Citations
- 37 Cal. App. 4th 721
Full opinion text
Opinion
BRANDLIN, J.
Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services
(DCS) appeals from an order entered pursuant to section 366.26 of the Welfare and Institutions Code,* determining that although the minors Teneka W. (Teneka) and Drake W., Jr. (Drake Jr.), were adoptable, termination of the parental rights of their father Drake W., Sr. (Drake Sr.), would be detrimental to them. The court subsequently ordered legal guardianship instead of adoption.
In 1992, Drake Sr. brutally killed his wife and the minors’ mother, Josephine. He had also physically abused the minors. He is now serving a 12-year prison term for the homicide. The court-appointed expert testified that the minors would benefit more from an adoptive placement than from continued contacts with the father. Nonetheless, the trial court declined to free the minors for adoption.
Facts and Procedural Events
Three weeks after the homicide, DCS filed a petition on behalf of Amia B. (Amia) (the minors’ eleven-year-old half sister), Teneka (age three), and Drake Jr. (age one and one-half), alleging the minors were persons described by section 300 and thus within the juvenile court’s jurisdiction.
The court sustained allegations that the minors had been “periodically exposed to violent confrontations between their mother and . . . father that endangered their physical and emotional safety. Such confrontations have occasionally included the use of deadly weapons. . . . [U On or about June 1992, and on prior occasions [Drake Sr.] ... hit minors Drake [Jr.] and Teneka with a belt and inflicted bruises to minors[’] bodies. Further, minors’ father bit minor Teneka on the neck and inflicted bruises to minor’s neck. Such punishment was excessive and caused minors unreasonable pain and suffering. [