In Matter of Wlp

202 P.3d 167, 345 Or. 657
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 5, 2009
DocketS055687
StatusPublished

This text of 202 P.3d 167 (In Matter of Wlp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Matter of Wlp, 202 P.3d 167, 345 Or. 657 (Or. 2009).

Opinion

202 P.3d 167 (2009)
345 Or. 657

In the Matter of W.L.P, a Minor Child.
STATE ex rel. DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES, Respondent on Review,
v.
W.P., Petitioner on Review.

(CC 07201J; CA A136056; SC S055687).

Supreme Court of Oregon, En Banc.

Argued and Submitted September 18, 2008.
Decided February 5, 2009.

*168 James A. Palmer, Eugene, argued the cause and filed the brief for petitioner on review.

Anna M. Joyce, Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause and filed the brief for respondent on review. With her on the brief were Hardy Myers, Attorney General, and Mary H. Williams, Solicitor General.

BALMER, J.

We allowed review in this case to consider whether the exclusionary rule, under which illegally obtained evidence is excluded from certain court proceedings, applies to a parent's motion to suppress evidence in a juvenile dependency proceeding involving the parent's child. The juvenile court determined that it does not and therefore denied a motion to suppress filed by child's father. The court then found child to be within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court and placed child in the custody of the Department of Human Services (DHS). Father appealed, arguing that the court had erred in denying his motion to suppress. The Court of Appeals affirmed without opinion. State ex rel Dept. of Human Services v. W. P., 216 Or. App. 555, 173 P.3d 841 (2007). We allowed father's petition for review and now affirm.

In March 2007, in connection with a drug investigation involving mother, police executed a search warrant of the home of mother, father, and child. During that search, officers found drugs in the home and on father's person. Both parents were arrested, and the police contacted DHS concerning child. Due to both parents' arrests and the fact that drugs were found within child's reach, DHS placed child in foster care and filed a juvenile dependency petition, requesting that the court take jurisdiction over child. ORS 419B.100.[1] Pursuant to that petition, the juvenile court conducted a jurisdictional and dispositional hearing on May 22, 2007. See ORS 419B.305(1) (requiring hearing within 60 days of filing of petition). At the hearing, father moved to suppress evidence found in the search, claiming that the search warrant was not supported by probable cause. The juvenile court denied the motion because it concluded that the exclusionary rule does not apply in juvenile dependency proceedings. Because of that ruling, the court did not reach the issue whether the search warrant was valid.

*169 After the juvenile court denied father's motion to suppress, father consented to proceed on stipulated facts, and the juvenile court found child to be within the jurisdiction of the court.[2] The court then proceeded to make a dispositional determination. See ORS 419B.325 (after hearing required by ORS 419B.305, court must enter order directing disposition of case). The court made child a ward of the state, placed child in the legal custody of DHS, determined that it was in child's best interest to be placed in foster care, and ordered father to participate in various services, including drug treatment and psychological evaluation.[3]

Father appealed the juvenile court's judgment of jurisdiction, arguing that the juvenile court had erred in refusing to apply the exclusionary rule to juvenile dependency cases. As noted, the Court of Appeals affirmed without opinion, and father petitioned this court for review. We allowed review to consider father's claim that, under Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution[4] or the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution,[5] the juvenile court should have granted his motion to suppress evidence seized in the search.

We begin by describing the statutory basis for juvenile dependency proceedings, because those statutes establish specific rights and duties of father, child, and the state that are central to our consideration of father's constitutional claims. ORS 419B.090 creates the juvenile court and articulates the state policies that proceedings in that court are intended to advance. The state's policy "recognize[s] that children are individuals who have legal rights" and that those rights include "[p]ermanency with a safe family[,]" "[f]reedom from physical, sexual or emotional abuse or exploitation[,]" and "[f]reedom from substantial neglect of basic needs." ORS 419B.090(2)(a). The statute further states that parents "have a duty to afford their children [those] rights" and to remove "any impediment to [the parents'] ability to perform parental duties that afford [those] rights to their children." ORS 419B.090(2)(b). Moreover, if a parent "fails to fulfill [those] duties, the juvenile court may determine that it is in the best interests of the child to remove the child from the parent * * * either temporarily or permanently." Id. In juvenile dependency proceedings, the court is to "guard the liberty interest of parents protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution," including the right "to direct the upbringing of their children," while also "protect[ing] the rights and interests of children[.]" ORS 419B.090(4).

In furtherance of those state goals, the juvenile court "has exclusive original jurisdiction" in any case involving a child "[w]hose condition or circumstances are such as to endanger the welfare of the [child] * * *." ORS 419B.100(1)(c). If DHS determines that a child's condition or circumstances endanger the welfare of the child, DHS files a petition asking the juvenile court to take jurisdiction over the child, and the *170 court holds a jurisdictional hearing. ORS 419B.305-419B.310. If the court determines the child to be within its jurisdiction, the court makes the child a ward of the court. ORS 419B.328. The court then determines whether it would be "in the best interest and welfare" of the child to be placed under protective supervision, and, if it so determines, the court may place the child with the parent (subject to court and DHS supervision) or in some other setting, such as with a relative or in foster care. ORS 419B.331 (describing protective supervision).

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Bluebook (online)
202 P.3d 167, 345 Or. 657, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-matter-of-wlp-or-2009.