In Re Mariah T.
Petitioner Monique B., the mother of minors Mariah T. and Bryce T., appeals from both the dеpendency court order taking jurisdiction over the children based on allegations of sexual and physical abuse (
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY1
In February 2007, respondent Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) took custody of eight-year-old Mariah T. and her three-year-old brother Bryce T. after their father, Anthony T., reported that Mariah told him she had been sexually fondled by mother Monique B.‘s live-in boyfriend Jason.2 Mariah told a DCFS social worker that for two nights in а row Jason came into her room while she was sleeping, lay down next to her, and fondled her thigh near the crotch area. When she awoke and asked what was happening, Jason put his finger to his lips as a signal that she should keep quiet. Mariah told mother what happened, but mother accused her of lying and dismissed her claims. Mariah and Bryce also reported that mother had whipped them with a belt. According to
Based on this, DCFS filed a petition seeking to have the children declared dependents of the court under
At the jurisdictional hearing, Mariah testified that mother hit her in the back with a belt five times, once because she had lost her jacket. According to Mariah, one of those beatings left her with a red line on hеr back. Mariah testified that mother also used a belt on Bryce‘s stomach and hands on three occasions, once because he would not write out the letter ‘B’ and once because he sprayed mother‘s perfume in his own eye. Mariah recalled that one of those incidents left Bryce with marks on his hands that turned from yellow to purple or red. Mother also hit both children with her open hand several times. The court also considered a DCFS report where father stated he once found a large bruise on Bryce‘s forearm that was changing from purple to dark yellow.
As for the incidents with Jason, Mariah testified that on two nights in a row she woke up to find Jason in bed with her, touching her thigh through her clothes. She described Jason‘s hand as being near her crotch and said she felt uncomfortable and cried when these incidents happened because she believed Jason was trying to put his hand on her crotch. When Mariah told mother what happened, mother told her to stop lying. Father testified that when Mаriah was finally able to tell him what had happened with Jason, she was hyperventilating and was so upset that she urinated on herself.
Mother admitted to hitting Mariah once on the buttocks with a belt and to once hitting Bryce‘s buttocks with a belt because he “was defying direct orders.” Mother minimized the nature of her punishment methods and claimed father had engineered the accusations. In a pre-hearing DCFS report, mother told a social worker that Mariah was a compulsive liar, and at the hearing, mother dеnied that Mariah ever told her about the incidents with Jason.
The court said it believed Mariah and disbelieved mother and sustained the petition. At the later dispositional hearing, the court placed the children with father
DISCUSSION
1. Section 300, Subdivision (a) Is Constitutional
The dependency court took jurisdiction of Bryce and Mariah under
Under the due process provisions of both the federal constitution (
As the parties point out, no published decision has considered whether
The Williams court held that the amendment to
In determining whether a statute is unconstitutionally vague, only a reasonable certainty is required and a statute will be upheld if any reasonable and practical construction can be given to its language. (Alexander K, supra, 14 Cal.App.4th at p. 558, 18 Cal.Rptr.2d 22.) There is a strong presumption in favor of upholding a statute unless its unconstitutionality “`“clearly, positively, and unmistakably appears.“\‘” (Williams, supra, 5 Cal.4th at p. 568, 20 Cal.Rptr.2d 341, 853 P.2d 507.) Some imprecision in statutory language is allоwable and a statute is not unconstitutionally vague if there is some matter of degree in the definition of a statutory term or the words used do not have a universally recognized meaning. Instead, a statute will be deemed sufficiently precise if its meaning can be fairly ascertained by references to similar statutes or other judicial determinations, or to the common law or the dictionary, or if the words have a common and generally accepted meaning. (People v. Roberts (1981) 114 Cal.App.3d 960, 962-963, 170 Cal.Rptr. 872 (Roberts).)
Mother‘s strongest argument is based on
We acknowledge the logic of mother‘s analysis, but believe there is another way to view this legislative omission and uphold
More to the point are decisions upholding the phrase “great bodily injury” against void for vagueness challenges. The court in People v. Maciel (2003) 113 Cal.App.4th 679, 6 Cal.Rptr.3d 628 held that
We do not view the phrase “serious physical harm” as being any less specific than the phrase “great bodily injury.” Neither, apparently, does the United States Supreme Cоurt. In James v. U.S. (2007) ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1586, 167 L.Ed.2d 532 (James), the court considered whether certain Florida state prior criminal convictions qualified for the enhanced sentence provided by the Armed Career Criminal Act (
Finally, the court in Government of Virgin Islands v. Ayala (D.Virgin Islands 1993) 853 F.Supp. 160, held that a criminal statute that applied to persons who placed a child in a situation where the child might suffer mental or emotional injury was unconstitutionally vague because it failed to specify the level of risk or harm required to fall within its terms (
With these decisions in mind, we conclude that the term “serious physical harm” used in
2. There Was Substantial Evidence That Mother‘s Conduct Posed a Substantial Risk of Serious Harm to the Children
Mother contends there is insufficient evidence to support the
The standard of proof at the jurisdictional stage of a dependency proceeding is a preponderance of the evidence, and we
Even if there was not enough evidence to support jurisdiction of Mariah under subdivision (a), mother forgets that the subdivision (b) and (j) allegations were based on the substantial risk of future serious physical harm her conduct posed to both children. The evidence here showed a mother: who hit her three year old with a belt because he would not write out the letter `B\’ or bеcause he sprayed perfume in his eyes, with one incident causing serious physical harm; who used a belt on her eight-year-old daughter on several occasions; who denied and minimized what she had done and attempted to justify it as legitimate corporal punishment; and who dismissed her daughter‘s claim of sex abuse by mother‘s boyfriend and threatened the girl that she would never see her father again if she told anyone about it. Based on this, a reasonable trier of fact was free to reject mother‘s claim that she would no longer use corporal punishment and could conclude that without intervention, the severity of punishment could escalate even further, increasing the risk to Bryce while placing Mariah at risk of serious harm, too. We therefore hold that there was sufficient evidence to assume jurisdiction of the children based on the physical abuse allegations.
3. There Was Sufficient Evidence to Support the Sex Abuse Allegations
The dependency court believed Mariah‘s claims that Jason had twice come to her bed and fondled her thigh and that mother accused her of lying about it. Based on that evidence, the court assumed jurisdiction of Mariah under
Mother attacks the court‘s sex abuse findings on one ground only: there was no evidence that Jason touched Mariah with the specific intent of arousing or sexually gratifying either himself or Mariah.6
The defendant in Mullens was charged with several violations of
4. The Dispositional Order Was Also Proper
The dependency court placed the children with father after finding by clear and convincing evidence that leaving them with mother created a substantial danger to their physical and emotional well-being and that there were no reasonable means to protect the children short of removing them from mother‘s custody. (
In examining mother‘s claim, we review the record in the light most favorable to the dependency court‘s order to determine whether it contains sufficient evidence from which a reаsonable trier of fact could make the necessary findings by
Alternatively, mother did not raise the issue of whether Jason had left the home at either the jurisdictional or dispositional hearings and we therefore deem it waived. (In re Aaron B. (1996) 46 Cal.App.4th 843, 846, 54 Cal.Rptr.2d 27.)
As to the allegations based on mother‘s use of a belt to punish the children, there was also sufficient evidence that lesser measures would not have worked. Mother had denied or minimized what she had done, refused to believe that Jason had fondled Mariah, and threatened to keep father away if Mariah told anyone what Jason did. The court was therefore free to reject mother‘s claim that she would no longer use corporal punishment, and could thеrefore find that removing the children from mother‘s custody was necessary on that ground as well.
DISPOSITION
For the reasons set forth above, the dependency court‘s jurisdictional and dispositional orders are affirmed.
WE CONCUR: COOPER, P.J., and FLIER, J.