Rowland v. Drexel

Opinion

FRANSON, J. Statement of the Case

A petition under Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 was filed in the juvenile court on May 15, 1975, alleging that appellant, age 17, had committed a battery and felonious assault on the persons of others.

At the jurisdictional hearing the referee found that appellant had committed an assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury in [803]violation of Penal Code section 245, subdivision (a), and that appellant was a person described in Welfare and Institutions Code section 602.

The report and recommendation of the probation officer recommended a Youth Authority commitment.

At the dispositional hearing, the referee found that appellant previously had been tried on probation and had failed to reform, and ordered appellant committed to the Youth Authority. Appellant was formally committed to the Youth Authority by a judge of the juvenile court.

An official court reporter was not present at either the jurisdictional or dispositional hearings before the referee.

Discussion

Appellant contends that the order committing him to the Youth Authority must be reversed because of his inability to present an adequate record on appeal due to the lack of a court reporter at the jurisdictional hearing. He argues that the statutory scheme denying a minor the right to a reporter at hearings before a juvenile court referee as contrasted with hearings before the juvenile court judge constitutes a deprivation of due process and equal protection of the law. Although we conclude that the judgment in the present case must be reversed because of the referee’s failure to give appellant a written explanation of his right to a review of the referee’s order before a judge of the juvenile court as required by Welfare and Institutions Code section 554, we find no merit in appellant’s constitutional argument.

Welfare and Institutions Code section 677 provides in part that an official reporter shall report the proceedings at any juvenile court hearing conducted by a judge, but at any hearing conducted by a referee the proceedings may be reported “as directed by the court.” If the proceedings before the referee are reported, the judge, the person on whose behalf the petition was brought, his parents or guardian or his attorney, may request that a transcript be prepared.