Opinion ID: 2634578
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Remedy for the Trial Court's Failure to Remand

Text: This court has clearly concluded that once a prosecutor amends an information to charge offenses that do not result in automatic adult court jurisdiction, the adult criminal court must remand the matter to the juvenile court for a decline hearing. Mora, 138 Wash.2d at 54, 977 P.2d 564. However, the parties disagree as to the appropriate remedy for the trial court's failure to remand for a decline hearing. In Dillenburg, 70 Wash.2d at 333, 413 P.2d 940, the petitioner filed for a writ of habeas corpus in superior court, arguing he was improperly tried in adult court. This court initially concluded that the petitioner had been improperly transferred to adult court and reversed for a new trial. Id. at 345-46, 413 P.2d 940. However, upon reconsideration, the court concluded that where the petitioner has demonstrated that a transfer from juvenile court was faulty, the proper remedy is a de novo hearing in superior court on whether declination of juvenile jurisdiction would have been appropriate. [9] Dillenburg, 70 Wash.2d at 355, 422 P.2d 783. If declination would have been appropriate, then the conviction stands. Id. Otherwise, the conviction is set aside and a new trial must occur in adult criminal court if the defendant has since turned 18. Id. at 356, 422 P.2d 783. Subsequently, Washington courts have consistently applied this remedy when lack of adult criminal jurisdiction is successfully argued on appeal. See Mendoza-Lopez, 105 Wash.App. at 390, 19 P.3d 1123; Anderson, 83 Wash.App. at 522, 922 P.2d 163. The petitioner asserts that the Dillenburg remedy is no longer applicable, and the appropriate remedy is now outright dismissal, rather than remand for a Dillenburg hearing. Dalluge bases this argument on a post- Dillenburg case, in which the defendant claimed that the prosecution delayed filing charges until after his 18th birthday, resulting in a loss of juvenile court jurisdiction. See State v. Dixon, 114 Wash.2d 857, 860, 792 P.2d 137 (1990) The Dixon court adopted a three-part test for determining whether preaccusatorial delay violated a defendant's right to due process where the result was a loss of juvenile jurisdiction, but the test is clearly inapplicable here since there is no claim of preaccusatorial delay. See id. Moreover, unlike the prosecutor in Dixon, the State in this case did not have any particularized duty to ensure that Dalluge's case was remanded after the amended information. See, e.g., Mora, 138 Wash.2d at 54, 977 P.2d 564 (containing no discussion of a prosecutorial duty to insist on remand). Therefore, Dixon is inapposite. Most fundamentally, Dillenburg has not been overruled, and Washington courts continue to implement its remedy. The dissent asserts that a Dillenburg hearing is not required here, claiming that there is no authority for the proposition that an automatic decline that was valid when it occurred is retroactively invalid as the result of a subsequent amendment to the charging instrument. Dissent at 290. Yet Mora seems to be exactly that case, and in Mora we remanded for further proceedings. 138 Wash.2d at 54, 977 P.2d 564. Here too, we remand for further proceedings, specifically a Dillenburg hearing, the proper remedy under Washington case law. We conclude that where the defendant has since turned 18, the appropriate remedy for a trial court's failure to remand to juvenile court is remand to the adult criminal court for a de novo hearing on whether declination would have been appropriate. If declination would have been appropriate, then the conviction stands, but if not, the defendant is entitled to a new trial.