D.F.M., A CHILD, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 1994-12-30
No. 94-998
COBB and PETERSON, JJ., concur., GRIFFIN, J., dissents with opinion.
647 So. 2d 1075 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (1994) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

The appellant, D.F.M., contends, and the state agrees, that he was placed in detention without benefit of the statutory findings prescribed by section 39.042(1), Florida Statutes. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with said statute.

REVERSED AND REMANDED.

COBB and PETERSON, JJ., concur. GRIFFIN, J., dissents with opinion.

Dissent
GRIFFIN, Judge,

GRIFFIN, Judge,

dissenting.

This juvenile was adjudicated delinquent on March 29,1994 for the offenses of possession of cocaine, a third degree felony, and sale of cocaine, a second degree felony. Within the preceding eighteen months, he had had four prior adjudications: two for delivery of cocaine, one for possession of cocaine and one for resisting an officer without violence. He was on community control at the time of his two most current felonies. He was placed on home detention pending disposition. At his dispositional hearing on April 14, 1994, the court committed him to the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, at level four. At his counsel’s request, the court continued him on home detention pending placement. On appeal, it is contended that, despite counsel’s request, the lower court acted illegally in continuing home detention because the court failed to make any of the findings set forth in section 39.042(1), Florida Statutes (1993), that the child:

(a) Presents a substantial risk of not appearing at a subsequent hearing;

(b) Presents a substantial risk of inflicting bodily harm on others as evidenced by recent behavior;

(c) Presents a history of committing a serious property offense prior to adjudication, disposition, or placement;

(d) Requests protection from imminent bodily harm.

The state, in light of R.W. v. Soud, 639 So. 2d 25 (Fla.1994), concedes error. It is by now clear that the detention provisions of part II of Chapter 39 are beyond redemption. With each legislative amendment and every judicial opinion it seems to get worse. If the Florida legislature cannot write a statute that is understandable in any consistent and logical way by educated people who are trying to understand and follow the law, and workable in the context of the caseloads of Florida’s juvenile judges, it should be scrapped entirely and someone should start over.


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  • Nagy v. State, 657 So. 2d 1283 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995)
    …PER CURIAM. AFFIRMED. See Hilbert v. State, 647 So. 2d 1075 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994). W. SHARP, GOSHORN and GRIFFIN, JJ., concur.…
  • V.P. v. State of Fla. & Dep't of Juv. Just., 72 So. 3d 788 (Fla. 4th DCA 2011)
    …iting placement in a residential program. Any form of detention care ordered pending placement had to be authorized by the statutory criteria governing the use of predisposition detention. See R.W. v. Soud, 639 So. 2d 25 (Fla.1994); D.F.M. v. State, 647 So. 2d 1075 (Fla. 5th DCA 1994) (concluding that court erred in placing juvenile on home detention pending placement where no findings authorizing home detention were made). 1994 Amendments In 1994, the legislature amended the postcommitment detention section…

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