Court Opinion

ID: 9760527
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:58:48.801392+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:13.194008
License: Public Domain

J. CURTISS BROWN, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
I can discern no difference between the facts in this case and the facts in Stanley v. State, 687 S.W.2d 413 (Tex.App. — Houston [14th Dist.] 1985, no writ). In both cases the juvenile court retained jurisdiction over the child as to some of the offenses and waived jurisdiction as to the remaining offenses alleged in the certification petition.
Tex.Fam.Code Ann. § 52.02(g) (Vernon 1975) states that “[i]f the juvenile court retains jurisdiction, the child is not subject *133to criminal prosecution at any time for any offense alleged in the petition or for any offense within the knowledge of the juvenile court judge as evidenced by anything in the record of the proceedings.” I believe that the legislature has expressly prohibited the retention of jurisdiction for some of the offenses and waiver of the jurisdiction for other offenses by the juvenile court. “[0]nce the juvenile court retains jurisdiction as to any count alleged in the certification petition, the child’s status is fixed as to all offenses alleged in the petition and, thus, the child is not subject to criminal prosecution as to an adult for any offense alleged in the petition.” Stanley, 687 S.W.2d at 414.
The majority attempts to make the distinction that the juvenile court may make a partial transfer as long as the juvenile court exercises no further jurisdiction as to any offense that it retained. I disagree. Either the juvenile court transfers jurisdiction to the district court or it does not. The majority’s holding would reach the anomalous result of the transfer being valid at the time of the transfer and then becoming invalid at a later time if the juvenile court later exercised jurisdiction over any of the retained offenses. If the juvenile court has transferred jurisdiction, how can it still affect the district court’s jurisdiction over the offense?
In my opinion the case should be reversed.