Opinion ID: 1059907
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Circuit Court Review of Juvenile Court Transfer Proceedings

Text: Jackson raises a number of issues stemming from the nine-month period before the circuit court reviewed the juvenile court's transfer order. As relevant, Code § 16.1-269.6(B) in effect in September 1994 provided that: The circuit court shall, within a reasonable time after receipt of the case from the juvenile court (i) examine all such papers, reports and orders; (ii) if either the juvenile or the attorney for the Commonwealth has appealed the transfer decision, conduct a hearing to take further evidence on the issue of transfer, to determine if there has been substantial compliance with § 16.1-269.1,... and (iii) enter an order either remanding the case to the juvenile court or advising the attorney for the Commonwealth that he may seek an indictment. As we have noted earlier, there was no such review before the October 1994 indictments were returned. The review occurred on July 23, 1995. Jackson maintains that the court should have sustained his motion to quash the October 1994 indictments on the ground that they were issued before the circuit court had entered its July 1995 order authorizing the Commonwealth to proceed by indictment against him. The Commonwealth responds that no such review was required in this case because neither party appealed the transfer order. We do not agree with the Commonwealth. The statute clearly required this review, even if neither party filed an appeal to the juvenile court's transfer order. If such an appeal is filed, the statute required the circuit court to schedule a hearing in addition to its review. [4] Accordingly, we conclude that the circuit court had no jurisdiction to try Jackson on the October 1994 indictments. Even so, the court had jurisdiction over Jackson following the required circuit court review of the transfer order and it could and did try him on the indictments issued thereafter. This brings us to Jackson's contentions that the court should have sustained his motion to dismiss the December 1995 indictments. The Commonwealth's attorney sought and obtained those indictments in accordance with the circuit court's authorization order entered after its transfer review in June 1995. Jackson reasons that the circuit court never acquired jurisdiction over him because it failed to act upon the juvenile court's transfer order within a reasonable time, as required by Code § 16.1-269.6(B), and he never had the benefit of a subsequent and more current juvenile court transfer review prior to his December 1995 indictments. We find no merit in either contention. Although the requirement of a transfer review is jurisdictional, the time within which that review must be made is procedural. Jamborsky v. Baskins, 247 Va. 506, 511, 442 S.E.2d 636, 638-39 (1994). In Jamborsky, we concluded that, absent a showing of prejudice to the juvenile's due process rights, a procedural error in conducting the review three days after the then statutorily specified 21-day period for review, did not invalidate the review. Id. at 509-11, 442 S.E.2d at 638. Here, the nine-month period before conducting the review was unreasonable and constituted a procedural error in failing to comply with the statute in effect at that time. However, Jackson does not claim that he was prejudiced by the delay in conducting the review. Indeed, the record indicates that Jackson treated the case as properly before the circuit court and continued his preparation in the same manner before and after he was told on October 24, 1995, of the circuit court's failure to conduct the review of his transfer order within a reasonable time. The record fails to disclose that the procedural error prejudiced Jackson in such a manner as to constitute a denial of due process. See id. Accordingly, we find no merit in this contention.