Juvenile is currently on probation in the JP court for truancy. She recently had a delinquent conduct petition filed for criminal mischief and deadly conduct. That case has not gone to trial yet.

She has had a motion to modify filed as to her JP court probation. At this time, no one can find her, and no one knows where she may be found.

JPO wants to get an order of immediate custody in the delinquent conduct case. I think that we have to go through the JP court to get a warrant. She is not on a home detention order and so far has done nothing that would constitute a reason to detain her in the delinquent conduct case.

Am I right?

Why don't you think she meets the criteria of 53.02 ?
If she can not be found then I'm thinking she meets 1) likely to abscound or be removed and/or 2) not recieving appropriate supervision (especially coupled with the truancy)and if the charge is deadly conduct then I'm thinking 4) danger to herself or others.

Also, 53.06 lets you pick her up when the summons is served, but again you have to have something to satisfy 53.02.

My concern is that the offense occurred in November and she was not detained at that time. She has not missed any court settings or (as far as I know) appointments with the JPO.

I think that she probably meets at least one requirement for detention. I just am not comfortable allowing her to remain free for an extended period of time and then trying to detain her.

Maybe I am being too nice.

This is an off-the-top-of-my-head response - but I don't think the JP court can order that she be locked up in detention - at least not on the basis of their VOP.

The JP court could - after a show-cause hearing, for which you would have to have her present - "refer" her to the juvenile court for "contempt" and then send her to juvenile probation which would allow her to be locked up "pre-adjudication" for her contempt charge which would then be an additional delinquency charge. All of this is a problem if no one knows where she is.

Let me get this straight - from what you say, she is making her appearances in juvenile court on her delinquency charge - but no one has demanded to know where she is currently residing? If she appears - tell the judge and get him to require that she tell the probation officer the information. If she doesn't appear - get a pick-up order for failure to appear after having been sworn on a previous setting and resetting with a promise to appear. Then whenever she is found she will go into detention.

If she's missing her appearances in juvenile court - then she should be held in detention pending court. If not, and you get the information where she is residing, then you will know where she is so that the JP can get her in for violating her probation and have a show-cause to see if he wants to hold her in contempt.

Have you tried to find her from the school? If she's not attending school - which is probably a condition of release from detention on the pending delinquency charges - then the juvenile court can put her (back) into detention because she is not abiding by conditions of release.

The offense was committed in November, 2006. The investigation took until December, 2006, and the juvenile was never actually detained. The JP probation was prior to the delinquent conduct offense.

Basically, no one knows where she has gone, so the JP court cannot serve her with a summons to appear and we cannot have the show cause hearing.

There are no conditions of release, so I do not think that I can suddenly detain her in the delinquent conduct case when she was not detained to begin with and has not failed to appear at a hearing in that case (yet).

I appreciate the input from you and Stacey. I can use any guidance I can get.

I think you should be able to issue a DTA for her based on the delinquent charges just as Stacey stated. Whether you get to keep her detained is what the detention hearing is for. They will certainly argue that she's been out since Nov. and hasn't done anything else to indicate a threat to self or others. If not going to school, you might be able to issue a Truancy DTA for her.

None of the discussion indicates when a Petition was filed & whether summons has issued, but 53.06 FC certainly authorizes pick up upon service where warranted.

53.06 SUMMONS(d) If it appears from an affidavit filed or from sworn
testimony before the court that immediate detention of the child is
warranted under Section 53.02(b) of this code, the court may
endorse on the summons an order that a law-enforcement officer
shall serve the summons and shall immediately take the child into
custody and bring him before the court.

Good luck. sp