In Re Samuel J.

Defendant Samuel J., a minor, appeals from a juvenile court judgment revoking his probation and committing him to the California Youth Authority (CYA). ( Well & Inst.Code, [1] § 800.) Since the passage of Proposition 21, limited hearsay evidence is admissible in juvenile probation hearings. In this case, the trial court admitted hearsay statements by percipient witnesses against the defendant, without any showing of the declarants' unavailability or other good cause. This was error and we reverse.

Defendant was originally declared a ward of the court pursuant to section 602 in 1994, after admitting allegations of misdemeanor grand theft. During the next six years numerous additional petitions alleging penal code violations by the minor were found true. [2] Most recently, in January 2000, defendant admitted that he had been an accessory after the fact to a crime (Pen.Code, § 32), committed a misdemeanor battery (Pen.Code, § 242), and attempted to conceal a crime (Pen.Code, §§ 135, 664). In March, 2000, the court committed defendant to the probation department for out-of-home placement at Rites of Passage (ROP). Five weeks after placement, the probation department filed…