A.A. v. State
| Decision Date | 27 February 2019 |
| Docket Number | 3D18-963 & 3D18-995,Nos. 3D17-2075,s. 3D17-2075 |
| Citation | 271 So.3d 87 |
| Parties | A.A., a Juvenile; S.F., a Juvenile & N.A., a Juvenile, Appellants/Petitioners, v. The STATE of Florida, Appellee/Respondent. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Carlos J. Martinez, Public Defender, and Billie Jan Goldstein and Jonathan Greenberg, Assistant Public Defenders, for appellants/petitioners.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and David Llanes and Christina L. Dominguez, Assistant Attorneys General, for appellee/respondent.
Before EMAS, C.J., and FERNANDEZ1 and SCALES, JJ.
In these consolidated cases, two juvenile defendants in delinquency cases, S.F. and N.A., challenge, via petition, "do not run" orders entered against them. The third juvenile defendant, A.A., concedes the do not run order entered against her was authorized, but challenges, via appeal, the contempt adjudication resulting from A.A.'s violation of her do not run order. The challenged orders prohibited each respective juvenile from running away from his or her home or alternate placement while a delinquency proceeding was pending. For the reasons set forth below, we deny S.F. and N.A.'s petitions for writ of prohibition (and their alternate petitions for habeas corpus) and uphold the trial courts' issuance of do not run orders in their cases. We reverse, however, the judgment holding A.A. in contempt of court because of procedural and evidentiary problems occurring at A.A.'s contempt trial.
In each of these three cases, the trial court issued a do not run order to a juvenile who was pending a court adjudication and whom the trial court was concerned would not appear for hearing. A do not run order is a species of injunction generally requiring the juvenile to remain in the juvenile's home or placement. In each instance, the juvenile violated the do not run order and, as a result, potentially became subject to a contempt of court judgment. Of the three juveniles, only A.A.'s case graduated to a contempt trial. The trial courts consider a do not run order to be a form of nonsecure detention. See § 985.03(18)(b), Fla. Stat. (2017). The defense in each of these cases argues that the trial court does not hold the authority to issue a do not run order to a juvenile pending a finding of delinquency because no provision of chapter 985 of the Florida Statutes specifically provides for such an order.
On February 14, 2018, the State filed a petition for delinquency charging sixteen-year-old S.F. with (i) misdemeanor battery of her mother, and (ii) misdemeanor criminal mischief by damaging the hood of her mother's car (lower tribunal case number J18-335). When the State filed its delinquency petition, S.F. was also the subject of a dependency case pursuant to chapter 39 of the Florida Statutes (). On February 15, 2018, the trial court conducted a hearing in accordance with section 985.255(1) of the Florida Statutes. At this hearing, the trial court (presiding over both the delinquency and the dependency cases) issued a shelter placement order that released S.F. to the Miami Bridge Shelter ("Bridge").
While the record is not entirely clear, it appears that on May 8, 2018, the trial court entered a "pick up order in both the delinquency case and the dependency case for S.F.'s failure to appear at a scheduled hearing that day."2 With S.F. in custody, the trial court quashed the pick-up order at S.F.'s May 11, 2018 preliminary hearing. At this hearing, the trial court released S.F. to the custody of the Department of Children and Families ("DCF") to be placed in Miami's Rivers of Life shelter. Bridge, the previous shelter, declined to allow S.F. to remain there after an alleged violent incident. S.F.'s case manager advised the trial court that S.F.'s recent history of not following directions and not attending school had led to her removal from foster family care.
At the May 11, 2018 preliminary hearing, the Clerk advised the trial court that, in the delinquency case, S.F. had an upcoming docket sounding scheduled for May 16, 2018, with trial set for July 9, 2018. At the end of this May 11, 2018 hearing, when the trial court released S.F. to the Rivers of Life shelter, the trial court, over the objection of S.F.'s counsel, verbally entered a do not run order from the shelter.3
S.F. then filed the instant petition with this Court challenging the do not run order, seeking prohibition, or, in the alternative, habeas relief. (3D18-963).
On November 14, 2017, the State filed a petition for delinquency charging N.A., a fourteen-year-old boy, with third degree felony grand theft (later changed to misdemeanor second degree petit theft) for allegedly stealing a wallet and its contents at school (lower tribunal case number J17-2334). N.A. was arrested for this crime on October 4, 2017, but the record is unclear as to whether the Department of Juvenile Justice ("DJJ") took custody of him and placed him in detention care, and whether N.A. received a hearing within twenty-four hours of being taken into custody. See §§ 985.25(1), 985.255(1), Fla. Stat. (2017).
N.A. failed to appear for a November 27, 2017 court hearing in case number J17-2334, and the trial court issued a pick-up order. N.A. was arrested on the pick-up order on January 27, 2018, and also was charged with a new misdemeanor for loitering and prowling (lower tribunal case number J18-209B). The State, however, took no action on this latter charge. After being held in secure detention due to the pick-up order, N.A. was released to his mother and the pick-up order was quashed; however, two days later, for a reason not stated in the record, N.A. was custody-released to Miami's River of Life shelter. On January 28, 2018, as a result of N.A. being arrested in the loitering and prowling case, the DJJ, pursuant to section 985.245 of the Florida Statutes, had prepared a Detention Risk Assessment, finding that N.A. was of minimal risk and eligible for release.
N.A. missed another court appearance in case number J17-2334 on March 13, 2018, and another pick-up order was issued. It was quashed on May 15, 2018, when N.A. was again detained. On May 17, 2018, N.A. appeared at a change of custody hearing. The record indicates that a home study had been in progress with the goal of providing N.A. with a new place to live. At this hearing, the trial court informed N.A. that he was being released to a Ms. Gonzalez, the mother of N.A.'s school friend. The Gonzalez family had volunteered to take N.A. into their home. At this hearing, the trial court, over the objection of N.A.'s counsel, issued a written do not run order. The order provided that, if N.A. were to run from his placement in Ms. Gonzalez's home, N.A. "shall serve five (5) days in secure detention for each day [he] is on runaway status." The record of this hearing reflects that N.A. was scheduled for a June 5, 2018 trial in his delinquency case. The trial court also advised N.A. he could be held in contempt of court if he were to violate the terms of the do not run order.
N.A. then filed the instant petition with this Court challenging the do not run order, seeking prohibition, or, in the alternative, habeas relief. (3D18-995).
On August 27, 2015, the State filed a petition for delinquency charging A.A., then a fourteen-year-old girl, with first degree misdemeanor battery of her mother (lower tribunal case number J15-2421).4 She was released to her mother's custody.
At A.A's June 2016 trial, the trial court sentenced A.A. to a diversionary program for domestic violence with substance abuse treatment, a program from which she was expelled a month later. A.A. failed to satisfactorily compete the diversionary program and, on September 8, 2016, the trial court withheld adjudication in A.A.'s delinquency case and gave A.A. probation through her nineteenth birthday. Pursuant to the probation order, A.A. would remain under DJJ supervision, would live at home with a parent or guardian, would complete twenty hours of community service, would be subject to a curfew, would attend school every day, and would not possess alcoholic beverages, controlled substances or tobacco products.
The record reflects that, despite the conditions of A.A's probation, A.A. had a history of going missing and becoming the subject of pick-up orders. On December 21, 2016, A.A.'s probation officer filed an affidavit alleging that A.A. violated her probation repeatedly from September to December of 2016, by not being home, by not attending school, by being suspended from school, and by testing positive for marijuana use. Then, in January of 2017, A.A. was charged with another battery (lower tribunal case number J17-73). On January 30, 2017, the trial court, in case numbers J15-2421 and J17-73, issued a concise, written do not run order. This order required A.A. to "remain living at [A.A.'s] home and/or current placement" and, if A.A. should run, then she "shall serve five (5) days in secure detention for each day [A.A.] is on runaway status."
On March 14, 2017, A.A. was scheduled for a hearing for violating the terms of the probation order entered in case number J15-2421 and for a trial in the second battery case (J17-73). The trial court reset both of these proceedings for April 19, 2017. In the meantime, on March 14, 2017, the trial court issued a second do not run order, in case numbers J15-2421 and J17-73. This particular, written do not run order made explicit that a violation of the order could "result in a civil contempt hearing."5 At the April 19, 2017 hearings on both delinquency cases, the trial court dismissed the violation of probation allegation in J15-2421 and acquitted A.A. of the second battery charge (J17-73).
A.A. remained on probation in J15-2421. From May to November of 2017, the trial court issued and...
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