People v. Forsythe

43 P.3d 652, 2001 Colo. J. C.A.R. 4195, 2001 Colo. App. LEXIS 1328, 2001 WL 921392
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 16, 2001
DocketNo. 99CA2472
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 43 P.3d 652 (People v. Forsythe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Forsythe, 43 P.3d 652, 2001 Colo. J. C.A.R. 4195, 2001 Colo. App. LEXIS 1328, 2001 WL 921392 (Colo. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

[653]*653Opinion by

Judge METZGER.

Defendant, Renee Marie Forsythe, appeals the district court's order denying her Crim. P. 35(c) motion to correct an illegal sentence. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand the case for further proceedings.

Defendant, who is developmentally disabled, lived with several of her children who ranged in age from approximately eighteen months to seven years. In June 1997, she left two of her sons, ages eighteen months and thirty months, unattended in a bathtub while she talked on the telephone. While thus unsupervised, the younger boy drowned. Defendant was charged with and pled guilty to one count of eriminally negligent child abuse resulting in death, a class three felony, in violation of § 18-6-401(7)(@)(ID), C.R.S. 2000.

In a separate proceeding in juvenile court, defendant's sons were placed in the custody of the Jefferson County Department of Human Services (DHS), and dependency and neglect proceedings were instituted. The district court sentenced defendant to ten years probation and, as pertinent here, ordered her "not to have custody of her children" and to have no unsupervised contact with children under sixteen without competent adult supervision. In addition, the court ordered that she serve a year in the county jail work release program.

Less than a year later, defendant gave birth to her fifth child (RAF). RAF was immediately placed in the custody of DHS, and a dependency and neglect proceeding was initiated in juvenile court,. The juvenile court adjudicated RAF dependent and neglected, finding that "the probation orders in this case caused [RAF] as a matter of law to lack parental care through [defendant's] actions or omissions. See § 19-8-102(1)(b)."

Defendant then filed a motion in this case in the district court requesting clarification or modification of the terms of her probation so that she could have custody of and unsupervised contact with RAF when the juvenile court deemed it appropriate. Following a hearing, the district court denied the motion. Defendant did not appeal that ruling. -

Thereafter, alleging that the juvenile court, rather than the district court, had original jurisdiction over RAF, defendant's juvenile court attorney filed a motion in this case requesting the district court to certify the question of RAPS custody to the juvenile court. Defendant's attorney in her criminal case joined in that motion and expanded it to include allegations under Crim. P. 85(c) that defendant's sentence was illegal because it was contrary to statute and denied her constitutional rights. The motion asserted: (1) the district court was without jurisdiction to adjudicate the custody 'of defendant's children; and (2) the probation order, in effect, prohibited her from bearing or parenting any children during her primary childbearing years, thus imposing eruel and unusual punishment and depriving her of her constitutional rights to privacy, due process, and equal protection. The district court denied the motion, and this appeal followed.

L.

Defendant first contends the district court exceeded its statutory jurisdiction by ordering as a condition of probation that she not have custody of her children. We agree.

Section 19-1-104(1), C.R.8.2000, grants the juvenile court exclusive original jurisdiction to determine the legal custody of any child who is dependent or neglected. L.A.G. v. People, 912 P.2d 1385 (Colo.1996). The Colorado Children's Code, § 19-1-101, et seq., C.R.S.2000, delineates specific procedures that must be followed before the custody of such a child can be taken away from a parent. None of those procedures were followed in the district court. Thus, to the extent that the district court's conditions of probation purported to change the custody of defendant's children, they are void, and the portion of the district court's order denying defendant's Crim. P. 35(c) motion on this basis is reversed.

IL

Defendant also contends the district court abused its discretion and violated her constitutional right to due process by imposing the allegedly overly restrictive probation condi[654]*654tion that she not have unsupervised contact with her children. We disagree.

A court has broad discretion in imposing a sentence. Thus, its decision will be accorded great deference, and only in exceptional cases will the appellate court substitute its judgment. People v. Fuller, 791 P.2d 702 (Colo.1990).

Because a parent has a fundamental liberty interest in the care, custody, and management of his or her child, the integrity of the family unit has found protection in the constitutional guarantee of due process. Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 120 S.Ct. 2054, 147 L.Ed.2d 49 (2000); Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 92 S.Ct. 1208, 31 L.Ed.2d 551 (1972); People in Interest of M.H., 855 P.2d 15 (Colo.App.1992).

Generally, a court may grant probation subject to such conditions as, in its discretion, it deems reasonably necessary to ensure that the defendant will lead a law-abiding life and to assist him or her in doing so. Section 16-11-204(1), C.R.98.2000, In addition to a number of statutorily specified conditions, a court may require a defendant to "[slatisfy any other conditions reasonably related to the defendant's rehabilitation and the purposes of probation." Section 16-11-204(2)(a)(XV), C.R.8.2000. However, when a restrictive condition of probation infringes upon a constitutionally protected right, the condition must also be the least restrictive available to accomplish the probation's legitimate purpose. See People v. Bolt, 984 P.2d 1181 (Colo.App.1999).

Conditions of probation similar to those here have been upheld where the children were victims, or potential victims, of the defendant's - eriminal - conduct, - particularly where the family relationship had provided the opportunity for the past criminal conduct. Nitz v. State, 745 P.2d 1379 (Alaska Ct.App.1987); People v. Wardlow, 227 Cal.App.3d 360, 278 Cal.Rptr. 1 (1991); People v. Hyatt, 18 Cal.App.3d 618, 96 Cal.Rptr. 156 (1971); Jano v. State, 559 So.2d 1270 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1990); Tuttle v. State, 215 Ga.App. 396, 450 S.E.2d 863 (1994); Hardman v. Hardman, 185 Ga.App. 519, 364 S.E.2d 645 (1988), overruled on other grounds by Pender v. Witcher, 196 Ga.App. 856, 397 S.E.2d 193 (1990); State v. Credeur, 328 So.2d 59 (La.1976); State v. Coreau, 651 A.2d 319 (Me.1994); People v. McAllister, 150 A.D.2d 913, 541 N.Y.S.2d 622 (1989); State v. Whitchurch, 155 Vt. 134, 577 A.2d 690 (1990). See generally Annot., Propriety of Conditioning Probation on Defendant's Not Associating with Particular Person, 99 A.L.R.3d 967 (1980).

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Bluebook (online)
43 P.3d 652, 2001 Colo. J. C.A.R. 4195, 2001 Colo. App. LEXIS 1328, 2001 WL 921392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-forsythe-coloctapp-2001.