L.B.

BACKGROUND

The minor was born in March 2009 as the result of a brief relationship between mother and father. Shortly after the minor’s birth, father visited the minor in the hospital following a Child Protective Services (CPS) referral after mother allegedly warmed the minor near an open oven. The minor was placed in protective custody, father began support payments to CPS, and mother ultimately reunified with the minor. Father visited the minor through CPS and attempted to have the minor placed with him and his wife. But he was arrested in 2009 for evading an officer. Father served nine months in jail, and after being released, obtained a family court order for supervised visitation with the minor. The visits eventually became home visits. Although father denied that his relationship with mother had ever been abusive or that he had ever abused the minor, he acknowledged that prior to the minor’s birth, mother had obtained a protective order against him. Father agreed to a three-year protective order in 2012 preventing father from contacting mother or the minor. It was issued after father’s car allegedly hit mother’s car. The protective order became permanent in 2015. Father said…