C.C. v. State

831 N.E.2d 215, 2005 Ind. App. LEXIS 1310
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided July 22, 2005·No. No. 49A02-0412-JV-1072·Published·Cited by 25 cases

Opinion

OPINION

SULLIVAN, Judge.

C.C. appeals from the dispositional order following his admission to the delinquent act of disorderly conduct.. He presents two issues for our review, which we restate as: (1) whether the trial court abused its discretion in ordering C.C. committed to the Department of Correction, and (2) whether the trial court improperly imposed costs and fees.

We affirm.

C.C. is a seventeen-year-old male who is in the care of his grandmother. He has a history with the juvenile justice system which goes back many years. The juvenile court had ordered many different types of rehabilitation for C.C., including formal probation, placement at the Kokomo Academy, and placement at the Department of Correction. Following a commitment to the Department of Correction for a handgun offense, C.C. was released on August 23, 2004 on temporary leave and placed in the Going Home Re-Entry Court Program. This program allows youths to live at home, go to school, work, and rehabilitate themselves with counseling and other assistance.

On September 27, 2004, C.C. and several other students got into a fight with another student at Arlington High School. A petition was filed by the State alleging that C.C. was delinquent for committing the acts which would have been two counts of Class A misdemeanor battery and one count of Class B misdemeanor disorderly conduct if committed by an adult. C.C. and the State submitted a plea agreement, which was accepted by the court, that C.C. would admit that he engaged in the act which would be disorderly conduct in exchange for the dismissal of the two counts which would have been battery if committed by an adult. Following this agreement, the juvenile court ordered that C.C. be placed with the Department of Correetion to be sent to the Boys School. It is from this order which C.C. appeals.

The choice of the specific disposition of a juvenile adjudicated a delinquent child is a matter within the sound discretion of the juvenile court and will be reversed if there has been an abuse of that discretion. E.L. v. State, 783 N.E.2d 360, 366 (Ind.Ct.App.2008). The juvenile court's discretion is subject to the statutory considerations of the welfare of the child, the safety of the community, and the policy of favoring the least harsh disposi[217] tion. Id. An abuse of discretion occurs when the juvenile court's action is clearly erroneous and against the logic and effect of the facts and cireumstances before the court, or the reasonable, probable, and actual deductions to be drawn therefrom. Id.

Indiana Code § 831-37-18-6 (Burns Code Ed. Repl.2003) sets forth several factors a juvenile court must consider when entering a dispositional decree. It provides:

"If consistent with the safety of the community and the best interest of the child, the juvenile court shall enter a disposi-tional decree that:
(1) is:
(A) in the least restrictive (most family like) and most appropriate setting available; and
(B) close to the parents' home, consistent with the best interest and special needs of the child;
(2) least interferes with family autonomy;
(3) is least disruptive of family life;
(4) imposes the least restraint on the freedom of the child and the child's parent, guardian, or custodian; and
(5) provides a reasonable opportunity for participation by the child's parent, guardian, or custodian." Id.

C.C. asserts that the juvenile court did not enter a disposition which was the "least restrictive (most family like)" and failed to place him in the "most appropriate setting available" which was consistent with the "best interests and special needs" of C.C. Appellant's Brief at 4. Rather, C.C. argues that the trial court followed a policy in which any juvenile who had been adjudicated a delinquent after being in the reentry program would be sent to the Department of Correction.

In E.L., supra, this court reviewed the situation in which a juvenile court employed the presumption of recommitment of a juvenile to the Department of Correetion after a previous commitment. There, the magistrate's comments revealed that she felt constrained by the court's policy of recommitment and began with a strong presumption in that regard. This court noted that while recommitment may ultimately be the appropriate disposition, applying a presumption of recommitment "runs the risk of frustrating the rehabilitative goals of the juvenile justice system and necessarily shifts the focus away from less restrictive alternatives." 783 N.E.2d at 367. The court then concluded that the juvenile court's policy, which created a presumptive disposition, runs counter to the court's duty to make an individualized determination in each case. Id. After reviewing the facts, this court concluded that the juvenile court abused its discretion in ordering recommitment to the Department of Correction because less restrictive options existed for the rehabilitation of E.L. and recommitment was not in E.L.'s best interests. Id. at 367-68.

When ordering that C.C. be committed to the Department of Correction, the juvenile court stated:

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C.C. v. State, 831 N.E.2d 215, 2005 Ind. App. LEXIS 1310 (Ind. Ct. App. 2005).

831 N.E.2d 215 (C.C. v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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