Brown v. State

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Defendant was charged in the district court with criminal contempt for violating a juvenile court order. Defendant entered a conditional no contest plea to the criminal contempt charges. Defendant then timely appealed, raising several issues. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) Defendant’s entire plea was invalid, but the Court exercised its discretion to convert Defendant’s appeal to a writ of review in order to clarify some of the questions of law; (2) the district court had concurrent jurisdiction over this criminal contempt action arising from conduct in juvenile court; but (3) Defendant was denied due process because the order to show cause did not contain all the elements of the charged offense, an error that was compounded when Defendant’s attorney was denied access to the juvenile court file which contained the order Defendant was accused of violating. Remanded. View "Brown v. State" on Justia Law