Johanna F., In re, 110
| Decision Date | 29 March 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 110,110 |
| Citation | 284 Md. 643,399 A.2d 245 |
| Parties | In re JOHANNA F. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
George E. Burns, Jr., Asst. Public Defender, Baltimore (Alan H. Murrell, Public Defender and Barbara Kirsch, Asst. Public Defender, Baltimore, on the brief), for appellant.
Valerie A. Leonhart, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore (Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen. and Clarence W. Sharp, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baltimore, on the brief), for appellee.
Argued before SMITH, DIGGES, ELDRIDGE, ORTH, COLE and DAVIDSON, JJ.
The only issue for decision in this case, in which we ordered the issuance of a writ of certiorari to the Court of Special Appeals on our own motion before decision by that court, is whether the Circuit Court of Baltimore City in the exercise of its powers over juvenile causes (the court) had jurisdiction to order, on 26 July 1978, that Johanna F. be committed to the care and custody of the Secretary, Department of Health and Mental hygiene Juvenile Services Administration (the Department), for placement at Elan One, a residential treatment facility in Maine. 1 As we hold that the court had jurisdiction to issue the order, we affirm the judgment.
Johanna was born on 30 August 1959. She came under the exclusive original jurisdiction of the court at the age of 13 years. Code (1974, 1978 Cum.Supp.) § 3-804(a). See § 3-804(d). 2 On 20 September 1972 the State's Attorney for Baltimore City filed a petition in the court showing that she was delinquent for the reason that on the day before she "feloniously, wilfully and of deliberately premeditated malice aforethought did murder (a child) age 3." She was duly found to be delinquent upon a determination that she had committed an act which would be a crime if committed by an adult and that she required supervision, treatment, or rehabilitation. Code (1957, 1973 Repl.Vol.) art. 26, § 70-1(g) and (h). 3
It is no more than fair to say that every attempt was made during the succeeding six years to supervise, guide, treat and rehabilitate Johanna. We give a compendium of those efforts. On 24 November 1972 she was committed to the Department and sent to the Montrose School pending placement. On 28 August 1973 she was placed in the Edgemade Rehabilitation Center, Mountain Home, Idaho. She absconded from that facility on 6 January 1974. She was apprehended and returned to Montrose School on 5 February 1974. By order of 9 January 1975, the court committed her to the Department for placement at Elan One. She completed the initial treatment phase of its program and advanced to "a semi-independent living situation." She became pregnant and the pregnancy was medically aborted. She became extensively involved in the use of drugs. She attempted to commit suicide. In June 1977, she absconded from Elan One.
The following September Johanna was taken into custody in Baltimore City where she was working as a "live-in baby sitter." She was interviewed by Dr. Ivan Laurich of the Medical Office of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City. He opined that she was not in need of institutionalization at that time. She was enrolled in the Maryland Business School for GED/Secretarial Training and placed in a foster home. That placement and several following placements in foster homes were terminated at the request of the foster parents due to Johanna's resistance to abiding by rules of conduct. She was placed at the Youth Hostel, but that "was terminated for creating conflict among the other residents." She again became involved with drugs and her attendance at school was spasmodic. Efforts were made to place her in a psychiatric halfway house with out-patient therapy, but she refused to attend therapy sessions. She "effectively sabotaged" interviews for admission to St. Paul House and Fellowship House with the result that she was not accepted. In April 1978 arrangements were made with an agency to finance an apartment for her provided she attend school and refrain from the use of drugs. Shortly thereafter she failed to comply with those conditions. Her use of drugs increased to the point where all her spending money was being used to obtain them. Frequent complaints were received from the manager and tenants of the apartment in which she was residing about the disturbances she was causing. In May of 1978 she was committed to Springfield Hospital following an overdose of drugs. She was released two weeks later and attempted suicide that same night. Unsuccessful in her attempt to be recommitted to Springfield, she was referred to Second Genesis but was not accepted because of the murder charge.
Other resources being exhausted, Elan One was contacted and agreed to take Johanna back into its program. On 30 June 1978, before this could be effected, she ran away, and a warrant was issued for her apprehension on charges of "being in violation of court order by running away and refusing to cooperate with the court." About two weeks later she was located in Columbia, South Carolina and made another attempt to commit suicide. She was brought back to Baltimore the next day. Upon determination by the court that it was necessary to detain her pending a hearing she was placed in the custody of the department until 18 July on order of the court issued 13 July. On 17 July a probation worker of the Department of Juvenile Services petitioned the court to take action on the matter. At a hearing on 18 July the case was postponed by the court because no parent was present nor had the Public Defender's Office been notified, and by order the same day the custody of the Department pending a hearing was extended to a period not exceeding 30 days.
On 26 July there was a plenary hearing before the court at which Johanna had the assistance of counsel. Testimony was received by the District Supervisor of Committee Programs for the Department of Juvenile Services, the probation worker who had petitioned the court to take action (referred to in the proceeding as a "juvenile counsellor"), a medical doctor and a psychologist from the Medical Office of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, Johanna's mother and Johanna. The judge rendered an opinion from the bench. He found that Johanna was "no longer a hazard to public safety," which he "rejoiced in" as "indeed a substantial development, a welcome development." He also found, however, that Johanna needed "much more rehabilitation," which he deemed "a matter of serious concern." He observed that for a year she had the chance to go back to her mother, but On the other hand, he believed that, on balance, Elan One "did an enormous help," and although it did not solve all the problems in two and a half years, "I don't think you can diminish what the accomplishments were." The judge declared that realistically there were only two alternatives with respect to the current disposition of Johanna community placement or institutional placement. It was the unanimous view of the medical doctor, the psychologist and the juvenile counsellor that community placement was not appropriate in the circumstances. It was the opinion of the medical doctor and the psychologist that institutional placement in other than Elan One "would be a caretaking procedure only," and that, the judge observed, "is what we are not interested in. . . ." The major concern was further steps toward rehabilitation. The order of 26 July 1978 committing Johanna to the custody of the Department for placement at Elan One followed. It set out the basis for the court's action:
WHEREAS, Johanna . . . has been adjudged a delinquent and has been made a ward of this Court at an adjudicatory hearing duly held on the 20th day of November 1972; and this cause having come on for disposition at a hearing duly scheduled on notice to all parties; and the testimony of witnesses and argument having been heard; and the Court having considered the respondent's age and physical and mental condition; the availability and respondent's amenability to treatment, training and a program of rehabilitation best suited to the physical, mental and moral welfare of the respondent consistent with the public interest; the nature of the offense alleged to have been committed or participated in by the respondent; and the public safety; and it appearing to the Court that the best interests of both the respondent and the public would be served by removing the respondent from her present environment . . . .
Johanna claims now, as she claimed below, that the court lacked jurisdiction to order that she be returned to Elan One.
Section 3-804 spells out when the court has exclusive original jurisdiction over a child and when it does not have jurisdiction over a child. It has exclusive original jurisdiction over a child alleged to be delinquent, § 3-804(a), unless that child was 14 years old or older and the allegation to show delinquency was that he had committed an act, which, if committed by an adult, would be punishable by death or life imprisonment, § 3-804(d)(1). 4 It is plain, therefore, that the court obtained exclusive original jurisdiction over Johanna by virtue of the petition filed in 1972. Although the act which she was alleged to have committed would have constituted murder in the first degree if committed by an adult, she was then only 13 years of age. Section 3-806(a) 5 provides:
If the court obtains jurisdiction over a child, that jurisdiction continues until that person reaches 21 years of age unless terminated sooner.
Thus, the jurisdiction obtained by the court over Johanna would continue until she became 21 years old, unless terminated sooner.
Johanna urges that the court's jurisdiction over her terminated under the provisions of § 3-825: 6
(a) Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c), an order vesting legal custody in an individual, agency, or institution is effective for an...
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...3-806(a). "Jurisdiction and custody are separate and distinct." In re Arlene G., 301 Md. at 360, 483 A.2d 39, citing In re Johanna F., 284 Md. 643, 651, 399 A.2d 245 (1979). The order simply placed the children in the custody and under the guardianship of persons who, it is not disputed, we......
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