In Re Carr

In In Re: Carr, A Minor Child, Licking App. No. 08CA19, 2008 Ohio 5689 a fourteen year old juvenile was found delinquent by reason of rape and gross sexual imposition on January 14, 2005. The court committed the juvenile to DYS, but suspended the commitment and placed him on probation under specific terms and conditions. The court postponed the sex offender classification hearing until completion of disposition. On October 29, 2007, the court adjudicated Carr delinquent for violating his probation. The court classified him as a juvenile sex offender registrant, and committed him to DYS for a minimum period of one year and a maximum term of up to his 21st birthday. On appeal, Carr argued the trial court erred in classifying him as a juvenile sex offender registrant following the probation violation hearing, because it had failed to classify him as a registrant approximately three years earlier when it first adjudicated him delinquent because of a sexually oriented offense. In Carr, the Court cited Juv. R. 2 as defining a dispositional hearing as a hearing conducted to determine what action shall be taken concerning a child who is within the jurisdiction of the court. The Court found a hearing to revoke probation is a dispositional hearing, Id. at paragraph 18. In Carr, the Court cited State v. Bellman, 86 Ohio St. 3d 208, 1999 Ohio 95, 714 N.E.2d 381, wherein the Ohio Supreme Court construed R.C. 2950.09, the adult version of the sexual offender classification. The statute requires the court to conduct the sexual predator hearing prior to sentencing, or if the offense is a felony, the court may include it in the sentencing hearing. The Supreme Court found this language is directory rather than mandatory, and does not limit the jurisdiction of the court as to the timing of the hearing. Analogizing Bellman, we concluded the classification times set out in R.C. 2152.83 are directory and not mandatory, and thus, the court in Carr had discretion to make a determination at any dispositional hearing, or when the juvenile is released from a secure facility.