Opinion ID: 1060172
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Juvenile Court Issues

Text: Roach contends that the statutes defining the authority of juvenile court intake officers violate the separation of powers clauses of the Virginia Constitution, Art. I, § 5 and Art. III, § 1. He asserts that, since intake officers are employees of the Department of Youth and Family Services, an executive agency, they are constitutionally prohibited from exercising the judicial powers of determining probable cause, issuing petitions or criminal warrants, or issuing detention orders. Initially, we note that statutes are presumed to comply with the Virginia and United States Constitutions and will be declared unconstitutional only when their provisions plainly violate either document. Etheridge v. Medical Ctr. Hosp., 237 Va. 87, 94, 376 S.E.2d 525, 528 (1989). In Winchester & Strasburg R.R. v. Commonwealth, 106 Va. 264, 55 S.E. 692 (1906), we stated that the separation of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government is indispensable to public liberty. However, we emphasized that the separation required by the Virginia Constitution is not an absolute separation. We held that the branches of government need not be kept wholly and entirely separate and distinct, and have no common link or dependence ... The true meaning is that the whole power of one of these departments should not be exercised by the same hands which possess the whole power of either of the other departments. Id. at 270, 55 S.E. at 694 (citations omitted). The juvenile and domestic relations district court judges share appointment, assignment, and discharge powers over the intake officers with the Department of Youth and Family Services. See Code §§ 16.1-233 and -235. In filing a petition to initiate a criminal case, the intake officer makes a determination that there is probable cause to believe that a juvenile has committed a criminal offense. See Code § 16.1-260. However, the juvenile and domestic relations district court, not the Department of Youth and Family Services, has original jurisdiction over matters involving the delinquent juvenile. Code § 16.1-241. Further, the failure of an intake officer to file a petition does not divest the juvenile and domestic relations district court of jurisdiction over the juvenile. Code § 16.1-260(G). Thus, juvenile intake officers do not exercise the whole power of the judiciary. Because such officers exercise only a limited judicial function, and the juvenile and domestic relations district court retains actual control over the juveniles, we conclude that the intake officer's authority to issue criminal petitions does not violate the separation of powers guaranteed by the Virginia Constitution. Next, Roach argues that the circuit court acquired jurisdiction to try him only for the lesser included offense of first degree murder. He asserts that, since the juvenile court did not render a probable cause determination concerning the presence of aggravating circumstances supporting imposition of the death penalty, the circuit court did not acquire jurisdiction to impose the death penalty. We disagree. Before Roach could be transferred to the circuit court for trial as an adult, the juvenile court was required by former Code § 16.1-269 (now § 16.1-269.1) to determine whether there was probable cause to believe that he committed an offense which would be a felony had it been committed by an adult. The aggravating circumstances required for imposition of the death penalty are not elements of the crime of capital murder. They relate only to the punishment authorized after conviction of the offense. Therefore, the juvenile court was not required to make a probable cause determination of the sufficiency of the evidence in support of the statutory predicates for imposition of the death penalty.