Juvenile Division

The Juvenile Division prosecutes felonies and misdemeanors committed in San Diego County by offenders who were under the age of 18 at the time of the crime. During the first half of 2012, Division Chief Michele Linley and Assistant Chief Sophia Roach supervised the Juvenile Division. During the second half of 2012, Division Chief Michele Linley and Assistant Division Chief Lisa Weinreb supervised the division. Juvenile Deputy District Attorneys review, issue and prosecute the same types of cases that are prosecuted in adult court, except the crimes are committed by juveniles. These cases may involve weapons, injuries, and a series of crimes, significant property damage or drugs.

In 2012, the number of felonies filed by the Juvenile Division decreased by 647 and the number of misdemeanor cases filed decreased by 311. There were 18 juvenile cases that were direct filed into adult court. In addition, the Juvenile Court found three minors unfit for juvenile court and sent their cases to adult court for prosecution in the adult system.

2012 Juvenile Cases Reviewed
Criminal Cases Submitted For Review 4,736
Felony Petitions Filed 2,193
Misdemeanor Petitions Filed 1,235
WI 707 File Petitions 10
Direct Filed Cases 18
Truancy Petitions Filed 128

The Juvenile Division office is broken down into six teams:

Issuing deputies review reports submitted by police agencies to determine whether charges should be filed. Each calendar team Deputy District Attorney is assigned to a courtroom (there are four delinquency departments and a detention department) to handle all cases assigned to that courtroom. The Motions team handles the majority of pre-trial motions filed with the Court. The bulk of the motions are Welfare and Institutions Code Section 654 (Informal Supervision) Motions. However, there is a wide variety of other motions filed, including evidence suppression, requests for probation modification, plea withdrawal, speedy trial, and sealing. The Motions Team also assists the division with appellate issues as needed. The Motions Team consists of a team leader and three interns, and at times is also assisted by a graduate law clerk or specially assigned Deputy DA.

One specialized calendar is the dual calendar (a blend of delinquency and dependency court). This court has recently begun to address more crossover youth issues and now has a dual jurisdiction pilot project where a minor can be both a dependent and a delinquent ward with one agency as the lead agency addressing the needs of the youth.

J-Fast, our mental health court, continued to operate in 2012. We are adding an additional component which will help with communication among the many partners to address issues that come up with the minor and their family members to ensure that probation is completed. The partners include the Public Defender, a judge, the probation department, community partners and mental health professionals. This pilot project was created with existing resources and a commitment from all partners.

The trial team handles all disputed matters, including but not limited to trials, evidentiary hearings and prima facia hearings.

The Juvenile Division handles truancy cases once a week at the Juvenile courthouse and once a month at the courthouse in Vista. Truancy partners include school districts, San Diego County Office of Education, Probation, Public Defender, law enforcement agencies, a judge, and the Children's Initiative. The truancy team leader also works closely with school districts by attending attendance review hearings, providing mediation services for elementary school districts, for families with younger truant children and assisting the schools and families in working out programming and support to keep students from being referred to truancy court.

In addition, deputies appear in two courtrooms on two different days at the Meadow Lark Juvenile Court and one day a week at the Vista Courthouse as part of the drug court team.

To ensure that crimes with the highest potential to significantly affect the public are handled in an efficient manner, certain cases are vertically assigned. This means one Deputy District Attorney handles the case from beginning to end. These types of cases include:

In 2012, the Juvenile Division handled crimes that ranged from simple misdemeanors to carjacking cases to murder. In addition, we handled cases involving juveniles' use of a car that caused injury or death to their passengers as well as cases involving smuggling of drugs across the United States border.

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