Delinquency Case Law

In re Antonio F. (May 30, 2002) 98 Cal.App.4th 1227 [20 Cal.Rptr.2d 325]. Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 3.

A juvenile was found to be in violation of Welfare and Institutions Code section 871, which provides that any individual under the custody of a probation or peace officer who escapes or attempts to escape (1) from a juvenile hall, ranch, camp or forestry camp or (2) "during transportation to or from that place" is guilty of a misdemeanor.

A juvenile was committed to a juvenile facility. At a working field trip at the Kidseum, a private facility, he escaped while supposedly using the bathroom. The juvenile court found him guilty for violating section 871. The juvenile, appealed arguing that the facility from which he had escaped from did not fall under the statute.

The Court of Appeal reversed the juvenile court's decision. The Attorney General argued that, although the juvenile had not escaped from one of the statutorily enumerated facilities, he had escaped from the probation officer's custody and thus violated the statute. Relying on In re Thanh Q. (1992) 2 Cal.App.4th 1386 and In re Jason G. (1996) 46 Cal.App.4th 1017, the appellate court in the case at hand rejected the Attorney General's argument, holding that the Legislature intended the statute to cover only the enumerated facilities. The appellate court had found in both of the referenced cases that the statute covered only the enumerated facilities. After the court's decisions, the Legislature had amended the statute to cover the facility at issue in one of the cases but not that in the other. The juvenile court erred in finding that section 871 applied to a juvenile committed to a county juvenile facility who escapes from a site to which he has been taken for a "working field trip." The juvenile court's judgment was reversed. The appellate court deferred to the Legislature to address this situation and possibly clarify the statute's language.