In re Rodriguez

Jerry R. Rodriguez (defendant) was a juvenile who was adjudicated delinquent and placed on probation for 12 months for making bomb threats to a junior high school. Rodriguez’s probation was conditioned on his observing a curfew that required him to be home by 7:00 p.m. each night except for Saturday and Sunday, when he was permitted to return home by 10:00 p.m. One day, Rodriguez violated his curfew, and a petition was filed to revoke his probation. A hearing was held at which a police officer, Officer Jim Truelove, who saw Rodriguez out after curfew, testified. A hearing was held on the petition, and a trial court determined that Rodriguez had violated his curfew, and the court modified the previous dispositional order by ordering Rodriguez committed to the Texas Youth Commission until he turned 18 years old. Rodriguez appealed. Rodriguez alleged that the court had abused its discretion in modifying its previous order for three reasons. First, Rodriguez asserted that there was no legally sufficient evidence that he had violated curfew because the only testimony regarding the curfew violation came from Officer Truelove, who testified that he saw Rodriguez outside a game room at exactly 11:04 p.m. based on police department logs, constituting hearsay. However, Officer Truelove also gave testimony that was not based on the dispatcher’s log that it was already dark when Truelove arrived at the game room and that he left the area at around 11:30 p.m. Second, Rodriguez argued that the court’s original disposition order was not a reasonable and lawful order, the violation of which permitted a court to commit a delinquent children to the Texas Youth Commission. Third, Rodriguez argued that there was no evidence that he did not have his probation officer’s authorization to be out past curfew or that he was not out with a relative, both of which were exceptions to his curfew. However, Rodriguez’s probation officer recommended that Rodriguez should be detained at a detention center for violating his curfew, and Officer Truelove testified to seeing Rodriguez alone.