Adoption of X.Z. CA3

FACTS

In December 2009, stepfather filed an adoption request. The request alleged father had abandoned the 10-year-old minor because there had been no contact from father in more than a year. Probation Officer Harmon, while investigating the matter in January 2010, contacted father who was in jail. Father refused to consent to adoption and said he was due to be released soon. Harmon told father to contact the family court if he wanted visitation. Harmon’s stepparent adoption report stated mother lost contact with father when the minor was about three years old. Prior to that time the parents had an informal visitation agreement, which the mother ended when father threatened to take the minor to Mexico. Shortly thereafter, father and another person tried to break into mother’s home. At that time, mother got a restraining order against father and also filed for custody and child support orders. Father did not attend these hearings but did appear at a hearing on visitation initiated by the paternal grandmother. Visitation was denied and mother said father made no further effort to contact the minor. In April 2011, a petition to free the minor from father’s custody was filed. The…