I regularly cover for the juvenile prosecutor and have never had this question come up. She is in trial so I do not want to bother her. The new juvenile judge asked if parents are divorced and child is not obeying the mother (mng cnsvtr) can he place the child with the father without going against the District Court or does he need a modification of the Distrct Court order? I know this has been done regularly, but just curious how it is properly handled.

I think that with the appropriate findings, the judge can place the child in whatever custody he thinks would be in the child's best interest and would achieve the needed rehabilitation without having to have any modification of the original custody order. We know he could put the child in the custody of TYC or in the custody of a county officer for placement in a county facility. The judge could also place the child "in the custody of a relative or other fit person" (Sec 54.04(d)for various alternatives). There were many times we placed custody exactly as posed in your question. We also placed custody with grandparents and other "fit persons". The custody order of the juvenile court would trump the family court order - but remember - it would only be for the term of that order. If he was placed on probation for 1 year in the custody of his mother - then when that order ends the original order is again effective.

Thanks. I saw that provision when a child is placed on probation, but still wondered how that provision allows the juvenile order to trump the district court order. I do think placement with a non-custodial parent is different than placement in TYC or other facility, because that does not actually modify the district court's order. The question arose because the probation department thought the custodial parent might fight it. Is there a provision stating the juvenile court order supercedes the district court order?

For clarification, are you talking about placing a child with the NCP as part of the initial hearing while the case is still pending or are you talking about at the final hearing when the child is placed on probation?

In this particular case it was a juvenile already adjudicated and placed on probation with CP and the court was modifying the probation to place with NCP. But I asked this more of a general question because what do you do when the child is not adjudicated and the better placement would be with NCP - can they do that if placed on judicial conditions of release, etc?