People v. Uriah R.

Opinion

J.The novel issue presented is whether and to what extent a waiver of the right to appeal by a juvenile is effective to restrict appellate review. We conclude that, in general, juvenile waivers are subject to the same principles governing waivers by adults. Like an adult criminal defendant, a juvenile can knowingly and intelligently waive or restrict appellate review, particularly when the waiver is part of a plea bargain that includes a stipulated disposition. But where, as here, a juvenile admits the truth of criminal allegations and acknowledges the maximum length of a possible commitment to the California Youth Authority (CYA), without agreement

The court rejected the urging of Uriah’s mother and counsel that the most appropriate disposition would be probation or local placement;' the court agreed with the probation officer’s recommendation for a CYA placement. Uriah was made a ward of the juvenile court and committed to the CYA for a period not to exceed four years and four months. The commitment term was calculated as follows: three years for what the commitment order described as “Accessory to attempted murder,” plus eight months for the weapons charge and another eight months for the marijuana charge.

Uriah filed a timely notice of appeal.

Review

I

n his opening brief Uriah contends: (1) the juvenile court abused its discretion in ordering the CYA commitment; (2) the weapons “sentence” should have been stayed pursuant to section 654 pending completion of the term on the accessory charge; and (3) “because the juvenile court did not specify an intent to sentence consecutively, the maximum period of Youth Authority confinement must be stated to be three years, the maximum term for any single count.” The Attorney General in his brief responded that review of the second and third of these contentions was precluded by Uriah’s waiver of appellate rights, but that his first contention could be examined on its merits. We requested supplemental briefing on the effectiveness and extent of Uriah’s waiver with respect to the issues he raised in his brief. The parties’ supplemental briefing has not only been very helpful, it reveals a surprising area of agreement.

The parties concur that there is no reported decision addressing the issue of juvenile appeal waivers. They further concur — as do we — that the most logical starting point for analyzing the issue of juvenile waivers is the treatment of adult waivers. That area is largely settled.

Proceeding from the premise that the right to appeal is purely statutory, courts have reasoned that if in the course of pleading guilty a

Uriah argues in effect that a juvenile should not be allowed to waive the right of appeal. He notes that waiver is not mentioned in either the statute authorizing juvenile appeals (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 800) or the court rule governing admissions of criminal allegations (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 1487) and thus concludes that this omission “is a strong indication that for juveniles, súch a waiver is impermissible.” But there are two statutory recognitions that a juvenile can waive his constitutional right to counsel (Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 634, 700) and two rule recognitions that a juvenile may waive additional constitutional rights and admit the charging allegations (Cal. Rules of Court, rules 1485(e), 1487(f)). Moreover, just like appeals from adult criminal court, all appeals from the juvenile court have a purely statutory basis. (E.g., People v. Chi Ko Wong (1976) 18 Cal.3d 698 , 709 [ 135 Cal.Rptr. 392 , 557 P.2d 976 ]; In re Rottanak K. (1995) 37 Cal.App.4th 260 , 265 [ 43 Cal.Rptr.2d 543 ]; Moch v. Superior Court (1919) 39 Cal.App. 471 , 478 [ 179 P. 440 ].) The same logic upholding adult waivers is equally applicable to juveniles — the mind capable of waiving constitutional rights is just as capable of waiving a less important statutory right. (See People v. Charles, supra, 171 Cal.App.3d 552 , 559-560.) Put another way, the person deemed intelligent enough to appreciate the consequences of admitting having committed a crime can also make an intelligent appreciation of the decision to forego review of that admission.

The general validity of juvenile waivers notwithstanding, the pertinent issue becomes the scope of the waiver that Uriah actually made. And here context is crucial. This was not the ordinary criminal prosecution, which almost invariably involves incarceration. Here, however, the venue was juvenile court, with a range of judicial responses extending all the way from release to parents to a CYA commitment. (See Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 727, 730.) Nothing said on the record by counsel, court, or client at the time Uriah admitted the allegations establishes that the decision to commit Uriah to the CYA had already been made. The same is true of the dispositional hearing. No one — not the probation officer, not the deputy district attorney, not the court — suggested there was no need to consider other alternatives because it was already decided that the minor would be sent to CYA. Further corroboration can be found in the waiver form executed by Uriah. It shows that Uriah was advised that “the court has many options at its disposal ranging from returning me to my home to placing me in the California Youth Authority” and that “disposition,” including probation, “is solely within the

Clearly there was no specified disposition that was an integral part of the plea bargain. Because the plea agreement left the ultimate result reserved and unresolved, Uriah could not knowingly and intelligently waive his right to complain of whatever unforeseeable error might occur at the dispositional hearing. (See People v. Panizzon, supra, 13 Cal.4th 68 , 84-86; People v. Vargas, supra, 13 Cal.App.4th 1653 , 1662.) In challenging the CYA commitment Uriah is not seeking “appellate review of an integral element of the negotiated plea agreement, as opposed to a matter left open or unaddressed by the deal.” (People v. Panizzon, supra, at p. 86 .)

The Attorney General concedes that Uriah can challenge the decision to commit him to the CYA, but he argues that the contentions based on section 654 and the terms imposed on the accessory and weapon charges cannot be reviewed because these are matters affecting “the maximum term of confinement to which he consented.” The Attorney General apparently reasons that because Uriah acknowledged that the “maximum punishment” he might receive was five years with the CYA, and the total term of the actual commitment was four years and four months, any claims regarding the configuration or computation of the commitment term is covered by the appellate waiver. In effect, the Attorney General reads the minor’s part of the bargain as “I don’t accept that I am going to CYA, but if I do it will be for no more than five years.”

The Attorney General appears to be proposing that a waiver can be valid in situations where a defendant or juvenile agrees to a disposition with a ceiling or maximum term of possible incarceration. Although one court has intimated that an appellate waiver may be acceptable in exchange for an indefinite term (see People v. Nguyen, supra, 13 Cal.App.4th 114 , 122), and the Attorney General’s reading of the waiver form is not beyond plausibility, we cannot find waiver here. As already established, Uriah was never expressly told by the change of plea form that he would be committed to the CYA. Nor is this want remedied by the brief reporter’s transcript, which has no mention of appellate consequences of Uriah admitting the allegations. There is nothing in the change of plea form or the reporter’s transcript to show that Uriah was acquainted with the consequences of waiving his right

We summarize our conclusions: (1) a juvenile is just as capable as an adult of making an intelligent and voluntary waiver of the purely statutory right to appeal; (2) the relevant statutes governing the proceedings conducted pursuant to the juvenile court law do not prohibit juvenile waivers; (3) a juvenile can agree to what is in obvious effect a plea bargain and, as an integral part of that bargain, the right to appeal may be waived; and, (4) in situations not involving a specified disposition, a juvenile’s general waiver will not preclude attacks on subsequent errors that are unforeseen or unforeseeable at the time the waiver was made.

A final note. The fact that a waiver of right to appeal will only rarely be applied according to its ordinarily brief and general language makes it important that the scope of the parties’ understanding of the waiver be put on the record. This may be done orally by court or counsel; a voluntary and enforceable waiver may also be shown by a writing, such as a change of plea form. (See People v. Panizzon, supra, 13 Cal.4th 68 , 83-84, and decisions cited.) In this case, however, the scope of his waiver was never explained to Uriah or stated for the record. The broad interpretation urged by the Attorney General is too heavily dependent upon speculation to be enforced. It therefore cannot block our examining the merits of Uriah’s contentions.