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Date:
October 2001 -
(Download PDF Version)
Topic:
Transferring Cases to Other Jurisdictions
Question: What happens when a youth moves our of your
state's jurisdiction before their sentence is completed? Are you
supposed to contact your local DJJ and somehow get the case transferred
to another youth court or is the case just going to close
without offering accountability?
Is there a need for some kind of mechanism, an interstate
compact if you will, to work state to state with other programs
to ensure accountability?
Responses
from
Coordinators:
Pima County Teen Court
Adelita Grijalva Program Manager
Pima Prevention Partnership
330 North Commerce Park, #160
Tucson, AZ 85745
Phone: (520) 884-8799
Fax: (520) 884-8820
adelita_g@yahoo.com
In Pima County (Tucson, AZ), the probation officer requests
return of the case and the case is staffed with the County
Attorney and they decide what to do with the case from that
point on (i.e. adjusted non-compliant, case referred to court
hearing, etc). From what I could deduce, in most cases, the teen
leaves the state without accountability.
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Osceola Teen Court, Inc.
Angie Martinez Coordinator
2 Courthouse Square, Ste. 3100, Rm 3118
Kissimmee, FL 34741
Phone: (407) 343-2465
Fax: (407) 343-2401
ctadam1@ocnjcc.org
If they have already been sentenced in my court, I tell them
that they can complete their sentence (community service,
essays, etc.) in another state. I will usually adjust their
community service hours to make up for the jury duty they won't
be completing. If they move to another county in Florida that I
know has a Teen Court, I give them the number for that Teen
Court so they can complete their jury duty sanction also. If
they were referred to me and have not been sentenced yet, I make
a call to see if the Teen Court in their county will hear their
case as a courtesy to me. If they move out of state, I usually
refer the case back to the State Attorney's office, and they
will send the defendant a written plea packet to complete. Once
they do that, the defendant will be sentenced in our court, and
then the clerk's transfer the case to another state (through
interstate compact) for supervision.I realize that every Teen
Court has different ways of receiving cases, and different
sanctions, but this is how I've handled it for the past four
years.
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Flagler County Teen Court
Marian Irvin Teen Court Coordinator
c/o Clerk's Office
201 East Moody Blvd., Room 138 P.O. Box 787
Bunnell, FL 32110
Phone: (386) 437-7407
Fax: (386) 586-2116
mirvin@clerk.co.flagler.fl.us
If there is a program in the area the youth moves to I transfer
to that program. If there isn't to try to maintain some
accountability, jury duties are converted into community service
hours so they can be done where the youth is, otherwise what can
you do? That or return to referring agency for them to process
as they see fit. Being in FL it would be great to have some type
of mechanism in place for this type of situation.
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Cathy Beaty
Northwest Youth Services
P. O. Box 5447 1020 N. State Street
Bellingham, WA 98226
Phone: (360) 734-9862 ext 130
Fax: (360) 734-4720
cathyb-nwys@uswest.net
Our practice has been that the case gets returned to our
Prosecuting Attorney's office with the information that this
person has not completed their contract due to a move out of
jurisdiction. We provide them with new address and it is up to
our PA if they choose to forward the case to the new
jurisdiction or to close it out as failed and not deal with it.
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Capitol Area Teen Court
Jill Harris Teen Court Coordinator
P.O. Box 724
Raleigh, NC 27602
Phone: (919) 856-5671
Fax: (919) 856-5673
jillharris@co.wake.nc.us
I have transferred cases within the state and out of state.
Usually within the state I call the coordinator and let them
know what is going on. If the youth has gone to court in my
county and is halfway through with the sentence I will leave
them open and the other county will assist the family setting up
contacts etc. If I have not had the chance to meet with the
family I check with the referral source to see if it would be
okay to transfer the case to another county or out of state. If
it is okay I leave them open on my caseload and follow up with
the coordinator on a biweekly basis. Then when they finish the
sentence I notify the referring agent in my county. I think
having an official document that all Teen Courts could use or
fill out when transferring would be great. Now, if the other
county or state does not take the age or the offense I will send
it back to the referring agent because there is nothing we can
do with it at this point. Most of the time I find that if the
case came from Juvenile Court they are more than happy to have
the case transfer within Teen Courts rather the Juvenile Court
system. Back to top
North Star Youth Court
Wendy Leach Executive Director
800 Cushman Street
Fairbanks, AK 99654
Phone: (907) 457-6792
Fax: (907) 457-6791
nsyc@mosquitonet.com
I have been challenged with this situation twice in the last 6
month. At one point NSYC was asked to accept a case from another
state. The youth in this case had no contact with the
originating state's youth (teen) court whatsoever. She had been
cited for an Assault by a school resource officer, and was
scheduled to fly to AK for the summer. We accepted the case and
heard it in AK. We were challenged with this particular case as
the youth was hearing impaired. It worked however! We have an
adult ASL interpreter, and were able to assign an attorney who
is also fluent in ASL. This client completed her sentence and we
reported back to the originating state. Now, I need to note that
our adult volunteer legal advisor had many concerns about
jurisdiction issues. The more recent situation involved a youth that was moving from
AK to another state. I spoke with our local DJJ supervisor who
explained that we could not provide any backing for graduated
sanctions should the case be heard by another teen court in
another state and the youth refused to participate or did not
complete. I made contact with the out-of-state teen court, and
the director was open to presenting the possibility of
transferring the case. She needed to contact her local judge who
oversees the teen court, and unfortunately this person was not
available until after the youth was scheduled to leave our
State. My plan, had this not been the case, was to arrange an
intake with the youth, explain our local youth court process and
that which was in place at the destination state. The Director
of the out-of-state court was willing to draw-up an appropriate
contract that I would have had him and his guardian sign prior
to leaving AK. The director of the other court and I agreed that
our goal was to hold the youth accountable. As time did not
permit, I am guessing that this case will be closed in AK based
on the fact that the minor is not available.
I am willing to engage in discussions about
interstate compacts with youth courts, if this is possible. Many
questions and concerns will arise as to jurisdiction issues,
differences in court processes, etc.
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Dixie County Teen Court
Christy Keen Director
P.O. Box 1180
Cross City, FL 32628
Phone: (352) 498-1263
Fax: (352) 498-1404
Keen_chr@dixie.k12.fl.us
Personally, I wish there were some sort of national database
where we could access various information about defendants, as
well as send/document information for other districts/states to
access. I try to find out if the other county has a Teen Court
or similar program and if they do I send the case on to them. If
they don't I contact the school and/or DJJ. You just never know
what resources the other county may have available to help
"your" kid. Certainly, the defendant should remain accountable
and face the consequences of his/her actions, but the reality of
that is so hard to accomplish. As we all have seen in the past,
the communication/information barriers only hurt the juvenile in
the long run. We think, here in our small & economically
challenged county, that there must be a sign on the highway
somewhere that says "If you are a juvenile and have a prior
record, large or small, __________ county is the place to go,
where no one will ever find out and if by some chance they do,
there are limited resources to deal with you!". Sorry, but we
get kids from all over and truly we wonder how they've found us,
we have enough problems dealing with the kids we already have
and getting them the resources they need. I'm sure most of you
feel the same frustration at times. I do wish we could
communicate across the counties/states, because I feel that it
would help us to really help "our" kids"!
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Keller, Halton City, Watauga Teen Court
Leslie Comeaux Teen Court Coordinator
7101 Whitley Road
Watauga, TX 76148
Phone: (817) 514-5823
Fax: (817) 281-1191
Lcomeaux47@hotmail.com
If they move to an area that has a teen court then we try to
transfer the hours there. If they move out of state etc. then
the ticket is returned to municipal court and the fines are due.
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Youth Alternatives Court/5th Judicial District
Trish Borresen Youth Court Administrator
P.O. Box 22
Jerome, ID 83338
Phone: (208) 324-6890
Fax: 208 324-2016
youthcrt@northrim.net
In response to your question - If the individual has contacted
me prior to leaving, we set up special arrangements for he/she
to comply with sentencing set by our youth court. However, it is
still the defendant’s responsibility to make all arrangements to
complete their sentence with the community resources in their
new location. If they do not contact me and just leave, their
case is automatically sent back to Magistrate court with a
notice of non-compliance.
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Family Services Youth Court
Kathleen LaPlant Coordinator
Family Services
P. O. Box 22308
Green Bay, WI 54305-2308
Phone: (920) 436-4360
Fax: (920) 432-5966
teencourt@familyservicesnew.org
If the offender's sentence consists of community service, or
school service. you could talk to an agency which provides
volunteer/community service work where he or she is now living
to see if they can provide assistance. Also the new school to
which he or she is going may provide assistance. Maybe the
sentencing options could be substituted with something that
could be in mail or e-mail form.
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Union County Teen Court
Benjamin Morgan Coordinator
Union County Juvenile Department
1102 K Avenue
La Grande, OR 97850
Phone: (541) 963-1012
Fax: (541) 963-1038
bmorgan@union-county.org
I contact the local Juvenile Dept and inquire re: existence of
Youth Court in the area. I then request courtesy supervision by
Jury Dept and/or Youth Court.
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Lakewood Teen Court
Shauna Moore Teen Court Coordinator
City of Lakewood
445 South Allison Parkway
Lakewood, CO 80226
Phone: (303) 987-7440
Fax: (303) 987-7470
shaunam@lakewood.org
Yes I have and basically it is the honor system with the
defendant and parents. I have had kids do jury duty for other
teen courts to satisfy their jury duty requirement. I have also
had them write a paper or do extra community service in lieu of
the jury duty.
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Duncanville Teen Court
Olivia Harrington Teen Court Coordinator
P.O. Box 380280
Duncanville, TX 75138-0280
Phone: (972) 780-5063
Fax: (972) 780-6463
oharrington@ci.duncanville.tx.us
In Texas we may transfer cases to another Teen Court. Some of us
have developed a form to use. See attached. We transfer whole
cases, community service, and jury duties. What ever it takes to
get the teen complete.
We have also agreed to allow the teen to follow the rules of the
Teen Court where they are going, i.e., range of hours, jury
duties, etc.
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Franklin County Teen Court
Jeanie Lyles-Mitchell State Coordinator
c/o AOC
100 Millcreek Park
Frankfort, KY 40601
Phone: (502) 573-2350
jeaniel@mail.aoc.state.ky.us
Our teen court in Danville, Kentucky received a transfer case
from Indiana last year. Since I supervise all teen courts in
Kentucky the coordinator in Indiana simply called me and we had
the case transferred here and completed here.
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Sacramento Youth Peer Court
Debby Barris
2239 "A" Chase Drive
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670
Phone: (916) 363-9402
Fax: (916) 363-9402
peercourt@earthlink.net
We are responding to your question regarding the transfer of
cases from one jurisdiction to another. Our case involved a
juvenile caught up in a custody battle that originated in
another county. When it became evident that she would not
complete her youth court sanctions before leaving the
jurisdiction of SYPC, we contacted the Sacramento County
Juvenile Probation Department (our referring government agency)
and the youth court in the county where her custodial
parent/guardian resided. Both the probation department and the
youth court agreed that it was in the best interest of this
young person to monitor her in one county thereby allowing her
to complete in this county. She successfully completed the
program four months later.
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Elkhart County Teen Court Program
Tracy Bullock Teen Court Coordinator
222 Middlebury Street
Elkhart, IN 46516
Phone: (219) 294-3549
Fax: (219) 293-1630
caleb55@juno.com
I am responding to the question regarding the
youth moving out of state either during or after a sentence. I
have experienced both. In the case of a youth that is to
complete sentence that is moving, I have rushed them through and
it has worked so far. I have had 6 youth move out of state after
their offense, but before the referral to Teen Court so far this
year. The Elkhart County Juvenile Court requested me to attempt
to find a Teen Court in the youth's new jurisdiction. In three
cases, I was successful in doing this. In three cases, I was
unable to get a Teen Court to respond. For the three that
worked, I simply stayed in contact with the "new" Teen Court and
reported back to our Juvenile Court the status of the youth.
Luckily, all three completed their sentences successfully. The
other three cases were sent back to Juvenile Court as
unsuccessful attempts.
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Bethel Teen Court
Bruce Steinmetz
Program Supervisor /City of Eugene
870 Berntzen Road
Eugene, OR 97402
Phone: (541) 682-6376
Fax: (541) 682-8192
bruce.h.steinmetz@ci.eugene.or.us
If a youth moves to a jurisdiction within Oregon that has a
youth court, we would likely arrange to have the youth complete
his/her sentence through the peer court in that community. Our
statewide peer court organization, the Oregon Youth Court
Association, will help provide contacts for such a transfer.
Teen courts here are very good about working with each other in
those situations. If the youth moves to another state (or a
place with no youth court) we have two options: If completion of
the sentence was a relatively simple matter, such as finishing
community service hours, we would probably put the
responsibility on the youth to arrange and document those hours
at the new location. If the case was just beginning, or too
difficult to oversee long distance, or if the family did not
express a willingness to continue with the obligations, we would
refer the case back to our local Department of Youth Services.
For the types of infractions we handle, I don't think the DYS
here would attempt to pursue the case across state lines.
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Irving Teen Court
Jean Griffin
Coordinator
City of Irving
P.O. Box 152288
Irving, TX 75015-2288
Phone: (972) 721-3601
Fax: (972) 721-2389
jgriffin@ci.irving.tx.us
In our court, when the case comes to us, our municipal judges
know that we shall follow up on hours worked, whether they are
worked locally or someplace else. If a teen is visiting our
community and wants to have the case transferred to his home
city/county/state and there is a TC program available, we check
w/that program and allow the transfer. When the teen completes
the "sentence", that court confirms and we have the case
dismissed here. If there is no TC involved, just someone who
moved prior to completing service, we allow them (w/their
parent) to find a non-profit agency in which to work and give us
a written report that the hours were done. (We often call and
talk to the agency to be certain everyone is on the same page.)
The state statutes in Texas allow for transfer of cases between
Teen Courts, so that simplifies the transfers, where there is
another program available, but we have found agencies very
cooperative both in state and out of state, in supplying
opportunities for the teens. When a defendant moves away while
completing his/her sentence, usually our Judge requires an essay
to be completed by a certain date. The essay is, of course,
topical to the offense, and the Judge sets the requirements,
i.e., number of pages, double-spaced, etc...
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City of Lewisville Teen Court
Anne Dubinsky Teen Court Coordinator
P.O. Box 299002
Lewisville, TX 75029
Phone: (972) 219-3671
Fax: (972) 219-3414
adubinsk@cityoflewisville.com
On occasion, we have had a youth actually complete his/her hours
in the new location by approaching a local non-profit and asking
to complete the hours there. This only works if the youth is
pro-active in searching out a location, and if that agency is
willing to work with them. If there is a Teen Court in the area,
Texas law allows us to transfer the case to that court,
providing the court will accept the case and work with the
youth. Back to top
Winnebago County Teen Court
Shirley Zahn Program Coordinator
504 Algoma Boulevard
Oshkosh, WI 54901
Phone: (920) 236-1120
Fax: (920) 303-3030
szahn@co.winnebago.wi.us
I just had a case where the respondent moved to a town about 20
miles away, in another county. That county just happened to be
starting a Teen Court program, so I worked it out for the
respondent to serve jury duty and do community service there. I
also had a case in which the respondent moved out of state, from
Wisconsin to Florida. The juvenile intake office chose to keep
the file open, in case the family moved back within the school
year, or in case another jurisdiction would request information
(it was a school truancy case). The family was sent a letter
stating that if they moved back to Wisconsin, the file would
still be active.
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Pennington County Teen Court Michele Brink-Gluhosky
Coordinator
Pennington County State's Attorney's Office
300 Kansas City Street
Rapid City, SD 57701
Phone: (605) 394-6909
michellebg@co.pennington.sd.us
We had a situation this summer of a girl who was living with Dad
here for the summer when she committed the offense(s) but
returns to mom in Colorado in the fall for school. We knew this
to be the case when we took the referral, but if Teen Court
didn't handle it, not much would've happened in the way of
consequences. Once she moved, her case would've been dropped.
She went through Teen Court and was sentenced. She completed all
of her community service hours before she left as well as a
required class. I found that there is an existing Teen Court in
her home city and contacted the Coordinator there and explained
the situation. She agreed to have the juvenile do her required
jury terms at their Teen Court. The juvenile had another class
that the jury sentenced her to called Corrective Thinking, which
she didn't attend here due to time. However, the other Teen
Court program has a class that addresses some of the similar
issues. Realistically, there isn't much I can do to require her
to fulfill the sentence once she leaves here. However, I
communicated this to her parents and they were very supportive
in getting the message across to the juvenile that she needs to
be responsible and follow thru. We never came out and told her
that there is nothing we can do if she doesn't complete her
sentence, but stressed accountability. I have stayed in contact
with the Coordinator (thanks Patricia Ezell of Colorado
Springs!) and the juvenile has contacted her, been assigned her
jury terms and given info on registering for the class. I am
crossing my fingers that she follows through. I had three other
referrals this summer that were similar (going to live with
other parent in fall) and all three were dismissed. I denied the
referral on two of them due to other issues. We took the other
one through Teen Court not knowing that she would be moving back
to moms. I did not have the support of the parents, who don't
communicate with each other, and the juvenile left before
completing any of her sentences and the case was dropped. It is
very frustrating when we don't have leverage. Especially since
it is likely that the kids will be returning to the area again
next summer.
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Mary Fleischmann Director
La Pine Teen Court
PO Box 2035
La Pine, OR 97739
Phone: (541) 536-5002
Fax: (541) 536-5766
marye@deschutes.org
That is one of the benefits of a State Association. In Oregon,
members of OYCA are able to make contact with other teen courts
in the state and pass along information regarding a youth coming
into their area who has an interest in complete ting their
contracts. If there is no teen court program available, then I
either contact another diversion program that is available or it
is transferred to the Juvenile Dept. of the county the youth is
moving to. State to state is a little trickier, but I notify the state, and
county that the youth is moving to. I request they follow up on
it and then notify me when the youth has completed. This has
worked out okay for myself, and I would say many teen court
programs in Oregon.
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Don Learned, Coordinator
20th Judicial District
2110 Kansas Ave.
Great Bend, Ks. 67530
Phone: (620) 793-1930
tc20ks@hotmail.com
I am glad to respond to this question. In the four years we have
had Teen Court in the 20th Judicial District, we have had only
three situations. I had two juveniles who by the time I got
their cases had graduated from high school and had pre-enrolled
at Kansas State University in Manhattan. I called the Teen Court
Coordinator in Manhattan and asked her if she would take these
two young men through her court. I told her she could collect
the money she charged and all I needed was a statement from her
that they had completed all aspects of the Teen Court sentence
sanction. This worked fine.
The other case was a Great Bend girl who was arrested in
Manhattan, Ks. for drinking. The coordinator called me and asked
if I would let her go through our 20th Judicial District Teen
Court here, so she would not have to go back to Manhattan which
is about2 1/2 hours away. This worked well.
In my opinion, I am not sure we need an interstate compact or
etc. I also did not ask our county attorney if he approved, but
I did tell him when it was over that the two juveniles had
completed the sentence. The other young lady is about through
with her sentence. I am sure not all cases may be as easy as the three I mentioned
above. I would think that each district or Teen Court needs to
work out the problem with the proper authorities.
I was glad to respond. Our entire Teen Court comprises of only
about 60,000 individuals and our state only has about 2.5
million people.
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Debbi Davis, Coordinator
Prosecution Alternatives for Youth
Office of the State Attorney
2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way
Building D
Viera, FL 32940
ddavis@statty18.brevard.fl.us
We deal with transfer cases on a regular
basis. In fact, last week we received one from Colorado. All we
ask for is a cover letter explaining the defendant's status;
have sanctions already been assigned and we just need to monitor
them or does the defendant need to attend our Teen or Peer Court
Program and have sanctions assigned. A copy of the law
enforcement agency incident report and a face sheet (indicating
the juvenile's criminal history) are needed if we will be
assigning the sanctions. Once the case is closed, we send a
letter to the referring agency indicating the outcome,
successful or otherwise.
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Tracy Bullock
Teen Court Director
Elkhart County Teen Court
Elkhart, Indiana-
Phone: (574) 294-3549
caleb55@juno.com
I have successfully transferred one case to another Teen Court
in Kentucky. I have tried to forward a second case to a Georgia
court. The Elkhart County juvenile court allows me to forward
the cases at my discretion. If I am unable to find a Teen Court
close enough to the respondent's new address, I send the case
back to our juvenile court. I went onto the Internet and did a
search for a Teen Court in the specific areas I needed one. I
then contacted them via a letter asking them if they would
consider hearing the case. It is important to have a "release of
information" signature on file in order to copy the case to
another court.
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Bruce Steinmetz
Program Supervisor
Bethel Teen Court
870 Berntzen Road
Eugene, OR 97402
bruce.h.steinmetz@ci.eugene.or.us
In Oregon the youth courts do this for each other whenever
possible, and the
Oregon Youth Court Association can help connect programs having
this need. If a youth has not completed his or her sentence, I
keep the case on our caseload but have the youth report to the
court in the new location. I send information about the
remaining requirements to the Coordinator there. That
Coordinator then helps the youth make arrangements for sentence
completion and reports back to me when it is finished, and we
close the case here, taking care of the final paperwork, etc.
Similarly, when kids move here, I help them arrange jury duty,
community service, etc. but usually expect the originally
referring court to close out the contract when I report that
requirements were met. To me it makes sense that the court that
held the hearing and with whom the youth signed the contract
retain final
responsibility for closing the case as successful or not, even
as it relies
on some information from the court at the new location.
We usually communicate by phone or e-mail, with written
follow-up when needed. As this is only an occasional happening,
this relatively informal relationship has worked for us. I guess
a state association could devise some kind of form or process.
If the youth moves before having a hearing with us, that's
different. I would refer the entire case to the new court, with
the permission of the involved Juvenile Department(s) and
family, and terminate it from my program as "Referred to other
Youth Court." In that case the new court would take full
responsibility for contracting with the youth and determining
the outcome.
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Eugene Duran
Teen Court Coordinator
Valencia County Teen Court
P.O. Box 1209
Los Lunas, NM 87031
durane@ci.los-lunas.nm.us
This is an issue that we have encountered. In New Mexico we can
refer a case to another teen court but I have always felt that
this in effect bypasses the current system and that there is a
better response. I believe that when a teen court wants to refer
to another teen court in the same state that it should go back
to the referring source (JPPO) and the juvenile probation and
parole should refer to another JPPO in that jurisdiction. What
if the defendant in question has committed other offenses since
or re-offended prior to being sentenced in teen court? Is the
JPPO in the new jurisdiction going to be informed of another
defendant in their area? Should they be? Teen Courts impersonate
a justice system. We are not THE justice system. We are an arm
of our referral source. In most cases this is the JPPO. In some
ways we take on a probationary role after the hearing.
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Shirley Zahn
Teen Court Coordinator
Winnebago County Teen Court
504 Algoma Boulevard
Oshkosh, WI 54901
szahn@co.winnebago.wi.us
So far, I have had one defendant who was sentenced in Winnebago
County, but moved to Fond du lac County, about twenty miles
away. I had made arrangements with the coordinator there for the
individual to serve his jury duty there. Unfortunately, he
no-showed twice, so was referred back to court.
I think the development of a "transfer form" to be used in these
situations would be very helpful. This is something we will be
working on for another program I work with, called Volunteers in
Probation, which works with first time adult offenders. The VIP
programs in our region are working on a transfer form. Wisconsin
has a state Teen Court Association, so it's easy to find out if
the place the defendant is moving to has an operational Teen
Court.
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Michelle Brink Gluhosky
Coordinator
Pennington County Teen Court
300 Kansas City Street
Rapid City, SD 57701
michellebg@co.pennington.sd.us
I had a case last summer of a juvenile from out of state who was
staying in our county for the summer with Dad. The case would've
been dismissed if we hadn’t taken it, so I took it. I looked up
a Teen Court in her hometown and contacted the Coordinator. They
were extremely gracious and allowed the juvenile to complete her
jury terms down there when she returned. She was also given the
option to complete one of their classes that was similar to one
of ours. The coordinator and I kept in touch and I have called
her for feedback on other Teen Court related things as well!
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Jeannie Lyles Mitchell
Franklin County Teen Court
State Coordinator
100 Millcreek Park
Frankfort, KY 40601
jeaniel@mail.aoc.state.ky.us
We had one of these last year. We merely had the coordinator of
the court where the juvenile originally appeared in teen court
call and then mail the information to the coordinator of the
court where he/she moved to. The original court then closed out
the case as a transfer.
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Mary Carrier
Director
Polk County Teen Court
P.O. Box 9000, Drawer J-111
Bartow, FL 33831
MaryCarrier@polk-county.net
Polk County Teen Court accepts cases from other youth courts.
Copies of the charging affidavits and any other pertinent
information is forwarded to us, we schedule an interview with
the offender and schedule a trial date. When the sentence is
completed we notify the referring teen court. The procedure for
transferring a case to another teen/youth court depends upon
whether the case was referred by law enforcement, state
attorney, or Department of Juvenile Justice to teen/youth court.
We have also accepted an offender from another teen court to
serve his jury duty in our teen court. These transfers have come
from within our state. We've never transferred outside Florida
due to jurisdictional problems.
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Olivia Harrington
Duncanville Teen Court
P.O. Box 380280
Duncanville, TX 75138-0280
oharrington@ci.duncanville.tx.us
The Texas statutes allow for us to transfer cases to another
teen court in Texas. Have not tried this Intrastate. Attached is
our form for transfer and we send a copy of their case.
Sometimes we transfer just the community service and or jury
terms, sometimes the whole case.
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Shauna Moore
Lakewood Teen Court
445 South Allison Parkway
Lakewood, CO 80226
shaunam@lakewood.org
If a defendant leaves the state I have them complete extra
community service hours in the new state in lieu of any
unfinished terms or conditions of Lakewood Teen Court. I then
verify hours and close the case. However, if they do not
complete the terms and conditions, the case goes through the
normal channels of contempt citation and warrant.
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Bill Graham
Moderator
Maricopa County Juvenile Probation
2051 West Warner
Chandler, AZ 85224
We have transferred cases to other cities when defendants have
either moved or were from a different area initially. We have
contacted the court that would monitor the case and sent them
through email and snail mail appropriate information about the
case that will allow them to easily monitor the youth and send
us back all pertinent information needed to close the file here
where it originated. We furnish our consequences due form so
that the monitoring court can sign off on our specific
requirements and they then forward that information back to us.
We have not had any problems in handling cases this way.
However, it does depend on the offense, whether it is suitable
for teen court, whether there is a comparable program in the
area and whether that court is willing to monitor. If not, then
the case goes back to Juvenile Court for monitoring by a
probation officer who in turn would have to decide whether the
case can be transferred or must be dispositioned long distance.
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Brian Leverenz
nttbrian@ameritech.net
New TRier Township Peer Jury Program
A concern about the case transfer issue is that kids would no
longer be sentenced by a jury of their peers or even one of
their own neighborhood or community. While kids certainly should
not personally know the offender, cases that are decided upon
outside of the offenders own community or peers is a case
without context. I for one would never dream of referring a case
outside our own community nor would the police departments in
our area. If a kid was leaving town the police would likely let
the station adjustment process follow its own course.
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Cpl. David Fromm
Teen Court Administator
Charles County Sheriff's Office
LaPlata, Maryland
frommed@govt.co.charles.md.us
I have taken several cases from outside of our jurisdiction
because the respondent was either on vacation/traveling, or has
recently moved . I have contacted the Teen Court where the
offense has occurred and have worked out an agreement to hear
the case in my court and to supervise the sanctions in the
community where the respondent lives. If the court that has
primary jurisdiction has specific sanctions or options that they
use, I have asked that a copy of them be sent to me and my jury
will use them when deliberating. Upon completion of all imposed
sanctions I send a copy of the file to the Teen Court in the
primary jurisdiction with a cover letter from me indicating the
case is closed. I am always open to hear a case from outside my
jurisdiction and I have even sent one of my cases to a
neighboring county because the teen was very popular and most of
my volunteer jurors were familiar with him. That case was heard
by the court in a neighboring county and sent back to me for
supervision.
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