In re L.H. CA2/2

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Mother and Edwin H. (father) are the parents of L.H. (daughter) (born September 2019). Mother and father split as a couple in June 2020, and have been locked in an ongoing dispute over daughter’s custody ever since. In May 2023, the juvenile court exerted dependency jurisdiction over daughter after sustaining an allegation that mother had repeatedly taken daughter to the hospital for forensic evaluations claiming that father had sexually abused daughter (which law enforcement and medical professionals could not substantiate) and had repeatedly examined daughter for evidence of abuse whenever she spent time with father. Because this course of conduct subjected daughter to emotional abuse, including instances in which she would scream and had to be

2 restrained by medical staff during some examinations, the court exerted jurisdiction on the ground that daughter had suffered or faced a substantial risk of suffering serious emotional damage, thereby rendering jurisdiction appropriate under subdivision (c) of section 300 of the Welfare and Institutions Code. The court then removed daughter from mother’s custody, released her to father, and ordered both…