Court Opinion

ID: 9744943
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:24:30.552317+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:29:10.010250
License: Public Domain

*1470SCOTLAND, P. J., Concurring.
This is one of those times when a court must divine what the Legislature intended when it enacted a statute susceptible of two reasonable, but conflicting, interpretations.
In this case, a ward of the juvenile court was charged with sex crimes, including indecent exposure and child molestation, while he was on probation for committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child under the age of 14. In a plea bargain, he admitted the charge of indecent exposure and was reinstated on probation. Probation was later revoked when the minor failed to participate in a sex offender treatment program and disobeyed the staff of the group home where he was placed.
The juvenile court concluded a commitment to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Facilities (DJF) (formerly California Youth Authority) was in the best interests of the minor and was necessary to protect the public. However, Welfare and Institutions Code section 733 precluded the court from imposing a DJF commitment for indecent exposure.1 (Further section references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code unless otherwise specified.)
To avoid the preclusion of section 733, the juvenile court set aside its finding—based on the negotiated plea—that the minor committed indecent exposure, and the court dismissed the petition charging that offense. The court then committed the minor to DJF for his lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14 (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a)), an offense listed in section 707, subdivision (b). The court still had jurisdiction over that offense because it was one basis for the minor’s status on probation, which the court later revoked after the indecent exposure.
The court concluded section 782 gave it the authority to set aside the indecent exposure adjudication and dismiss the petition charging that offense and others. Section 782 states: “A judge of the juvenile court in which a petition was filed, at any time before the minor reaches the age of 21 years, *1471may dismiss the petition or may set aside the findings and dismiss the petition if the court finds that the interests of justice and the welfare of the minor require such dismissal, or if it finds that the minor is not in need of treatment or rehabilitation. The court shall have jurisdiction to order such dismissal or setting aside of the findings and dismissal regardless of whether the minor is, at the time of such order, a ward or dependent child of the court.” (Italics added.)
To justify its use of section 782 to set aside the indecent exposure adjudication and dismiss that petition, the juvenile court found the minor continued to commit sex offenses after having been adjudicated a ward for committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child under the age of 14; he remained “a risk to society”; he was in need of intensive treatment and had shown that he could not get such treatment in the group home setting; and, thus, a commitment to DJF would be “in the interest of justice and the welfare of the minor . . . .”
The plain language of section 782 is reasonably susceptible of the interpretation applied by the juvenile court. Separated by the word “or,” the statute’s phrases “the interests of justice and the welfare of the minor require such dismissal” and “the minor is not in need of treatment or rehabilitation” necessarily have different meanings. It is not a stretch by any means to conclude that the words “the interests of justice and the welfare of the minor require such dismissal” encompass what the juvenile court did in this case. Where, as here, a minor needs an intensive treatment program for sex offenders, which he cannot get in a group home but cambe provided in a DJF facility, the “welfare of the minor” and the “interests of justice” are best served by committing him to DJF, where necessary treatment is available to help him cease being a risk to himself and to society.
In other words, the plain language of the statute supports an interpretation that a juvenile court can use section 782 to commit a minor to DJF when section 733 would otherwise preclude a DJF commitment.
On the other hand, the language of section 782 reasonably can be interpreted as providing a juvenile court with nothing more than the authority to terminate jurisdiction over a minor by dismissing a pending petition or by setting aside findings that were made on a petition and then dismissing the petition.
This interpretation of section 782 would preclude a juvenile court from using section 782 to avoid section 733’s limitation on the dispositions available to the court when the most recent crime committed by a minor is not an offense for which a term in DJF can be imposed, but the minor had committed an earlier crime qualifying him or her for confinement in DJF.
*1472When presented with a statute susceptible of more than one reasonable interpretation, courts may turn to legislative history to ascertain the meaning of the statute. (Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. v. Superior Court (1999) 19 Cal.4th 1036, 1055 [80 Cal.Rptr.2d 828, 968 P.2d 539]; Kaufman & Broad Communities, Inc. v. Performance Plastering, Inc. (2005) 133 Cal.App.4th 26, 29-30 [34 Cal.Rptr.3d 520] [courts may take judicial notice of cognizable legislative history] (hereafter Kaufman & Broad).)
The legislative history of section 782 quickly reveals that the statute was intended only as a vehicle for a juvenile court to terminate jurisdiction over a minor. Section 782 was enacted in 1971 as Senate Bill No. 461 of that session. The enrolled bill report, dated August 10, 1971, states that the new statute was intended to “provide the court with the alternative to terminate jurisdiction at an earlier date [before the minor reaches the age of 21] if the court felt that this was in the best interest of the minor,” and the statute even includes language to allow a juvenile court the “option of setting aside wardship” “regardless of whether the minor is, at the time of dismissal, a ward or dependent of the court.” (See Elsner v. Uveges (2004) 34 Cal.4th 915, 934, fn. 19 [22 Cal.Rptr.3d 530, 102 P.3d 915] [enrolled bill reports are cognizable legislative history; but see Kaufman & Broad, supra, 133 Cal.App.4th at pp. 41-42 [criticizing the California Supreme Court’s holding that enrolled bill reports are cognizable legislative history].)
Because the sole purpose of section 782 is to allow the court to terminate juvenile court jurisdiction over a person under the circumstances specified in the statute, it was error for the court in this case to apply section 782 as a way to avoid the limitation of section 733 in order to commit the minor to DJF.
Thus, I concur in the disposition of the majority opinion. The fact that this result may not be in the best interests of the minor and public safety is not necessarily the fault of the statutory scheme, but of the prosecutor’s failure to recognize the potential effects of the plea bargain that was extended to the minor. That “[n]either the Court nor the lawyers were aware of the ramifications of allowing an admission to [indecent exposure], as opposed to the other counts” does not permit a court to misapply the statutes to accomplish a result not permitted by law, even if the result would be better for the minor and the public. Courts are guided by statutes not results. To the extent there may be a flaw in the legislative scheme, it is up to the Legislature, not the courts, to correct it. (In re Brent F. (2005) 130 Cal.App.4th 1124, 1130 [30 Cal.Rptr.3d 833]; Knight v. Superior Court (2005) 128 Cal.App.4th 14, 19 [26 Cal.Rptr.3d 687]; People v. Hunt (1999) 74 Cal.App.4th 939, 948 [88 Cal.Rptr.2d 524]; Souza v. Lauppe (1997) 59 Cal.App.4th 865, 874 [69 Cal.Rptr.2d 494]; *1473In re Marriage of Fisk (1992) 2 Cal.App.4th 1698, 1702 [4 Cal.Rptr.2d 95]; Squaw Valley Ski Corp. v. Superior Court (1992) 2 Cal.App.4th 1499, 1515 [3 Cal.Rptr.2d 897]; City of Victorville v. County of San Bernardino (1991) 233 Cal.App.3d 1312, 1322 [233 Cal.Rptr. 1312, 285 Cal.Rptr. 206]; Williams v. County of San Joaquin (1990) 225 Cal.App.3d 1326, 1334 [275 Cal.Rptr. 302]; Neighbours v. Buzz Oates Enterprises (1990) 217 Cal.App.3d 325, 334 [265 Cal.Rptr. 788].)
On June 2, 2009, the opinion was modified to read as printed above.

 Welfare and Institutions Code section 733 states in pertinent part: “A ward of the juvenile court who meets any condition described below shall not be committed to [DJF]: [][]... HQ (c) The ward has been or is adjudged a ward of the court pursuant to Section 602, and the most recent offense alleged in any petition and admitted or found to be true by the court is not described in subdivision (b) of Section 707, unless the offense is a sex offense set forth in subdivision (c) of Section 290.008 of the Penal Code.”
Indecent exposure (Pen. Code, § 314, subd. 1) is an offense not described in either Welfare and Institutions Code section 707, subdivision (b) or Penal Code section 290.008.