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Have a juvenile I am having trouble serving.

Grandma lives locally and mother lives in Houston. The Grandma swore that the child was with the mother in Houston and the mother swore the juvenile was with the Grandma.

Grandma has been served because that who had previously brought her to court.

After my investigator went to grandma's house to find her, he got a call from mMom who finally admitted that the juvenile was in Houston. Mom said the child thinks she is an adult, and the juvenile is going to be arrest (no DTA was issued upon filing of the case). Mom has also been in contact with juv. probation, but ALWAYS calls from a private number and will not give her address in Houston or an address for the juvenile (implying the child comes and goes as she pleases), so I don't know where mom is either.

I saw 53.06(c) and (d), but I'm not sure if I can even use 53.06(c) if I have no way of serving mother with a summons or even a copy of the order to bring her to court.

Do I have any other options?
 
Posts: 26 | Location: Seguin, Texas | Registered: October 27, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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This one is really hard.
What is the offense? If it is a minor offense it might be best to wait and see if the child shows back up in Seguin. He just might - if he thinks the heat is off. He may visit grandma in the summer - but don't rely on grandma to let you know!
A child is supposed to be released to an adult upon that person's promise to return the child to court, but what you are facing is the kind of game they play all the time.
Here is some of the things you MIGHT be able to do - but it is going to be a real hassle!
(1) Get your juvenile probation officer to call their counterpart in Houston at the Harris County Juv Prob Dept and see if they have any records of this child or mother. If you have the info, you might also check for sibling (that would give you mom's address at the time the sib was handled in HC).
(2) Check with your school district and see if they will give you any information - were the school records transferred? and if so, where? If you get information, then it will be a problem to chase it down because the schools don't want to, and in some cases, can't legally, give certain info.
(3) If you have enough info on mom, run her in the Texas Driver's License Records, TCIC, and any other data bases that you have access to that might give you some info.
(4) Call the Juvenile Division of the Harris County DA's office and ask one of their investigators if they can help you find information - sometimes they can run data bases that will pick up mom if she is getting welfare, food stamps, public housing - they are much better at this than I am and they can sometimes come up with answers.
(5)If you have a pending petition with a court date - supoena grandma to court to bring the kid and when she shows up without him, then get her in front of the judge on the record - remind her about perjury and it's consequences and ask her for the record what she knows - mom's full name, date of birth, address, occupation, workplace, where was kid in school, where is he now, when was the last time she saw mom and/or child, does mom have other children, what are their names ---well you can probably come up with lots of better questions. The point is, she is on the spot to tell the truth - she might not - but you might get some useful info.
(6) If mom works at something that requires licensing - say as a beautician - check with the licensing agency for her info.

If and when you find mom and child - things can get REALLY hard - now you have to find someone to actually go serve them - maybe the juvenile DA investigators would do you a favor and do it - or you may have to ask the Pct 1 constables who do service for the juvenile courts. They may or may not. I have asked for such out-of-county help before - but only on a really serious case because they all have plenty of work of their own to do and they would be doing you a favor. If you have to do this - I would call and speak personally to that individual - I wouldn't just try to send the papers through normal channels.
HAPPY HUNTING AND GOOD LUCK!!
 
Posts: 113 | Location: Houston, Texas,USA | Registered: October 30, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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