Starting next month, juveniles in Mendocino County who receive an infraction like a speeding ticket will have their case handled in court rather than by the county’s Probation Department.
People under the age of 18 accused of infractions such as speeding, possessing an open container of alcohol in public, or causing a noise disturbance like a party that disrupts neighbors will have their case reviewed in Mendocino County Superior Court starting Feb. 1.
Infraction cases were previously managed by the county probation department’s juvenile division, which evaluates cases and recommends steps the minor can take to have the infraction dismissed.
At a Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting last week, Chief Probation Officer Izen Locatelli told the board that the decision was due in part to Assembly Bill 2746, a state law that was passed in 2022, with parts of the law going into effect in 2027.
AB 2746 repeals a requirement that the Department of Motor Vehicles suspends a driver’s license when a person fails to appear in court or in front of “a person authorized to receive a deposit of bail” like a probation officer.
“AB 2746 again takes my ability away from holding youth accountable,” Locatelli told the supervisors. “If you no-showed to your hearing, I can’t do anything about it or this law. We used to suspend your driver’s license, now I can’t do anything. So I’m going to push this back onto our courts and our courts have agreed to take this.”
Locatelli said in an interview that he decided to remove juvenile infraction cases from the probation department’s authority primarily due to several changes brought by Assembly Bill 2746. He said that with the implementation of the bill, juvenile probation would face an increased workload and more pressure to decide whether a case should go through the court system, which he said could also affect the department’s neutrality in handling juvenile infractions.
Locatelli said that if the department continued handling those cases without the ability to suspend a driver’s license when a juvenile failed to appear in court, he would likely have to request more misdemeanor filings for minors.
“The way I interpret that, is the only way you can hold them accountable is filing a ‘failure to appear’ and requesting a misdemeanor now,” he added. “That results in me filing a petition to be reviewed by the district attorney, and then that could lead to a juvenile being put in juvenile hall. I don’t want to put kids in juvenile hall by my choice over what started as an infraction.”
For infractions, probation departments typically handle these cases informally. Generally, a minor would be required to complete community service, attend educational or counseling programs, or do traffic school. If the minor completed the program, the infraction would be dismissed and would not appear on their permanent record.
Courts can still require juveniles to complete educational or counseling programs, perform community service, or demonstrate other behavioral improvements to have an infraction dismissed. However, Locatelli said it may be a more stressful experience for minors to go through the court system rather than the juvenile probation department.
“It is easier to deal with a probation officer than the court, but this is what we are going to do,” Locatelli said at the Board of Supervisors meeting last week. “This is an efficiency savings for my department.”
He added that Mendocino County is one of the last regions in the state to start handling juvenile infraction cases in its courts.
A press release sent this week by Mendocino County Superior Court says, “The court will use its discretion to make orders that help juveniles make different choices about law violations in the future.”
Under this new change, when a juvenile receives an infraction, the court will send a notice to schedule a hearing with Presiding Juvenile Judge Carly Dolan. These hearings are mandatory and confidential. A parent or legal guardian must attend with the minor, and participants can join remotely on Zoom if needed.
“The goal of the juvenile infraction program is to raise the juvenile’s awareness and accountability for their conduct, ultimately making them better drivers and citizens,” the court’s press release states.
Locatelli at last week’s meeting warned the board that the change could lead to some confusion for juveniles who receive infractions, so he will be talking to local law enforcement to ensure that minors know what they need to do.
“The court isn’t the greatest historically of spelling out what it is that needs to happen,” Locatelli said. “The patrol officers need to know when they are giving the citation to the youth so that they show up in court.”
This story originally appeared in The Mendocino Voice.