In Re AI

Juvenile courts are busy places with limited time to handle the many matters that come before them. In a commendable effort to help streamline the juvenile delinquency proceeding in this case, the minor's trial attorney agreed that law enforcement witnesses need not testify twice, first at a hearing on the minor's motion to suppress evidence and then give essentially the same testimony at the jurisdictional hearing. If, after hearing those witnesses' testimony, the court denied the suppression motion and the minor wanted to "continue" with a contested trial of the charge, the People would call one more witness and the court could consider all the testimony in determining whether to sustain the charge and declare the minor a ward of the court.

The rub is this. The minor was offered deferred entry of judgment, a disposition that would be beneficial to the minor but would be forfeited if he elected to go to trial on the charge. The minor did not immediately agree to this disposition because he thought the charge was based on illegally seized evidence; thus, he exercised his right to ask the court to suppress the evidence. After losing the suppression motion, the…