In Re Elijah S.

Thomas F. Casey, San Mateo County Counsel, Michael Peter Murphy, Chief Deputy County Counsel and Kim Marlowe, Deputy County Counsel for Objector and Appellant.

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Duffy Carolan, San Francisco, for Real Party in Interest.

McGUINESS, P.J.

In this consolidated appeal, the San Mateo County Human Services Agency (Agency) appeals from two orders of the juvenile court of San Mateo County (County) granting petitions for disclosure of the juvenile records of Elijah S. and Savannah R., filed pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 827, subdivision (a)(2) [1] by respondents, the Hearst Corporation, doing business as the San Francisco Chronicle (the Chronicle) and the San Mateo County Times (the Times), as part of a journalistic investigation. The issue on appeal is whether section 827 permits the disclosure of juvenile records in cases involving deceased children where no formal jurisdictional petition had been filed in juvenile court. Appellant Agency contends that it does not, and the juvenile court therefore erred in granting the petition for disclosure because no petition had ever been filed with respect to either of the juveniles in question.…