MINNESOTA JUVENILE CRIME

In Minnesota juvenile criminal offenses are handled separately from adult criminal cases and are closed hearings to preserve the privacy of juveniles and their families . The charges may, nonetheless, be serious, and require legal counsel to ensure that the juveniles rights are upheld.

A juvenile record can impact the child's ability to attend school or to participate in extracurricular activities such as sports or music. Even more troubling is that even a juvenile case can impact an adult records. A conviction may include extended juvenile jurisdiction (EJJ) that extends beyond the juveniles eighteenth birthday. A failure to follow probationary rules or a juvenile violation of the law can result in many serious consequences including:

• CUSTODY. Taking the child into custody and placing that child in juvenile detention for perceived probation violations (260B.175). When a child is taken into custody, it is not considered an "arrest" and the child may be subject to a pat down search presumably for safety reasons. A child that is detained may be held for up to 36 hours, excluding weekends and holidays, before a petition must be filed to determine if the child should remain in detention;
• SHELTER CARE. A child taken into custody may also be placed in a shelter care facility with limited contact to the parent or guardian;
• DETENTION HEARINGS. A detention hearing must be held within 6 hours of the custody excluding weekends and holidays. At that hearing, limited information is presented and the child may be held longer if there is some danger to the child or other or if the child is unlikely to return to court for a hearing or run away.
• LICENSE ISSUES. A juvenile who has been accused of an offense may also have their driver's license suspended in some circumstances.
• CHANGE OF CUSTODY. A juvenile offense may also result in legal custody being changed to social services of another entity or person under the direction of social services
• COSTS OF CARE. If custody is changed, the parents of the child maybe charged with the cost of any placement of the child, the cost of any guardian ad litem and the costs for court expenses.

Repeated violations can turn what was once a juvenile matter into a matter that will appear on the juveniles adult record. The process is filled with potential pitfalls that can have a long lasting impact on a criminal record and which can affect a juveniles future employability and educational goals. In some cases a juvenile may even be certified as an adult for certain serious crimes.

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