Court Opinion

ID: 9949088
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-03-08 19:03:02.413544+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:26:36.755146
License: Public Domain

Filed 3/8/24 In re M.S. CA3
                                           NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for
publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication
or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

              IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
                                      THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT
                                                     (Sacramento)
                                                            ----

In re M.S., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court                                         C098657
Law.

THE PEOPLE,                                                                      (Super. Ct. No. JV140118)

                   Plaintiff and Respondent,

         v.

M.S.,

                   Defendant and Appellant.

         M.S. appeals following a 2023 juvenile court disposition order committing him to
a secure youth treatment facility. His arguments in this appeal, however, focus on two
2020 disposition orders that he never appealed. We affirm the 2023 order, the only order
properly before us, and find M.S.’s failure to timely appeal the 2020 orders deprives us of
jurisdiction to revisit those orders here.

                                                             1
                                     BACKGROUND
       In 2019, a juvenile wardship petition was filed against M.S. under Welfare and
Institutions Code section 602,1 alleging that he committed a lewd and lascivious act on a
13-year-old child. (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a).) The juvenile court sustained the
petition after M.S. admitted to committing a reasonably related offense—a misdemeanor
violation of Penal Code former section 288a, subdivision (b)(1) (now Penal Code section
287, subdivision (b)(1)). (Stats. 2018, ch. 423, § 49.) In a 2019 disposition, the court
placed M.S. on probation for six months under section 725, subdivision (a) without
making him a ward of the court and ordered him to participate in a treatment program on
sexual boundaries. (See § 725, subd. (a) [authorizing a juvenile court to place a minor on
probation “for a period not to exceed six months” without adjudging the minor a ward of
the court].)
       Two months later, in January 2020, the juvenile court modified its probation
conditions after receiving a psychological evaluation and recommendation from the
probation officer. The probation officer thought the ordered program on sexual
boundaries would be insufficient given M.S.’s alleged conduct, which involved trapping
the victim in a bathroom stall, choking her, and requiring her to perform oral sex on him.
Believing this conduct required a more involved program, the probation officer
recommended that M.S. be ordered to participate in a juvenile sex offender treatment
program (JSO program). The juvenile court agreed. It restarted M.S.’s six-month
probation term and ordered him to participate in the JSO program. Although defense
counsel objected that the JSO program would take 12 to 18 months and so could not be
completed in the six-month probation period, the juvenile court indicated the probation
period could be extended if M.S. performed well on probation.

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code.

                                             2
       Just shy of six months later, in July 2020, the juvenile court (now a different
judge) noted that M.S. had not yet completed the JSO program. It also found it
inappropriate to extend probation another six months under section 725, subdivision (a),
reasoning that M.S. still needed at least 10 more months to complete the JSO program.
For that reason, and over defense counsel’s objection that M.S. had done everything he
possibly could do to successfully complete probation, the juvenile court found M.S.
failed probation, made him a ward of the court, and told M.S. he needed to complete the
JSO program.
       In August 2021, a new section 602 juvenile wardship petition was filed against
M.S., alleging that he unlawfully possessed a firearm (Pen. Code, § 29610) and drew a
firearm on another person (id., § 417, subd. (a)(2)). The juvenile court sustained the
petition after M.S. admitted to both counts and continued M.S. as a ward of the court.
       In December 2022, another section 602 juvenile wardship petition was filed
against M.S., alleging that he robbed two individuals. (Pen. Code, § 211.) The court
sustained the petition after M.S. admitted to one of the robbery counts, with the
prosecutor dismissing the second count in consideration of the admission. In a 2023
disposition, the juvenile court continued M.S. as a ward of the court and committed him
to a secure youth treatment facility with a baseline term of 15 months and a maximum
term of four years two months. M.S. timely appealed the 2023 disposition, filing his
notice of appeal in May 2023. M.S. filed his opening brief in September 2023, and this
case was fully briefed on January 31, 2024.
                                      DISCUSSION
       M.S. focuses his argument on two 2020 orders that he never appealed—(1) the
January 2020 order that modified the probation conditions for his sexual assault offense,
and (2) the July 2020 order that made him a ward of the court based on his failure to
satisfy those modified conditions. Starting with the January 2020 order, M.S. asserts the
juvenile court improperly imposed an impossible probation condition—namely, it

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required him to complete a JSO program that would take at least 12 months, even though
the probation period was only six months. Turning to the July 2020 order, he contends
the court wrongly made him a ward of the court for failing to complete this impossible
condition, rather than, as it should have, found he complied with all permissible probation
conditions, dismissed the petition for his sexual assault offense, and sealed the record.
We will not address these claims, finding we lack jurisdiction to consider the unappealed
2020 orders.
       Our decision follows from well-established principles of appellate jurisdiction. A
minor may appeal a judgment (or postjudgment order) in a section 602 proceeding “in the
same manner as any final judgment” (or postjudgment order)—which is to say, as
relevant here, that a minor seeking appellate review must appeal within 60 days. (§ 800,
subd. (a); Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.406(a).) As our Supreme Court has explained, “ ‘[a]
timely notice of appeal, as a general matter, is “essential to appellate jurisdiction.” ’
[Citation.] ‘An untimely notice of appeal is “wholly ineffectual: The delay cannot be
waived, it cannot be cured by nunc pro tunc order, and the appellate court has no power
to give relief, but must dismiss the appeal on motion or on its own motion.” [Citation.]
The purpose of the requirement of a timely notice of appeal is, self-evidently, to further
the finality of judgments by causing the [party] to take an appeal expeditiously or not at
all.’ [Citation.] As a consequence, ‘ “ ‘an unappealed disposition or postdisposition
order is final and binding and may not be attacked on an appeal from a later appealable
order.’ ” ’ ” (In re G.C. (2020) 8 Cal.5th 1119, 1127 (G.C.).)
       These principles are fatal to M.S.’s attempt to challenge the 2020 orders here, both
of which were ripe for review in 2020. Because he never appealed these orders, he
cannot now attack them on appeal from a later appealable decision.
       M.S. does not dispute these general principles. But he argues we should still
exercise jurisdiction over the 2020 orders based on a footnote in G.C. In that case, a
juvenile sought to challenge one juvenile disposition—which failed to classify a wobbler

                                               4
offense as either a misdemeanor or a felony—in an appeal from a later juvenile
disposition order after the time to appeal the earlier disposition had expired. (G.C.,
supra, 8 Cal.5th at p. 1122.) Our Supreme Court found the appellate court lacked
jurisdiction to consider this challenge, explaining that the minor’s “failure to timely
appeal deprived the appellate court of jurisdiction.” (Id. at p. 1123.) But in a footnote,
the court stated: “Because the [juvenile] court’s failure to make the required declaration
[in the earlier disposition] had no effect on the [later] disposition, we are not called upon
to decide the scope of a minor’s appellate rights when the juvenile court’s omission
impacts the maximum term of confinement in a subsequent proceeding.” (Id. at p. 1129,
fn. 10.)
       Citing this footnote, M.S. argues we have jurisdiction over the 2020 orders
because “the errors from 2020 heavily impacted the disposition of 2023.” He then offers
two general arguments to show this impact.
       First, he suggests the juvenile court considered the record of his sexual assault
offense—which again, he believes should have been sealed—when it calculated his
maximum term of confinement under section 726, subdivision (d)(3). Under this
provision, a court “ ‘may aggregate the period of physical . . . confinement for multiple
felony counts or petitions, including previously sustained petitions,’ to arrive at the
maximum term of confinement.” (G.C., supra, 8 Cal.5th at p. 1128.) Citing this
language, M.S. suggests the court here increased his maximum term of confinement in
the 2023 disposition based on his earlier sexual assault offense. But because M.S. offers
no record citation to support this allegation, nor even discusses the maximum term of
confinement imposed in this case, we treat his point as forfeited. (See People v. Hoyt
(2020) 8 Cal.5th 892, 939 [“by failing to support his appellate arguments with record
citations, defendant has forfeited any claim of error on appeal”].)
       Next, M.S. contends the juvenile court might have entered a more favorable
disposition had the record of his sexual assault offense not been part of the “dispositional

                                              5
calculus.” He bases his argument largely on section 875. That statute allows a juvenile
court to commit a ward to a secure youth treatment facility after making certain findings.
One finding a court must make is that a less restrictive alternative disposition for the
ward is unsuitable after considering, among other things, “[t]he ward’s previous
delinquent history, including the adequacy and success of previous attempts by the
juvenile court to rehabilitate the ward.” (§ 875, subd. (a)(3)(B).) M.S. states, correctly,
that this language required the juvenile court here to consider the record of his sexual
assault offense when evaluating the propriety of a less restrictive alternative disposition.
He adds that the court selected a certain placement facility because of its JSO program
and imposed a new JSO condition based solely on the outstanding JSO condition from
the January 2020 order.
        But M.S. neglects to substantiate most of his claims. Although he claims the court
selected a placement facility because of its JSO program, he offers no citation to the
record. Nor does he offer any record citation when arguing that the court imposed a new
JSO condition based solely on the outstanding condition from January 2020. Even in his
reply brief, where he asserts “[t]he clearest indication that [his] prior failure of the JSO
treatment program affected the disposition in 2023 is that there continues to exist a JSO
condition,” he again fails to provide any record citation. We find he forfeited any claim
of error based on these unsupported claims. (See People v. Hoyt, supra, 8 Cal.5th at p.
939.)
        And although M.S. argues the juvenile court may have found a less restrictive
alternative disposition suitable had the court not considered the record of his sexual
assault offense, the record is against him. The record shows M.S. had a significant
delinquent history following his sexual assault offense, including unlawfully possessing a
firearm, drawing a firearm on another, and robbing someone. The record further shows
the court focused on M.S.’s later history, not his sexual assault offense, when deciding an
appropriate disposition in 2023. Although defense counsel argued at the 2023 disposition

                                               6
hearing that M.S.’s performance in the JSO program was the central consideration, the
juvenile court disagreed. It instructed counsel “to focus on the conduct since then,”
explaining that the prosecution’s argument was that “given the nature and severity of
those charged offenses, . . . this is a critical time to ensure that [M.S.] is put in a place
where he can take advantage of programs that are truly intended to rehabilitate him.”
(Italics added.) The juvenile court then, after hearing from the parties, concluded that
M.S. “still ha[d] some things to learn” and that commitment to a secure youth treatment
facility was appropriate. On this record, we are not persuaded that the juvenile court
would have found a less restrictive alternative disposition suitable had it not considered
the record of the sexual assault offense.
       In the end, M.S. has neither timely appealed the 2020 orders nor shown that these
orders had any effect on the 2023 disposition. We thus will not consider his challenge to
the 2020 orders here.2

2 M.S. further argues that the January 2020 order, in adding the JSO probation condition,
imposed an unauthorized sentence that is correctable at any time, so long as the juvenile
court has jurisdiction. But because we lack jurisdiction over the January 2020 order, we
will not address this argument. (G.C., supra, 8 Cal.5th at p. 1130 [a court cannot correct
an allegedly unauthorized sentence in a judgment unless it has jurisdiction over the
judgment].)

                                                7
                                    DISPOSITION
      The 2023 disposition order is affirmed.

                                                    /s/
                                                BOULWARE EURIE, J.

We concur:

    /s/
DUARTE, Acting P. J.

    /s/
RENNER, J.

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