Summary
The Louisiana Supreme Court held that Louisiana Children’s Code article 879(B), requiring that all proceedings in certain juvenile delinquency cases be open to the public, applies to disposition and modification hearings as well as adjudication hearings. The court reversed the lower courts’ rulings that the modification hearing concerning D.W.’s commitment would be closed and remanded the matter.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Louisiana Children's Code Articles 407 and 879 require a juvenile-court modification or post-disposition hearing to be open to the public when the juvenile delinquency case involves a crime of violence.
- Whether the phrase "all proceedings in a juvenile delinquency case" in Article 879(B) is limited by the statute's title and related references to adjudication hearings.
Holdings
- The phrase "all proceedings in a juvenile delinquency case" in Article 879(B) is not limited to adjudication hearings; it includes disposition and modification hearings in cases involving a crime of violence or a second or subsequent felony-grade adjudication.
- The modification hearing in D.W.'s juvenile delinquency case must be open to the public because Article 879(B)'s reference to all proceedings includes modification hearings.
Key quotations
“Clearly, the phrase “[a]ll proceedings in a juvenile delinquency case” means more than merely adjudication hearings, but applies to disposition and modification hearings, as well.” (48)
Factual background
D.W. was adjudicated delinquent and, after a disposition hearing, committed to the custody of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections until his twenty-first birthday. He was transferred to the Jetson Correctional Center for Youth. His counsel filed an emergency motion seeking review of the disposition, alleging unsafe conditions, and the parties disputed whether the resulting modification hearing had to be open to the public.
Procedural history
D.W. was adjudicated delinquent and committed to the custody of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. After counsel filed an emergency motion to review the disposition based on allegedly unsafe conditions at the Jetson Correctional Center for Youth, the juvenile court ruled that the hearing would be closed. The court of appeal denied D.W.'s application for writ review, and the Louisiana Supreme Court granted certiorari, reversed, and remanded.
Remand instructions
The matter was remanded to the juvenile court for disposition not inconsistent with the opinion.