Jeffery v. McHugh

¶1On September 30, 1979, seventeen-year-old M.D.J. apparently hanged himself in the Kanawha County Jail. *380The circumstances of his death received widespread publicity, and twelve days later the county prosecutor moved the circuit court for an order opening the juvenile’s records. Chief Judge Thomas McHugh:

... ORDERED that any and all dispositional orders; (2) any and all transcripts of juvenile proceedings before this Court; and (3) a report of investigation by the Sheriff of Kanawha County concerning the suicide of the aforesaid deceased juvenile, be transmitted forthwith to the custody of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Kanawha County, there to be maintained in the manner prescribed by law as public records and documents separate and apart from the remainder of said records, which confidentiality is maintained....

¶2The child’s mother asks us to prohibit release of the records.

¶3The confidentiality of juvenile records has been dictated by the Legislature, W. Va. Code, 49-7-1,1 and Code, *38149-5-17(d), defines the five exceptions to the rule that “juvenile records shall not be disclosed or made available for inspection.” By written order, the court may only permit disclosure when:

(1) A court having juvenile jurisdiction has the child before it in a juvenile proceeding;

(2) A court exercising criminal jurisdiction over the child requests such records for the purpose of a presentence report or other dispositional proceeding;

(3) The child or counsel for the child requests disclosure or inspection of such records;

(4) The officials of public institutions to which a child is committed require such records for transfer, parole or discharge considerations; or

(5) A person doing research requests disclosure, on the condition that information which would identify the child or family involved in the proceeding shall not be divulged.

¶4W. Va. Code, 49-5-17(d).

¶5This Court could expand upon the legislatively-created exceptions only if there were constitution-compelled reasons to do so,2 and we are cited to none, and have found none. Also, there is no authority in any other jurisdiction for court-ordered revelation of a deceased juvenile’s records whose confidentiality is established by statute.

¶6None of the limited exceptions in Code, 49-5-17(d), include disclosure to a prosecutor unless a court has the child before it in a proceeding, and the statute was clearly designed to prohibit public disclosure anytime, even when the records are allowed to be opened in one of the exceptional circumstances enumerated. See also, Standards, supra, §§ 15.1 and 15.6.

¶7*382Code, 49-7-1, refers to the confidentiality of juvenile records. Although this section provides additional circumstances in which they may be released, it was amended in 1978 to specifically exempt “juvenile court records” from those provisions. See Footnote 1, supra.

¶8The prosecutor has no standing to be before the circuit court with this request. When M.D.J. died, his case ended, and there is no other pending action to which the prosecutor is a party that involves M.D.J. and might allow invoking the statutory exceptions. See, 67A C.J.S., Parties, §§ 11-12; 59 Am. Jur. 2d, Parties, §§ 26-27. See also, Code, 7-4-1. We therefore decide that the motion should not have been granted, and prohibition is awarded.

¶9Writ granted.