Title: In re JG
Citation: 161 Vt. 563, 632 A.2d 39
Docket Number: 
State: Vermont
Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court
Date: September 17, 1993

In re JG Annotate this Case ENTRY_ORDER.93-119; 161 Vt. 563; 632 A.2d 39 [Filed 17-Sep-1993] ENTRY ORDER SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 93-119 JUNE TERM, 1993 In re J.G., Juvenile } APPEALED FROM: } } Addison Family Court } } DOCKET NO. F99-12-92 ANJV In the above entitled cause the Clerk will enter: Defendant at the age of 16 was charged with petit larceny, and the matter was properly transferred from the Addison District Court to the Addison Family Court, where he admitted the allegations in the juvenile delinquency petition and was adjudicated delinquent. At the disposition hearing the court ordered the case retransferred for trial to district court over defendant's objections on double jeopardy grounds. This Court granted defendant permission to appeal after a denial of permission by the family court. We reverse and remand. As the State concedes in its brief, insofar as 33 V.S.A. { 5527(c) permits the transfer of a juvenile matter from family court to district court and trial of a juvenile defendant as an adult, following an adjudication of delinquency in the family court, that statute violates the double jeopardy protections of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Breed v. Jones, 421 U.S. 519 , 541 (1975). Not every hearing in family court will preclude transfer to district court. As Jones makes clear, transfer prior to an adjudicatory hearing should not raise double jeopardy questions. Id. at 536. Therefore our holding does not affect preadjudication transfer proceedings, so long as no adjudication in fact results. Id. at 538 n.18. Reversed and remanded for further proceedings in the Addison Family Court. BY THE COURT: _______________________________________ Frederic W. Allen, Chief Justice _______________________________________ Ernest W. Gibson III, Associate Justice _______________________________________ John A. Dooley, Associate Justice _______________________________________ James L. Morse, Associate Justice [x] Publish _______________________________________ [ ] Do Not Publish Denise R. Johnson, Associate Justice