In re D.E.P.

D.E.P. (defendant), a child, was the subject of a delinquency matter filed by the state (plaintiff). After the state filed the delinquency petition, D.E.P.’s probation officer recommended that D.E.P. live with his uncle. D.E.P. moved to his uncle’s house and registered to attend school in Angleton. The juvenile court adjudicated D.E.P. as delinquent and ordered him to remain on probation with certain conditions. If D.E.P. violated a condition, he was to be confined to the state juvenile penal facility. One condition was that D.E.P. was required to continue attending school in Angleton. A few weeks after the adjudication, however, D.E.P. became unable to continue attending school in Angleton because the uncle moved out of the Angleton district and D.E.P.’s parents lived in a different district. The probation conditions were therefore impossible for D.E.P. to meet. The state (plaintiff) filed a hearing to modify the court’s disposition, alleging that D.E.P. had violated the conditions of his probation by not attending the school in the Angleton district. The court found that D.E.P. violated the terms of his probation and modified its disposition to commit D.E.P. to the state juvenile penal facility. D.E.P. appealed, arguing that there was an insufficient basis in fact and law for the court to modify its disposition.