In re JG

ENTRY_ORDER.93-119; 161 Vt. 563; 632 A.2d 39

[Filed 17-Sep-1993]        


                                 ENTRY ORDER

                       SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 93-119

                               JUNE TERM, 1993

 In re J.G., Juvenile              }          APPEALED FROM:
                                   }
                                   }          Addison Family Court
                                   }
                                   }          DOCKET NO. F99-12-92 ANJV

              In the above entitled cause the Clerk will enter:

      Defendant at the age of 16 was charged with petit larceny, and the matter
 was properly transferred from the Addison District Court to the Addison Family
 Court, where he admitted the allegations in the juvenile delinquency petition
 and was adjudicated delinquent.  At the disposition hearing the court ordered
 the case retransferred for trial to district court over defendant's objections
 on double jeopardy grounds.  This Court granted defendant permission to appeal
 after a denial of permission by the family court.  We reverse and remand.

      As the State concedes in its brief, insofar as 33 V.S.A. { 5527(c)
 permits the transfer of a juvenile matter from family court to district court
 and trial of a juvenile defendant as an adult, following an adjudication of
 delinquency in the family court, that statute violates the double jeopardy
 protections of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution.  Breed
 v. Jones, 421 U.S. 519, 541 (1975).

      Not every hearing in family court will preclude transfer to district
 court.  As Jones makes clear, transfer prior to an adjudicatory hearing should
 not raise double jeopardy questions.  Id. at 536.  Therefore our holding does
 not affect preadjudication transfer proceedings, so long as no adjudication in
 fact results.  Id. at 538 n.18.

      Reversed and remanded for further proceedings in the Addison Family
 Court.

                                    BY THE COURT:

                                    _______________________________________
                                    Frederic W. Allen, Chief Justice

                                    _______________________________________
                                    Ernest W. Gibson III, Associate Justice

                                    _______________________________________
                                    John A. Dooley, Associate Justice

                                    _______________________________________
                                    James L. Morse, Associate Justice
 [x]  Publish
                                    _______________________________________
 [ ]  Do Not Publish                Denise R. Johnson, Associate Justice