December 29, 1998

Honorable Pat Hess
Juvenile Court Judge
Anderson County Courthouse
Clinton, TN 37716

Dear Judge Hess,

Beginning January 1, 1999, my Assistant Beth Boatner will no longer be primarily assigned to Juvenile Court. A representative from our office will be available, however, on Wednesdays to handle the prosecution of adults charged in Juvenile Court and juveniles charged with offenses that would be felonies if committed by an adult. Beth will have more responsibilities in the sessions court area.

This reassignment of duties is necessitated by the lack of prosecutorial resources provided to the Seventh Judicial District and our need to prioritize, especially in view of the recent passage of the constitutional amendment respecting victims' rights.

Anderson County has chosen to fund three full time judges, two for General Sessions Court and one for Juvenile Court. These courts handle (A) juvenile delinquency, truancy and unruliness and some custody matters (Juvenile Court) and (B) non-jury misdemeanor jurisdiction and limited non-jury civil jurisdiction (General Sessions Court).

This is a very generous judicial allotment for courts of limited civil and criminal jurisdiction in a county this size. By contrast there are only two State judges in the courts of general, civil and criminal jurisdiction in Anderson County (jurisdiction over all civil and criminal cases, including divorces, indicted misdemeanors and all felony cases, all civil and criminal jury trials, post-conviction relief petitions from the state penitentiary and appeals from the General Sessions and Juvenile Courts). In addition, the voters amended the Tennessee Constitution on November 3, 1998, creating extra Victims' Rights responsibilities upon the prosecutor's office which will have immeasurable consequences to the criminal justice process. The Juvenile Court is not a criminal court.

The Anderson County District Attorney's office has historically provided attorneys to prosecute delinquency and status offenses in Juvenile Court and criminal cases in Sessions Court. This practice dates from when the county had one full-time Sessions judge who also handled Juvenile Court, (Jennings Meredith)-the work that now takes three judges. Now our prosecutorial resources are stretched and we can no longer continue unchanged our coverage of the county courts since these three county full-time judges have recently extended their regular court days and multiplied "special settings" on other days and now our office is encumbered by additional duties under the Victims Rights Amendment.

The District Attorney is a State official (paid by the State) and not a county employee. The number of attorneys which the State of Tennessee allocates to a District Attorney's office is tied to the number of State court judges (in our case 2), not to the number of judges a county chooses to fund. The primary duty of the District Attorney is to attend to the State Courts where all felonies are prosecuted as well as many misdemeanors. Next we have a duty to prosecute adults charged with criminal offenses in Sessions Court; in addition, there are sometimes state duties taking our attorneys out of the Seventh District to courts in other counties by designation . Juvenile court prosecutions are not criminal cases under the law, and the juvenile court is not a state court.

Very few prosecutors in Tennessee, and usually only those in larger counties, regularly appear in juvenile court. Those which do often have special county-funded prosecuting attorneys for the purpose. Our office has been providing attorneys in Juvenile Court for status offenses (defined as acts which would not be criminal if committed by an adult). These are primarily truancy and unruliness. In this matter I can, as District Attorney, exercise the charging discretion I have under the Constitution and Statutes of Tennessee. Please see Attorney General's opinion U96-044 (Burson), dated June 5, 1996, copy attached. We have been electing to prosecute even though the law provides that other attorneys are available for these cases. In fact, the county attorney, city attorney or any other attorney approved by the Court can handle any case in Juvenile Court so long as the District Attorney does not object or intervene. See Rule 19 of the Rules of Juvenile Procedure. When schools elect to prosecute status offenses, it may be appropriate for that school's attorney to prosecute as a routine part of his or her job description.

I would be amenable to discussing with the County Commission the possibility of funding another full-time attorney (or various part-time attorneys) to work through my office to cover Juvenile Court. The County Commission and the several Boards of Education need to recognize, as the State Legislature does, that as you multiply the number of judges, and increase the caseload and the duties of the district attorney, the number of prosecutors needs to increase.

These issues were raised by me years ago at the several League of Women Voters and other public forums held around the county during the effort to create the Sessions Court Division II in 1993 and 1994. On November 5, 1998, this problem was discussed among several educators from around the county (Pat Swinney also was present) at the Truancy Workshop held at the Haley Farm. As a result of that meeting my staff and I decided that for right now, we will cease prosecuting only status offenses and misdemeanor offenses against juveniles in Juvenile Court.

We reserve the right to prosecute felony cases and to initiate transfer proceedings in cases pursuant to TCA 37-1-134 and Rule 24 of the Rules of Juvenile Procedure. This practice is consistent with the Committee Comment to Rule 19 TRJP which states in pertinent part that the district attorney may want to be involved to the extent of electing to prosecute very serious cases for the state or to initiate transfer proceedings in such cases, and may choose for this purpose to arrange for copies of all petitions filed in cases involving offenses which would be felonies if committed by adults to be sent to him.

We will also handle the prosecution of adults charged with child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Juvenile Court.

In no way am I minimizing the importance of these juvenile laws even though they are not criminal in nature. But with limited resources our priority has to be criminal prosecution. No one other than the district attorney can prosecute crime in Anderson County, but the law does allow others to handle these juvenile matters.

Very truly yours,

James N. Ramsey
District Attorney General

JNR/tg

cc: Police Departments
     School Departments

attachment: Attorney General Opinion, U96-044, June 5, 1996