M.A. v. Iowa District Court for Polk County

517 N.W.2d 205, 1994 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 118, 1994 WL 234718
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMay 25, 1994
DocketNo. 93-1409
StatusPublished

This text of 517 N.W.2d 205 (M.A. v. Iowa District Court for Polk County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
M.A. v. Iowa District Court for Polk County, 517 N.W.2d 205, 1994 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 118, 1994 WL 234718 (iowa 1994).

Opinion

LARSON, Justice.

M.A. is the mother of a son, Michael, who was adjudicated to be a child in need of assistance. The dispositional order in the juvenile case required the mother to assist in Michael’s placement in a special needs educational facility, but she refused. The court then found her in contempt and ordered her to serve thirty days in jail. The court withheld the mittimus and gave her the opportunity to purge the contempt by complying with the dispositional order and all future orders. This certiorari action followed. We annul the writ.

Michael was bom on November 10, 1982, and was adjudicated as a child in need of assistance (CINA) on April 8, 1993. See Iowa Code § 232.2(6)(c)(2) (1991). In a dis-positional order of May 19, 1993, the juvenile court confirmed the CINA adjudication and ordered the child’s mother to assist in placing Michael in Orchard Place, a special needs educational facility in Des Moines.

This order required the mother to (1) sign admission papers for Michael to enter the Orchard Place program, (2) complete the Title XIX application, (3) fully cooperate with the admissions process, (4) cooperate with the evaluation by making herself available to the Orchard Place staff as requested, (5) maintain regular contact with Michael by phone or letter while he is in the Orchard Place Program, and (6) take all steps necessary to complete Michael’s psychological evaluation with a Dr. Reed. The order provided that a willful violation of these terms would constitute contempt.

Following the dispositional order, a juvenile court officer submitted an affidavit stating the mother failed to complete forms for Michael’s admission to Orchard Place and to complete his psychological evaluation with Dr. Reed. The juvenile court ordered Michael to be removed from his mother’s custody and an evaluation order to be commenced.

On September 1, the State filed an application to find the mother in contempt, alleging she had willfully failed to comply with the dispositional order. The contempt application was delivered to the mother’s counsel and to her last known address. The mother appeared with counsel on September 20 for the hearing. She was again served with a contempt application in the courtroom. The court denied her motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction and her request for a jury. It found her in contempt.

The mother contends that the court erred in (1) denying her request for a jury trial, (2) refusing to dismiss the contempt action on the ground the court lacked “jurisdiction” to order her to perform affirmative acts, (3) failing to provide her with adequate preparation time prior to the hearing, and (4) finding sufficient evidence of contempt.

I. The Right to a Jury Trial.

The mother claims she was constitutionally entitled to a jury because contempt proceedings are quasi-criminal. See Zimmermann v. Iowa Dist. Court, 480 N.W.2d 70, 74 (Iowa 1992). The test is whether the penalty imposed exceeds six months’ imprisonment. Frank v. United States, 395 U.S. 147, 150, 89 S.Ct. 1503, 1506, 23 L.Ed.2d 162, 166-67 (1969); cf. Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 194, 211, 88 S.Ct. 1477, 1487, 20 L.Ed.2d 522, 534 (1968) (petty offenders not entitled to a jury).

This mother contends that, because the dispositional order required her to perform more than one act, she could have been subjected to multiple contempt charges even though only one is involved here. The State’s application contained no request for multiple findings of contempt; it merely asserted that she “has failed to comply with the court order of May 19, 1993.” The application did not itemize the alleged acts of contemptuous conduct, and the State requested imposition of only one six-month sentence.

The Supreme Court has established a rule determining the necessity for a jury based on the actual sentence imposed rather than the length of the potential sentence. In Codispoti v. Pennsylvania, 418 U.S. 506, 94 S.Ct. 2687, 41 L.Ed.2d 912 (1974), it stated, “we plainly cannot accept petitioners’ argument that a contemnor is entitled to a jury trial [207]*207simply because a strong possibility exists that he will face a substantial term of imprisonment upon conviction, regardless of the punishment actually imposed.” Id. at 512, 94 S.Ct. at 2691, 41 L.Ed.2d at 919.

In Taylor v. Hayes, 418 U.S. 488, 94 S.Ct. 2697, 41 L.Ed.2d 897 (1974), an attorney was charged with nine counts of contempt and initially sentenced to over four years in jail. The judge thereafter entered a corrected judgment reducing the sentence to six months. The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled the sentences ran concurrently and sentenced Taylor to only six months in jail. The contemner appealed, alleging he was entitled to a jury trial because a 'potential four-and-one-half-year sentence removed him from the “petty offense” category under Bloom. The Court disagreed, stating:

It is argued that a State should not be permitted, after conviction, to reduce the sentence to less than six months and thereby obviate a jury trial. The thrust of our decisions, however, is to the contrary: in the absence of legislative authorization of serious penalties for contempt, a State may choose to try any contempt without a jury if it determines not to impose a sentence longer than six months. We discern no material difference between this choice and permitting the State, after conviction, to reduce a sentence to six months or less rather than to retry the contempt with a jury. In either case, the State itself has determined that the contempt is not so serious as to warrant more than a six-month sentence.

Taylor, 418 U.S. at 496, 94 S.Ct. at 2702, 41 L.Ed.2d at 906 (emphasis added) (citation omitted).

This mother was actually charged with only one act of contempt. Under Iowa Code section 665.4(2), the maximum penalty would be six months, and a jury trial was therefore not mandated.

II. The Authority of the Juvenile Court.

While the mother argues that the court did not have “jurisdiction” to order her to act affirmatively with respect to Michael’s placement, we consider it rather as a challenge to the court’s statutory authority to do so. The court’s only authority, according to her, was to remove Michael from her custody.

The juvenile court’s order of April 5,1993, provided that Michael would

remain in the custody of his mother under the supervision of the Department of Human Services [DHS] on the condition that he be placed at Orchard Place for clinical evaluation as soon as an opening is available and that he be enrolled and attend daily at Cowles Elementary School.

By the time of the May 19 dispositional hearing, Michael was neither placed at Orchard Place nor enrolled at Cowles Elementary School.

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Related

Bloom v. Illinois
391 U.S. 194 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Frank v. United States
395 U.S. 147 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Taylor v. Hayes
418 U.S. 488 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Codispoti v. Pennsylvania
418 U.S. 506 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Zimmermann v. Iowa District Court for Benton County
480 N.W.2d 70 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1992)
Beauchamp v. Iowa District Court ex rel. Cass County
328 N.W.2d 527 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
517 N.W.2d 205, 1994 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 118, 1994 WL 234718, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ma-v-iowa-district-court-for-polk-county-iowa-1994.