State ex rel. C.V.

990 A.2d 640, 201 N.J. 281, 2010 N.J. LEXIS 235
CourtSupreme Court of New Jersey
DecidedMarch 22, 2010
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 990 A.2d 640 (State ex rel. C.V.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. C.V., 990 A.2d 640, 201 N.J. 281, 2010 N.J. LEXIS 235 (N.J. 2010).

Opinion

Justice LaVECCHIA

delivered the opinion of the Court.

New Jersey’s Code of Juvenile Justice provides a comprehensive scheme that empowers Family Part judges to tailor dispositions toward aiding and rehabilitating juveniles charged with delinquent acts, while simultaneously ensuring protection of the public from dangerous and/or repetitive juvenile offenders. In this appeal, we consider a narrow sentencing issue that arose in the context of a juvenile delinquency adjudication: an issue that highlights the overarching flexibility of juvenile dispositions and the manner in which that flexibility may be employed to promote the legislative goals embodied by the Code.

C.V. became involved with the juvenile justice system when she was fourteen years old and, over the course of two years, she spent time in multiple state facilities, including temporary shelters, residential programs, and detention centers. A single Family Part judge presided over her case nearly from beginning to end, providing continuity and patience throughout a difficult case. During the court’s management of the matter, after several informal and formal probationary periods failed to curb C.V.’s misconduct, the court imposed a suspended sentence to be served at the State Training School for Girls. Part and parcel of its suspension of the custodial sentence, the court extended probation for C.V. and ordered her to attend a residential treatment program. However, after two residential programs terminated C.V.’s participation and she was charged with additional violations of probation, the court entered a final adjudication of delinquency and directed that she serve her custodial suspended sentence.

The sentencing dispute that arose then, and is our focal issue now, concerned C.V.’s request for credit on her suspended sentence for the time that she spent in the two residential treatment programs. The court awarded C.V. credit for her time in detention and in court-ordered shelter, but denied her request for additional credit for the time spent in the residential programs. Although sympathetic to the request, the court considered itself constrained by Rule 5:21-3(e), which addresses the mandatory [286]*286award of day-for-day credit on a juvenile’s custodial sentence, as interpreted by State ex rel. S.T., 273 N.J. Super. 436, 642 A.2d 422 (App.Div.), certif. denied, 138 N.J. 263, 649 A.2d 1284 (1994). According to Rule 5:21-3(e), the court must award a juvenile credit on a custodial sentence for “time served in detention or court-ordered shelter care between apprehension and disposition.” In the court’s estimation, C.V.’s residential placement was neither a detention nor a shelter care and, therefore, credit for time served was not appropriate.

C.V. appealed the denial of additional credits. Although the matter had become moot because C.V.’s sentence had been completed, the Appellate Division determined that the issue was both likely to recur and one of importance in the administration of juvenile justice. Addressing the issue on the merits, the panel affirmed.

C.V. filed a petition for certification, which was granted. 200 N.J. 207, 976 A.2d 384 (2009). We agree with the Appellate Division that the question raised is one of public importance and likely to recur. See, e.g., Joye v. Hunterdon Cent. Reg’l High Sch. Bd. of Educ., 176 N.J. 568, 583, 826 A.2d 624 (2003) (electing to resolve moot issue of public significance and likely to occur again). Although our decision will not impact C.V., this case provides a useful opportunity for underscoring that family courts have flexibility when imposing sentence on a juvenile subject to a suspended sentence.

I.

A.

C.V. was living with her grandmother in 2005 when she became involved with the juvenile justice system. The many interactions between C.V. and the family court are set forth in detail below. Viewed in their entirety, one cannot help but observe how supremely difficult it can be to identify, for some juveniles, a dispositional result that will secure the rehabilitative goal of the [287]*287juvenile justice system. Yet, that is the task that Family Part judges take on for every juvenile brought before the court: for each, the court endeavors to map the rehabilitative and therapeutic path that will lead the child out of the juvenile justice system. For C.V., that path was particularly difficult to identify.

Beginning on May 11, 2005, C.V. first pled guilty to simple assault and disorderly conduct arising out of an incident that occurred at her high school. A family court hearing officer imposed a sanction of informal probation for one year, requiring C.V. to abide by her grandmother’s rules while she lived in her grandmother’s home. Soon after, however, C.V. returned on a violation of probation for leaving home for twenty-four hours without permission, violating curfew, and disobeying household rules. The same hearing officer referred C.V. to the Family Crisis Intervention Unit for a possible shelter placement, and required C.V. to attend anger management classes and to work with a mentor. Informal probation was continued.

C.V. first appeared before the family court on December 13, 2005, for a second violation of her informal probation. She again had disobeyed household rules and, although C.V. had enrolled in an anger management course as required, she was failing to attend regularly. After spending a week in a shelter pending court review of the violation of probation charge, C.V. was ordered into an Intensive Supervision Program (ISP), and to be monitored via an electronic ankle bracelet.

One month later, C.V. returned to the family court on criminal charges for assault and unlawful weapons possession. C.V. pled guilty to fourth-degree possession of a weapon (knife) for an unlawful purpose, N.J.S.A 2C:39-5(d). The court converted C.V.’s informal probation into formal probation and continued electronic monitoring. The court also directed ISP to provide additional forms of therapy to C.V. and ordered appropriate fines and penalties.

After only another month had passed, C.V. again violated probation, her first violation of formal probation. The violation [288]*288concerned an incident at school. C.V. also had failed to pay the fines and penalties associated with her weapons-possession charge. The court imposed a six p.m. curfew through ISP for thirty days and required C.V. to send a letter of apology to her teacher. Formal probation was continued.

A week later, the court held a hearing on a second violation of probation for multiple curfew violations, failure to attend school, and continued failure to pay fines and penalties. As an incentive to encourage C.V.’s compliance with its orders, the court continued ISP for one week pending disposition of the plea hearing, but promised C.V. that it would eliminate ISP if she complied with probation for the one week. If C.V. did not comply, her probation officer was directed to take her to detention. Before the week ended, however, C.V. again violated the terms of her probation by having alcohol in her bedroom.1 After consideration of the applicable aggravating and mitigating factors for sentencing purposes, the family court sentenced C.V. to sixty days in the Bridgeton Detention Facility.

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Bluebook (online)
990 A.2d 640, 201 N.J. 281, 2010 N.J. LEXIS 235, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-cv-nj-2010.