Bear v. Buchanan (Slip Opinion)

2019 Ohio 931, 126 N.E.3d 1115, 156 Ohio St. 3d 348
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 20, 2019
Docket2018-0836
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 2019 Ohio 931 (Bear v. Buchanan (Slip Opinion)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bear v. Buchanan (Slip Opinion), 2019 Ohio 931, 126 N.E.3d 1115, 156 Ohio St. 3d 348 (Ohio 2019).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

*348 {¶ 1} Appellant, Samuel Bear, appeals the dismissal of his complaint for a writ of habeas corpus against appellee, Tim Buchanan, warden of the Noble Correctional Institution. We affirm.

Allegations in the complaint

{¶ 2} On July 6, 2017, Bear pleaded guilty to two counts of rape in the Gallia County Court of Common Pleas. The trial court sentenced him to two eight-year terms of imprisonment, to run concurrently, and designated Bear as a Tier II Sex Offender. He is presently incarcerated at the Noble Correctional Institution.

{¶ 3} On December 13, 2017, Bear filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Seventh District Court of Appeals. He alleged that the common pleas court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over him because he was only 16 or 17 years old at the time of the offenses in 2009 or 2010. The gravamen of Bear's petition is that he was tried and sentenced as an adult without ever appearing in juvenile court for a bindover hearing. Warden Buchanan filed a motion to dismiss. The court of appeals granted the motion. Bear timely appealed.

*1117 Analysis

{¶ 4} R.C. 2152.02(C)(1) defines a "child" as a person under the age of 18. When a child is arrested for a felony or misdemeanor, proceedings regarding the child must initially be held in the juvenile court. R.C. 2152.03. As a result, the *349 juvenile court has "exclusive jurisdiction over children alleged to be delinquent for committing acts that would constitute a crime if committed by an adult." In re M.P. , 124 Ohio St.3d 445 , 2010-Ohio-599 , 923 N.E.2d 584 , ¶ 11. Before transferring jurisdiction to the common pleas court to try an offender as an adult, the juvenile court must conduct a bindover hearing. See R.C. 2152.12(A), (B), and (H) ; In re M.P. at ¶ 11-12.

{¶ 5} However, the exclusive jurisdiction of the juvenile court is subject to the following exception.

If a person under eighteen years of age allegedly commits an act that would be a felony if committed by an adult and if the person is not taken into custody or apprehended for that act until after the person attains twenty-one years of age, the juvenile court does not have jurisdiction to hear or determine any portion of the case charging the person with committing that act. In those circumstances, divisions (A) and (B) of this section [governing bindover hearings] do not apply regarding the act, and the case charging the person with committing the act shall be a criminal prosecution commenced and heard in the appropriate court having jurisdiction of the offense as if the person had been eighteen years of age or older when the person committed the act. All proceedings pertaining to the act shall be within the jurisdiction of the court having jurisdiction of the offense, and that court has all the authority and duties in the case as it has in other criminal cases in that court.

R.C. 2152.12(J). The language of R.C. 2152.12(J) is virtually identical to that of R.C. 2151.23(I), defining and limiting the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. Regarding the latter statute, this court has observed that it

effectively remove[s] anyone over 21 years of age from juvenile-court jurisdiction, regardless of the date on which the person allegedly committed the offense. In other words, the statutory amendments made the age of the offender upon apprehension the touchstone of determining juvenile-court jurisdiction * * *.

(Emphasis sic.) State v. Walls , 96 Ohio St.3d 437 , 2002-Ohio-5059 , 775 N.E.2d 829 , ¶ 14.

{¶ 6} Bear alleges that he was 16 years old in 2009, so there is no question that he was over the age of 21 when he was prosecuted in 2017. Based on these statutes, the court of appeals correctly concluded that the juvenile court had no jurisdiction over Bear at the time of his arrest.

*350 {¶ 7} In his first proposition of law, Bear attaches a different meaning to R.C. 2152.12(J). He claims that the heading of the statute contains the language, "juvenile court loses jurisdiction if child is not taken into custody or apprehended prior to attaining age twenty-one," and argues that the juvenile court cannot lose jurisdiction unless it had jurisdiction to begin with. However, title and section headings "do *1118 not constitute any part of the law as contained in the 'Revised Code.' " R.C. 1.01.

{¶ 8} Alternatively, he argues that the jurisdiction of the juvenile court terminates only if the offender conceals himself until he reaches the age of 21. The plain language of R.C. 2152.12(J) does not support such an interpretation.

{¶ 9} Bear also contends that if the court disagrees with his interpretation of R.C. 2152.12(J), then the statute is unconstitutional as applied to him. Specifically, he claims a due-process right to a bindover hearing because "it is likely that the juvenile court would not have found probable cause to establish that a felony occurred." But Bear could raise his constitutional arguments by way of direct appeal or a petition for postconviction relief, and relief in habeas corpus will not lie when there is an adequate remedy at law. See Gaskins v. Shiplevy , 76 Ohio St.3d 380 , 383, 667 N.E.2d 1194 (1996) ; Freeman v. Maxwell , 4 Ohio St.2d 4 , 6, 210 N.E.2d 885 (1965).

{¶ 10}

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Related

In re R.Z.
2022 Ohio 3630 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2022)
State v. Powers
2022 Ohio 2233 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2022)
State v. Bear
2021 Ohio 1539 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2021)
State v. Loveless
2019 Ohio 4830 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2019)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2019 Ohio 931, 126 N.E.3d 1115, 156 Ohio St. 3d 348, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bear-v-buchanan-slip-opinion-ohio-2019.