Court Opinion

ID: 9534779
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:42:44.371397+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:32:33.968135
License: Public Domain

LANE, Vice Presiding Judge:
concurs in result.
I concur in the results reached by the majority and find that the appellant can be charged under the enhancement provisions of 47 O.S.Supp.1988, § 11-902(A)(2). However, I wish to address the majority’s language in expressing the view that the juvenile division of the district court has concurrent jurisdiction with adult courts when a juvenile is charged with a traffic offense. The majority opinion seems to indicate that the juvenile division would have jurisdiction over any traffic offense including a minor offense such as operating a motor vehicle with an expired safety sticker when the juvenile had never been stopped for any other offense. This would violate the definition of a delinquent found in 10 O.S.Supp. 1988, § 1101(2). By defining a delinquent as a child who habitually violates traffic laws, this section would exclude a child who has only committed a singular or random offenses without making a habit out of violating the traffic code.
It is my opinion that the only way that these two sections can be reconciled is to say that the juvenile division and the adult courts have concurrent jurisdiction over the enforcement of the traffic laws as a class of laws when a juvenile is the offender. However, the only way that the juvenile division can exercise jurisdiction is when the child is charged with being an habitual offender of the traffic code. Otherwise, the child must be charged in the adult court.