In re Pima County Delinquency Action No. 90101-1

A juvenile was adjudicated delinquent. The juvenile’s parents wanted to participate in the disposition proceedings. The juvenile had been placed on probation, which was initially revoked. Then the juvenile’s probation officer prepared a predisposition report for the court with recommendations for the juvenile’s subsequent disposition. Based on the probation officer’s recommendations, the juvenile court placed the juvenile back on probation and ordered that she be placed in the care of foster parents. [Ed’s note: The casebook excerpt misidentifies the juvenile as he.] The juvenile’s parents attended the disposition hearing with an attorney and insisted that they had a right to read the predisposition report to determine whether the information it contained was accurate and to see why the probation officer made the subject recommendations. The juvenile court rejected the parents’ request, finding that review of the predisposition report would not serve any purpose as long as the juvenile’s parents were aware of the effect of the recommendations. The attorney for the parents then asked to cross-examine the probation officer, but the state raised an objection that the juvenile court sustained, finding that the parents did not have standing to read the predisposition report or to conduct a cross-examination of the probation officer. The juvenile’s parents appealed this order, arguing that they were aggrieved parties with the right to file an appeal in the juvenile’s case. Under Arizona law, an aggrieved party was permitted to appeal a juvenile court’s final order. The juvenile’s parents also argued that they had the right to participate in the phase of the delinquency proceedings prior to disposition. In support of their position, the juvenile’s parents cited cases involving custody, dependency, or the termination of parental rights.