TW v. State

953 N.E.2d 1120, 2011 WL 3566854
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in TW v. State. Read the opinion of the Court — 2011 Ind. App. LEXIS 1502
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided August 15, 2011·No. 54A01-1103-JV-125·Published

Opinion

953 N.E.2d 1120 (2011)

T.W., Appellant-Respondent,
v.
STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Petitioner.

No. 54A01-1103-JV-125.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

August 15, 2011.

*1121 Mark Small, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Gregory F. Zoeller, Attorney General of Indiana, Ian McLean, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

OPINION

BARNES, Judge.

Case Summary

T.W. appeals the trial court's order requiring him to register as a sex offender for ten years. We affirm.

Issues

The restated issues before us are:

I. whether the trial court had subject matter jurisdiction to order T.W. to register as a sex offender; and
II. whether the trial court properly allowed two psychologists to testify at the hearing to determine whether T.W. should register as a sex offender.

Facts

T.W. was born in December 1991. On June 11, 2009, T.W. was adjudicated to be a delinquent child for engaging in two counts of what would be Class C felony child molesting if committed by an adult. Specifically, T.W. had molested two girls under the age of ten. T.W. was made a ward of the Department of Correction ("DOC"), and underwent counseling both while in confinement and after his release.

On September 14, 2010, the DOC discharged T.W. from its custody. On September 22, 2010, the State filed a petition to require T.W. to register as a sex offender, along with an accompanying motion to have T.W. professionally evaluated to determine his risk of reoffending. On September 24, 2010, the trial court appointed two psychologists, Anthony Flores and Kathi Lange, to evaluate T.W. There is no indication that T.W.'s attorney was served with the petition to require T.W. to register as a sex offender, the motion to have T.W. evaluated, or the order appointing the psychologists.

The trial court conducted a hearing in this matter on February 25, 2011. T.W. objected to the testimony of both Flores and Lange on the basis that counsel had not received the initial notice of their appointment to evaluate T.W., and on the additional basis that communications between Flores and Lange and T.W. were protected by the psychologist-patient privilege. The trial court overruled these objections. Flores and Lange both testified that, despite treatment and counseling T.W. had received, there was a high risk of T.W. committing sex offenses in the future. On February 28, 2011, the trial court entered an order finding clear and convincing evidence that T.W. was at high risk of reoffending and ordered him to register as a sex offender for ten years. T.W. now appeals.

*1122 Analysis

I. Subject Matter Jurisdiction

First, T.W. argues that the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to order him to register as a sex offender. Although T.W. did not object to the proceedings below on this basis, an absence of subject matter jurisdiction is an issue that cannot be waived. See Wayne Twp. v. Indiana Dep't of Local Gov't Fin., 865 N.E.2d 625, 628 (Ind.Ct.App.2007), trans. denied. "Subject matter jurisdiction is the power of a court to hear and adjudicate cases of a particular kind." State ex rel. Camden v. Gibson Circuit Court, 640 N.E.2d 696, 697 (Ind.1994).

T.W.'s claim of lack of subject matter jurisdiction is rooted in his contention that ordering a juvenile delinquent to register as a sex offender is inconsistent with the overall purpose of the Juvenile Code.[1] Specifically, he notes that one of the stated purposes of that Code is to "ensure that children within the juvenile justice system are treated as persons in need of care, protection, treatment, and rehabilitation. ..." Ind.Code §31-10-2-1(5). We have construed this language as meaning that the State's primary interest in juvenile delinquency proceedings is "`the rehabilitation, rather than the punishment, of juvenile delinquents.'" In re G.B., 709 N.E.2d 352, 354 (Ind.Ct.App.1999) (quoting B.L. v. State, 688 N.E.2d 1311, 1314 (Ind. Ct.App.1997)).

This court previously has held that requiring a juvenile to register as a sex offender does "not constitute an additional penalty." K.J.P. v. State, 724 N.E.2d 612, 615 (Ind.Ct.App.2000) (citing In re G.B., 709 N.E.2d 352, 355 (Ind.Ct.App.1999)), trans. denied. T.W. contends that K.J.P. necessarily was overruled by our supreme court's decision in Wallace v. State, 905 N.E.2d 371 (Ind.2009). In Wallace, the court held that requiring an adult offender to register as a sex offender constitutes additional punishment in violation of the ban on ex post facto laws found in the Indiana Constitution, where the offender was charged, convicted, and served a sentence for a crime before the Indiana Sex Offender Registration Act took effect. Wallace, 905 N.E.2d at 384.

As T.W. acknowledges, this court recently rejected in C.E.K., II v. State, 928 N.E.2d 258 (Ind.Ct.App.2010), trans. denied, the claim that Wallace overruled K.J.P. Although T.W. asks us to reconsider the result we reached in C.E.K., we see no reason to do so. As we noted in C.E.K., Wallace did not hold that the sex offender registry is facially unconstitutional, and our supreme court's opinion gave no indication that its holding applied to juveniles attempting to make non-ex post facto challenges to having to register as a sex offender. C.E.K., 928 N.E.2d at 260.

In any event, the Juvenile Code does not absolutely prohibit a juvenile court or court with juvenile jurisdiction *1123 from imposing what might be called "punishment" upon a juvenile. Certainly, a juvenile court may order a number of dispositions that would be "punishment" if imposed upon an adult, up to and including commitment to the custody of the DOC. We also observe that another of the stated purposes of the Juvenile Code is to "promote public safety and individual accountability by the imposition of appropriate sanctions. ..." I.C. § 31-10-2-1(11). The sex offender registry is directly related to the protection of the public. See K.J.P., 724 N.E.2d at 615. To the extent that requiring a juvenile delinquent to register as a sex offender may be "punitive" in some ways, the policy and purposes behind the Juvenile Code do not bar the imposition of such a requirement.

Moreover, whatever the general policy and purposes underlying the Juvenile Code may be, T.W. fails to explain how that would divest a juvenile court of subject matter jurisdiction to issue a sex offender registration order. The subject matter jurisdiction of Indiana's circuit courts "is entirely a creature of the legislature." Camden, 640 N.E.2d at 697 (citing Ind. Const. Art. 7, § 8).

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TW v. State, 953 N.E.2d 1120, 2011 WL 3566854 (Ind. Ct. App. 2011).

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