with the back of her hand after he had pushed her.

Undesignated statutory references are to the Family Code unless otherwise indicated. In October 2020, the Iowa Department of Human Services investigated the family based on allegations arising from the June 30, 2020 incident. The department found the risk to L.B. was…