Should you trust your youngster's future to a Criminal defense attorney who only occasionally defends juveniles?

Juvenile Criminal defense lawyer Glenn Osajima has, for over 30 years, successfully provided legal counsel and criminal defense for juveniles facing criminal charges in Santa Ana, Orange County or Los Angeles County.

All juvenile crimes, either felony or misdemeanor, are very serious charges and can carry life changing consequences.

If your youngster has been charged with a felony, a major misdemeanor, or a second charge for any misdemeanor, you need advice from an experienced California criminal defense lawyer. Protect your youngster's rights and your freedom...

In California, we have set up a separate court for minors, those persons under 18 years of age. Long ago, this state decided children and their needs are different from adults and a separate court system was required to provide those needs. Also, many believed that if children did something wrong, they could be rehabilitated through intensive counseling, education, and guidance, whereas law-breaking adults might be less open to rehabilitation.

Today, our juvenile courts serve three distinctly different kinds of minors:

• First, there are children who have committed an act that if committed by an adult would be considered criminal. These kids are often called "delinquents or 602 kids." The number 602 refers to the Welfare and Institutions Code section that specifically relates to delinquents.



• Second, there are children who have committed status offenses. These are activities that are only wrong because they are committed by minors. If they were committed by adults, they would not be considered illegal at all. Examples of status are truancy, running away from home, violating curfew, or simply being outside of the control of your parents. These kids are also often called "children in need of supervision or 601 kids." Again, 601 refers to the Welfare arid Institutions Code section that specifically relates to status offenses.



• And finally, there are the children who have been abused, neglected or abandoned. In these circumstances, the court must decide who is going to be responsible for the care of these children. This is done through court hearings which are held to determine questions of dependency. In some cases, temporary custody is taken from the parents and the children are placed in foster care. Parents are then ordered to get counseling before their children are returned. In other cases, the parents' right to their children is taken away entirely and these children are put up for adoption.

An exception to the three primary categories of minors described above is the child who is age 14 or older and has committed a very serious crime. Under these circumstances, the court, upon the urging of the district attorney's office can transfer a child from the juvenile justice system to the adult justice system. When this occurs, a "fitness hearing" under Welfare & Institution code section 707 is held to determine whether the minor is suited for the juvenile justice process or would be more appropriately treated if transferred to the adult court system.

This decision is based on the following criteria:

• the minor's degree of criminal sophistication;


• whether he can be rehabilitated;


• the child's previous delinquent history;


• the success of previous attempts by the juvenile court to rehabilitate the minor; and


• the circumstances and gravity of the offense.

Again, a district attorney will usually only recommend that a child be transferred to the adult courts when the child has allegedly committed an extremely serious offense, such as murder, arson, armed robbery, forcible sex crimes, kidnapping, assault, shooting a firearm into an occupied building, selling or providing certain drugs to other minors, or other aggravated offenses.

If the child remains in the juvenile justice system she may be kept under the court's jurisdiction until the age of 21 if she was less than 16 when she became a ward of the court. If the child is more than 16 years old when charged with a crime, the child will remain a ward of the court until the age of 25.

When children are picked up as delinquents or status offenders, police and juvenile probation officers have discretion to release minors and send them home to their parents. If children are held by the police or the probation department, however, laws require that those who are status offenders be held separate and apart from children charged as delinquents or adults who have been arrested.

If a child is taken into custody, he must either be released within 48 hours or have a petition for wardship filed against him. During this time, the parents must be notified about what is going on and/or the intent of the probation department to have their child made a ward of the court. During these proceedings, minors have a right to a lawyer and have most of the procedural rights given adult defendants. But juvenile defendants, unlike adults in California, have no right to a jury trial, and no right to bail.

Trials and juvenile court proceedings are called adjudication hearings. If a child is found guilty of the crime at an adjudication hearing, a dispositional hearing is scheduled. At the dispositional hearing, the state decides what would be the court's appropriate response, keeping in mind that the overriding aim of the juvenile justice system is to rehabilitate youthful offenders and get them back on the right track. The court has various options. A judge may place the child on probation, seek restitution, assign the child to community service or place her in a halfway house or foster care. A juvenile offender also may be sent to a training school or a secure facility. (A secure facility is also known as "lock-up," where the juveniles are not allowed the freedom to leave.) Sealing or destroying juvenile records is a complicated process and may not be possible if the child has been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, or if not enough time has passed since the child's conviction. Usually, records can be sealed after five years from the termination of the juvenile court's jurisdiction or as soon as the juvenile becomes 18. Once sealed, the minor's records may not be opened for inspection unless ordered by the court.