In re JEFFREY T
Filed 6/23/06
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION THREE
| In re JEFFREY T., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law. | |
| THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. JEFFREY T., Defendant and Appellant. | A111284 (Contra Costa County Super. Ct. No. J98-01279) |
Appellant Jeffrey T., a former ward of the juvenile court, moved under Welfare and Institutions Code section 781 to seal the juvenile records in this case relating to an admitted charge of battery with serious bodily injury (the battery offense).[1] The juvenile court denied the motion on the ground that section 781 precluded sealing a person's juvenile records in any case where the person had been found to have committed an offense listed in section 707, subdivision (b), after attaining 14 years of age or older. Here, the juvenile court found after trial that appellant committed, in addition to battery, assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury with enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury (the assault offense), a section 707, subdivision (b) offense.
On appeal, appellant claims the juvenile court erred in denying his motion. He acknowledges the records in this case relating to the assault offense are not sealable under section 781. But he contends those relating to the battery offense are sealable because--although joined in the same petition with the assault charge--it stemmed from unrelated events on a different date, in a different location, and with a different victim. We affirm.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
On May 26, 1998, appellant, then 17 years old, was charged in a petition with committing battery with serious bodily injury, a felony, and simple battery, a misdemeanor. The charges stemmed from a violent confrontation between appellant and victims Raul Garcia-Deleon and Chano Garcia-Deleon on March 20, 1998, outside a Danville fast food restaurant. During that confrontation, victim Raul Garcia-Deleon, then 55 years old, sustained a concussion, broken teeth and multiple facial contusions. Witnesses identified appellant as one of the attackers who kicked Raul Garcia-Deleon in the face, causing the injuries.
On September 11, 1998, with the battery charges still pending, appellant was involved in another violent confrontation at a Danville high school football game. Victim Mark Hafen, a student from the rival high school, sustained a concussion and a severely broken leg that required surgery to install a metal pin. Witnesses identified appellant as one of the attackers.
On September 30, 1998, the District Attorney filed an amended petition against appellant adding a new charge – assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury with an enhancement of inflicting great bodily injury--stemming from the September 11 confrontation.
On January 11, 1999, appellant admitted the felony battery charge, and the District Attorney dropped the related misdemeanor battery charge. On March 1, 1999, the juvenile court sustained the assault charge with enhancement against appellant after conducting a full evidentiary trial. In so doing, the juvenile court designated the assault offense as one arising under section 707, subdivision (b). Appellant was thus committed to the California Youth Authority on March 26, 1999 for a maximum term of eight years. Appellant received parole on August 23, 2001, and was honorably discharged on October 23, 2003. As a result, appellant's juvenile court petition was set aside pursuant to section 1772.
On April 14, 2005, appellant, by then a graduate student pursuing an advanced degree, filed a petition asking the juvenile court to seal all records in this case relating to the battery offense. On June 30, 2005, the juvenile court denied his petition on the ground that section 781 precluded sealing the records in a case, like this one, where the juvenile was found to have committed a section 707, subdivision (b), offense. In so ruling, the juvenile court acknowledged appellant appeared rehabilitated and had not subsequently been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor of moral turpitude. Nonetheless, the juvenile court declined appellant's request to seal only those records in the case relating to the non-section 707, subdivision (b), battery offense. This appeal followed.
DISCUSSION
We review a juvenile court's ruling regarding the release of juvenile records for abuse of discretion. (In re Gina S. (2005) 133 Cal.App.4th 1074, 1082.) But we independently determine the proper interpretation of a statute. (Ibid.) In so doing, we must â€
