In Re JLK

691 S.E.2d 892
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 16, 2010
DocketA09A2308
StatusPublished

This text of 691 S.E.2d 892 (In Re JLK) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re JLK, 691 S.E.2d 892 (Ga. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

691 S.E.2d 892 (2010)

In the Interest of J.L.K., a child.

No. A09A2308.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

March 16, 2010.

*893 Melinda M. Katz, Thomasville, for appellant.

J. David Miller, Dist. Atty., Laura A. Wood, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.

ADAMS, Judge.

Following a hearing, J.L.K. was adjudicated delinquent for the offense of simple assault. Thereafter, he twice requested the trial court to reconsider, modify, or vacate various orders entered regarding his disposition. On appeal of the denial of the second motion, he raises ten enumerations of error, of which the State concedes all but two.

1. The circumstances of this appeal require that we, as a threshold matter, inquire into our own jurisdiction. See Segura v. State, 280 Ga.App. 685, 686(1), 634 S.E.2d 858 (2006).

The record shows the juvenile court ordered the child detained on September 18, 2008, that a delinquency petition was filed on October 1, and that following a hearing, the child was adjudicated delinquent on October 2. The court gave the child a "suspended short term program" of 30 hours of community service, and ordered that the child receive no more juvenile complaints while on adjudicated status with the court. Yet the court also ordered that the disposition of the case be postponed until further order of the court. As was made clear at the hearing, the court placed the child in the custody of his biological mother despite the fact that the grandmother was purported to be his legal guardian. In that regard, the court entered an order of "conditions of placement" which stated that the child was under the supervision of the Department of Juvenile Justice ("DJJ") but residing with the mother.

On December 22, 2008, the court ordered that J.L.K. be apprehended based upon drug possession and that he be sent to a "Short Term Program" of 60 days based on the original adjudication of delinquency, which program would run through February 20, 2009.

On January 21, 2009, J.L.K. filed a motion seeking modification of the terms of his probation and sentence. He argued that he had "further evidence," including that the mother had said that the child was not welcome in her home, and that it would be in the best interest of justice if the child were allowed to live with his grandmother. On February 5, 2009, the court ordered that the child undergo a psychological evaluation, and a hearing was scheduled for February 11 on the motion to modify. On February 12, the court entered several orders. It first reiterated that it found J.L.K. delinquent. The form order stated that the child should be committed to the DJJ and that the child was to be released into the custody of the Loftiss Regional Youth Detention Center pending placement by the DJJ. Yet the court also entered a protective order requiring the mother to comply with several conditions apparently designed to mandate her cooperation and *894 compliance with keeping the child in school and in treatment, including that the mother "ensure that said child receives [24] hours of supervision by a responsible adult." And the court ordered that the child's sentence to the "Short Term Program" be reduced and that the child be released, apparently into his mother's custody, on February 20, 2009.

On March 10, 2009, J.L.K. filed a second motion to reconsider. This time he asked the court "to hear further evidence" and to reconsider, vacate, or modify the disposition in the case and return the minor child to the grandmother. He alleged that a recent psychiatric evaluation of the grandmother indicated no "psychiatric illness that would impact her ability to raise and care for her two grandchildren," whereas the mother had failed to submit to any evaluation and had not maintained contact with the child. He invoked OCGA § 15-11-70(d) in support of the motion and requested a hearing on the matter, which was scheduled for April 2. The trial court denied this motion on May 27, and J.L.K. filed a notice of appeal on June 22, 2009.

In his second motion, J.L.K. essentially raised two statutory arguments for reconsidering the trial court's order. He argued that his motion was justified under OCGA § 15-11-70(d), which provides that a court "may terminate an order of disposition of a child adjudicated as delinquent or unruly ... if it appears to the court that the purposes of the order have been accomplished." Second, the invocation of "further evidence" in support of the motion, as well as the allegation of new psychiatric results, necessarily raises OCGA § 15-11-40(a)(3), which provides that a juvenile court order shall be set aside if newly discovered evidence so requires. J.L.K. filed a direct appeal from the denial of this motion. We consider whether such an appeal was proper.

At least one case from this Court holds that an appeal from the denial of an OCGA § 15-11-40 motion in a delinquency proceeding must be made in accordance with discretionary appeal procedure because "[n]o subsection of OCGA § 5-6-34(a) authorizes [a] direct appeal" of such an order. See In the Interest of B.S.H., 236 Ga.App. 879, 882, 514 S.E.2d 70 (1999). But recently, that aspect of B.S.H. has been expressly overruled by this Court. See In the Interest of J.N., 302 Ga.App. 631, 691 S.E.2d 396 (2010). Moreover, neither an order denying a motion under OCGA § 15-11-40 nor § 15-11-70 is itemized as being subject to the discretionary appeal procedure under OCGA § 5-6-35(a). "[T]he express mention of one thing implies the exclusion of another." Morton v. Bell, 264 Ga. 832, 833, 452 S.E.2d 103 (1995).

The remaining question is whether the denial of a motion to modify the disposition in a delinquency matter under either OCGA § 15-11-40 or § 15-11-70 is a final or interlocutory judgment. See OCGA § 5-6-34(a) and (b). Subsection (a)(1) of OCGA § 5-6-34 authorizes a direct appeal of the order in this case if the juvenile court's order is considered a "final judgment[ ], that is to say, where the case is no longer pending in the court below."[1]

In deprivation proceedings, it has been held that even juvenile court orders providing for the temporary, as opposed to permanent, legal custody of a child are final orders subject to direct appeal.

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In the Interest of J. L. K.
691 S.E.2d 892 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2010)

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691 S.E.2d 892, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-jlk-gactapp-2010.