Filed 1/16/14 In re Athena Q. CA4/1 

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COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT 

DIVISION ONE 

STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

In re ATHENA Q., a Person Coming Under 

the Juvenile Court Law. 

SAN DIEGO COUNTY HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY, 

 Plaintiff and Respondent, 

 v. 

VIRGINIA P., 

 Defendant and Appellant. 

 D064707 

 (Super. Ct. No. J513950C) 

 APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Jean P. 

Leonard, Judge. (Retired Judge of the Riverside Sup. Ct. assigned by the Chief Justice 

pursuant to art. VI, § 6 of the Cal. Const.) Affirmed. 

 Daniel G. Rooney, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and 

Appellant. 
2 

 Thomas E. Montgomery, County Counsel, John E. Philips, Chief Deputy County 

Counsel, and Patrice Plattner-Grainger, Senior Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and 

Respondent. 

Virginia P. appeals the juvenile court's denial of her petition under Welfare and 

Institutions Code section 388 to modify a prior order that removed custody of her 

daughter under Welfare and Institutions Code section 361, subdivision (c)(1). In support 

of her petition, Virginia cited as changed circumstances that she "has continued to 

participate in services comprising [sic] of therapy and substance abuse treatment . . . ." 

The trial court denied Virginia's petition, finding that she failed to make a prima facie 

showing, that she failed to show changed circumstances, and that granting the 

modification would not be in the minor's best interests. 

On appeal, Virginia does not assign any specific error to the court's order denying 

her petition. Instead, she merely "joins in and adopts by reference the arguments 

presented in her opening brief in Appeal No. D064265." Virginia's appeal in case 

No. D064265 challenged the trial court's determination that her daughter was not an 

Indian child under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) (25 U.S.C. § 1921 et seq.).1 

The arguments advanced in Virginia's opening brief in case No. D064265 have nothing to 

 

1 We affirmed that determination in an unpublished decision filed December 23, 

2013. 
3 

do with the order that she challenges in the instant appeal.2 We therefore conclude that 

Virginia has abandoned her appeal of the order denying her petition under section 388. 

(Landry v. Berryessa Union School Dist. (1995) 39 Cal.App.4th 691, 699-700 ["When an 

issue is unsupported by pertinent or cognizable legal argument it may be deemed 

abandoned and discussion by the reviewing court is unnecessary."].) 

DISPOSITION 

The order is affirmed. 

 

AARON, J. 

WE CONCUR: 

 

MCDONALD, Acting P. J. 

 

IRION, J. 

 

2 If Virginia intended for us to construe her current argument to be that a prior error 

on the ICWA determination rendered void the subsequent denial of her petition to 

modify, our disposition of her previous appeal disposes of that contention.