In re Ulysses D‪.‬

Petition for rehearing denied September 8, 2004 CERTIFIED FOR PARTIAL PUBLICATION 1 FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Ulysses was born in 1998 and his sister, Lorelei, was born in 2000. In August 2002, the Department of Children and Family Services (the department) filed a petition under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300 alleging mother Yvonne M. had physically abused Ulysses by hitting him. 2 The court detained the children, but shortly thereafter returned them to mother conditioned on her completing a parenting class. In December 2002, father Walter D., who had been in prison when mother hit Ulysses, was released from prison and moved back in with mother and children. Two months later he was rearrested and returned to prison for an offense unrelated to the dependency proceedings. In the meantime, Glendale police had begun investigating mother and father for taking several photographs of themselves and the children in various states of undress while father was out of prison. (We will describe these pictures in further detail in the Discussion section of this opinion.) Based on the photographs, the police arrested mother and the department amended its petition to allege parents had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior in front of the children, putting the children at risk of sexual abuse. Mother and father pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count each of committing an immoral act before a child and were sentenced to time already served. (Pen. Code, § 273g.) The dependency court thereafter sustained the department's petition. It found mother had inappropriately disciplined Ulysses by hitting him, thus placing him and his sister at risk of harm. It also found parents had engaged in inappropriate sexual activity in the children's presence, which constituted child sexual abuse. The court placed the children with mother under the department's supervision in the paternal grandmother's home. The court granted father reunification services and visitation, but ordered him not to live with his children. Parents and children filed notices of appeal.