People v. Winnetka V.

These are consolidated appeals from orders declaring the minor to be a ward of the court (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 602) 1 and *590 committing her to the California Youth Authority (CYA), and from a subsequent order denying her petition to modify that commitment order (§ 778).

The wardship was predicated on findings that she committed acts of attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. On this appeal she does not question the sufficiency of the evidence to support those findings; nor does she complain of the conduct of the adjudication (jurisdictional) hearing. Accordingly, for present purposes it is enough to note that she was engaged in shoplifting in a clothing store when the owner became suspicious and investigated. She then attempted unsuccessfully to rob him with an empty handgun and, in the ensuing struggle, struck him on the head with the gun.

On March 29, 1978, a disposition hearing was held before a juvenile court referee. He noted that he had read and considered the probation officer’s report recommending commitment to the CYA. He declined, however, to adopt that disposition. After weighing the seriousness of the offenses against a number of mitigating…

I dissent.

The majority do violence to an unambiguous legislative plan for the orderly disposition of juvenile matters, they condone a bizarre procedure that includes approval of an improper ex parte communication to a judge where none is permitted by law, and then having wreaked havoc on existing statutes, they invent yet another elaborate procedural mechanism to avoid constitutional infirmity. This is indeed error compounded, and for no purpose remotely associated with either justice or judicial efficiency. It manifestly is not error “attributed to one of those failings which lean to virtue’s side.” (The Washington University v. Rouse (1869) 75 U.S. (8 Wall.) 439, 443 [ 19 L.Ed. 498, 500 ] (dis. opn. of Miller, J.).)

I

The Legislature has prescribed the procedure for requesting rehearing of a ruling by a juvenile court referee in Welfare and Institutions Code section 252. That section declares in relevant part that “At any time prior to the expiration of 10 days after service of a written copy of the order and findings of a referee, a minor or his parent or guardian may apply to the juvenile court for a rehearing.” (Italics added.) No language could be plainer. Moreover,…