Court Opinion

ID: 9793518
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:48:58.652176+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:05:48.737511
License: Public Domain

NOYES, Judge,
Dissenting.
¶ 16 The juvenile and a friend shot BB’s at twenty-six parked cars. By the date set for disposition hearing, only one of twenty-six victims had filed a restitution claim. That the State announced “ready” for disposition and did not ask for a restitution hearing to involve more victims in the process suggests prosecutorial ineffectiveness. But State v. Contreras, 180 Ariz. 450, 885 P.2d 138 (App.1994), suggests that the court must hold a post-judgment restitution hearing whenever a claim is made, so perhaps the State thought that “ready” was fine here because the court would have to hold a restitution hearing “whenever.”
¶ 17 About three weeks after disposition, the State requested a restitution hearing because it had just heard from two victims. If the juvenile’s attorney had said “ready” for disposition and then, three weeks later, requested a restitution hearing because she *465had just heard from two witnesses, the court would ordinarily deny the request as untimely. That is what the court did here.
¶ 18 But the majority reverses and orders a post-judgment restitution hearing. With three of twenty-six victims having now made a claim, that leaves only twenty-three potential restitution hearings to go — if the rule in Arizona is that the court must hold a post-judgment restitution hearing whenever a claim is made.
¶ 19 Recognizing that this is a complex issue on which reasonable persons can, have, and will disagree while the debate continues, I would affirm the juvenile court for reasons set forth in the Contreras dissent, and in the unanimous opinion of In re Frank H., 193 Ariz. 433, 973 P.2d 1194 (1998).