J.R. v. State

449 N.W.2d 52, 152 Wis. 2d 598, 1989 Wisc. App. LEXIS 960
Court of Appeals of Wisconsin·Decided October 10, 1989·No. No. 88-2333·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

MOSER, P.J.

J.R. made his initial appearance in answer to two delinquency petitions pursuant to sec. 48.12, Stats. In a December 14, 1987, petition he was charged with party to the crime of operating an automobile without the owner's consent (OAWOOC) in violation of secs. 943.23(1) and 939.05, Stats., and party to the crime of theft in violation of secs. 943.20(l)(a), (3)(a) and 939.05, Stats. A petition filed January 6, 1988, charged J.R. with party to the crime of OAWOOC in violation of secs. 943.23(1) and 939.05 and attempted OAWOOC in violation of secs. 943.23(1), 939.32, and 939.05, Stats.

A chronological dating of the events that took place in this matter is as follows:

1/12/88 A plea hearing was held. A trial court found probable cause that J.R. was involved in the crimes. J.R. denied the allegations and demanded a jury trial. J.R. was placed in secure detention.
1/15/88 At a pretrial conference, J.R. was placed in nonsecure detention away from his home. A psychological evaluation was ordered.
1/29/88 The matter was apparently set for a plea hearing and disposition on [601]*6012/10/88. The nonsecure order was continued.
2/10/88 J.R. retained new counsel so the publicly appointed counsel withdrew. The new counsel requested an adjournment which the court granted. The nonsecure detention order was continued.
2/26/88 The fact-finding hearing was set for jury trial on 3/8/88. The nonsecure detention order was continued.
3/8/88 The trial was adjourned because neither counsel nor the juvenile appeared. The juvenile went to the children's court center, not to the courthouse. A new pretrial date of 3/14/88 was set.
3/14/88 Private counsel sought and obtained permission to withdraw. A new pretrial date was set for the next counsel for 3/17/88. The nonsecure detention order was continued.
3/17/88 New counsel requested, and the court ordered, a competency evaluation of J.R. Further proceedings were set in the matter for 4/5/88. Nonsecure detention continued.
4/5/88 The previously ordered competency evaluation was not completed so the matter was set over to 4/29/88. Non-secure detention continued.
[602]*6024/29/88 The competency evaluation was returned. J.R. was found competent which was not challenged in the tried court. At this time, J.R. refused to waive statutory time limits under sec. 48.30(7), Stats. The fact-finding hearing was set for 5/12/88.
5/12/88 Since the trial court could not hear the case and no other judge was available, the trial court adjourned the matter sua sponte to 6/2/88. The court released J.R. from nonsecure detention to his home. The record reflects the trial court's reason for adjourning the fact-finding hearing as follows:
"We'll alert you as soon as we have the assistance of a spin-off judge. This Court is tied up in a, well, looks like it's probably going to be a seven or eight day trial, we're in the fourth day of it and we'll be getting, I hope, the assistance of a spin-off judge."
After a short recess, the trial judge adjourned the case stating:
"All right. We've been beating on the Chief Judge trying to get a spin-off judge and unfortunately there is no one available. This matter is going to be adjourned because there is one judge and two trials and I hope that's cause under the statutes."
6/2/88 J.R. pled guilty to the theft charge as party to the crime and the State dismissed the OAWOOC charge in the 12/14/87 delinquency petition. J.R. also admitted to the attempted [603]*603OAWOOC as party to the crime charge and the State dismissed the other OAWOOC charge but asked that it be read into the record on the 1/6/88 delinquency petition. After thoroughly questioning J.R. concerning the rights he was giving up, the trial court accepted the plea and set the matter for dispositional hearing for 6/30/88.
6/30/88 At the close of the dispositional hearing, the trial court placed the juvenile on probation for one year with custody transferred to the Milwaukee Department of Social Services and placement at Wyalusing Academy.

It is from this dispositional order that J.R. appeals. The sole issue on this appeal is whether the trial court lost competency to proceed when the fact-finding hearing occurred more than thirty days after the plea hearing as required under sec. 48.30(7), Stats., and if those mandatory days may be tolled by a sua sponte adjournment of the fact-finding hearing due to court congestion.

This case requires construction of secs. 48.30 and 48.315, Stats., which appellate courts interpret with no deference to the trial court holdings.1

Where a citation or petition is contested, the date for the fact-finding hearing must be set by the trial court "no more than 30 days from the plea hearing for a child who is not held in secure custody."2 This language is [604]*604similar to sec. 48.30(6), Stats., which governs time deadlines for dispositional hearings where petitions are not contested. We have previously held that this language was mandatory3 and that a failure to comply with those time limits causes trial courts to lose competency to exercise jurisdiction to hear the petition. We are bound to construe the same language similarly.

Section 48.30(7), Stats., cannot be viewed in a vacuum, however, for purposes of the problems of this case. The problems in this case necessitate looking at the interplay of sec. 48.30(7) with the time tolling features of sec. 48.315, Stats.

Our supreme court has approved a trial court's sua sponte adjournment of a child in need of protection and services where the fact-finding hearing was held beyond the thirty day mandatory period after the plea hearing was held.4 The trial court adjourned the fact-finding hearing in G.H. because the parents' attorney was not present. The supreme court held that the trial court properly adjourned the matter beyond the thirty day limitations pursuant to the "good cause" provision of the tolling statute.5 The supreme court stated as follows:

We conclude that the general requirements of sec. 48.315(2), Stats., control all extensions of time deadlines under the Children's Code. While the enumerated specific circumstances of sec. 48.315(1) are governed by sec. 48.315(2), the statutory list of specific circumstances does not proscribe all other [605]*605grounds for extending time deadlines. A continuance may be granted directly under sec. 48.315(2), Stats.
A continuance under sec. 48.315, Stats., requires good cause to be shown. Measuring by this standard the record made by Judge Perlich at the hearing in this case on January 8,1988, we find that the requirements for a continuance under sec. 48.315(2) were satisfied. We note with approval that Judge Perlich granted the continuance before the time limit in question had expired. We also note that Judge Per-lich stated the issue as whether the time limit would be waived.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

J.R. v. State, 449 N.W.2d 52, 152 Wis. 2d 598, 1989 Wisc. App. LEXIS 960 (Wis. Ct. App. 1989).

449 N.W.2d 52 (J.R. v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

In Matter of JR
449 N.W.2d 52 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1989)