Moore v. State

532 S.W.3d 400
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 8, 2017
DocketNO. PD-1634-14
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 532 S.W.3d 400 (Moore v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moore v. State, 532 S.W.3d 400 (Tex. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION

Per curiam.

We grant the State’s motion for rehearing, withdraw our prior opinion entered in this ease, and substitute the following opinion of the Court. -

Appellant, Aaron Jacob Moore, was charged with Aggravated Sexual Assault of á Child. Although he was 16 years old at the time of the offense, ‘charges were not "filed until after his 18th birthday. Because Appellant was over 18 years of age when charges were filed, the State filed a petition for discretionary transfer from juvenile court to criminal district court under Family Code Section 54.02.1 The juvenile court waived its jurisdiction and transferred the case. The criminal district court deferred adjudication and placed Appellant on 5 years’ community supervision. Appellant appealed, claiming that the juvenile court improperly transferred the case because the State failed to show that, for reasons beyond the control of the State, it was not practicable to proceed in juvenile court before his 18th birthday as required under Family Code Section 54.02(j)(4)(A).2 The court of appeals vacated the trial court’s judgment, holding that the juvénile court lacked jurisdiction to transfer the case. Moore v. State, 446 S.W.3d 47 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2014). The State filed a petition for discretionary review, which we granted’ to determine whether the court of appeals’s construction of “the state” in Family Code Section 54.02(j)(4)(A) requires dismissal of a case with prejudice without consideration of the factors for oppressive delay in violation of [402]*402the separation of powers doctrine. We will affirm the court of appeals.

FACTS

The 12-year-old victim reported to her mother and the police that her cousin, who was 16 years old at the time, had been sexually assaulting her for several years prior to her outcry. The police investigation began soon thereafter with the investigating detective requesting reports from Child Protective Services and the hospital where the victim was examined. Because the investigating detective had a heavy caseload and had given priority to other cases, it took her almost two years to forward the case to the district attorney’s office. Due to an error in one of the reports, the detective believed that Appellant was 17 years old when the case was forwarded but in reality, he had just turned 18 years old. Over a year later, the State filed a petition for discretionary transfer of the case from juvenile court to criminal district court. The juvenile court transferred the case, finding that for a reason beyond the control of the State it was not practicable to proceed in juvenile court before Appellant’s 18th birthday. At age 19, Appellant appeared before the criminal district court and pleaded guilty to Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child. He was placed on deferred-adjudication community supervision for five years.

COURT OF APPEALS

Appellant appealed, arguing that the juvenile court improperly transferred the case to the criminal district court because the State did not show that, for a reason beyond the control of the State, it was not practicable to proceed in juvenile court before his 18th birthday. Citing Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), the court of appeals determined that for purposes of Section 54.02(j)(4)(A), “the State” included both law enforcement and the prosecution. Thus, the court concluded that the reasons for the delay that were presented by the State—the detective’s heavy caseload and mistake as to Appellant’s age—were not reasons beyond the State’s control. Moore, 446 S.W.3d at 51-52. The court of appeals held that the juvenile court erred in transferring the case to criminal district court because the State did not meet its burden under Family Code Section 54.02(j)(4)(A). Moore, 446 S.W.3d at 52. The failure to meet this burden deprived the juvenile court of jurisdiction to transfer the case and thus the criminal district court never acquired jurisdiction over the case. Id.

ARGUMENTS OF THE PARTIES

The State argues that the court of appeals failed to consider whether the investigatory delay in this case was unconstitutionally oppressive. The court of appeals viewed the Sheriffs Office and the District Attorney’s Office as the same entity in construing the meaning of “the State” in Family Code Section 54.02(j)(4)(A) and considered only whether the investigatory delays were beyond the State’s control. The State asserts that, under this construction, even when there is justifiable investigatory delay, the State must dismiss its case despite there being no statute of limitation for the offense. The State says that the juvenile court correctly considered whether there was unconstitutional delay in the case and that the court of appeals should have done so also. The State argues that Section 54.02(j)(4)(A)’s requirement of dismissal with prejudice without first considering whether the delay was unconstitutional violates the Separation of Powers Clause of the Texas Constitution. The State says that Section 54.02(j)(4)(A) provides the defendant with the right to not be prosecuted when there was no constitu[403]*403tional violation of his rights. Citing Meshell v. State, 739 S.W.2d 246 (Tex. Crim. App. 1987), the State argues that in Family Code Section 54.02(j)(4)(A), the legislature has deprived the prosecutor of his exclusive discretion in preparing for trial. The State says that, similar to the provision we considered in Ex parte Young, 213 S.W.3d 327 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006), Section 54.02(j)(4)(A)’s deadline (1) disrupts the prosecutor’s ability to perform his duties, (2) cannot be justified as necessary to effectuate a superior constitutional interest and (3) was not contractually submitted to by the prosecutor. Young, 213 S.W.3d at 332. The State asks us to hold that, because Family Code Section 54.02(j)(4)(A) does not incorporate the factors for oppressive delay in dismissing a petition, it encroaches on the duties of the district and county attorneys to prosecute a criminal case, in violation of the Separation of Powers Clause. Finally, the Staté argues that the delay in this case was not an intentional device used to gain a tactical advantage over Appellant as would be required to show a due-process violation.

Appellant argues that the Texas Constitution allows the Legislature to establish courts and to regulate the duties of district attorneys. Appellant says that Meshell is distinguishable because, in the county at issue in that case, the county attorney had a constitutional duty to represent the State, whereas here, the prosecutor’s authority is statutorily imposed. Thus, Appellant argues that the district attorney’s duties are not entitled to the protection afforded by the Separation of Powers Clause. The Legislature established the juvenile court system and enacted Section 54.02(j)(4)(A) to prescribe the juvenile court’s jurisdiction. Appellant says that, even if the district attorney may have a statutory duty to prosecute criminal cases, this should not extend to a juvenile court’s discretionary waiver hearing because the conduct at issue in such hearings is a civil matter.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
532 S.W.3d 400, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-v-state-texcrimapp-2017.