J.P.S., a Child, Appellant, v. STATE (2019)

J.P.S., who was fourteen years old, entered a plea to lewd or lascivious conduct in violation of section 800.04(6)(c), Florida Statutes (2017). The court withheld adjudication of delinquency and placed J.P.S. on probation until he turned nineteen years old. Pursuant to section 985.475(2)(e), Florida Statutes (2017), the court adopted the Department of Juvenile Justice's proposed juvenile sexual offender treatment plan and incorporated the plan as a condition of probation. Counsel objected to probation until J.P.S.'s nineteenth birthday because it extended beyond the three-year maximum period in section 985.475(2)(e). The court maintained the term of probation, and J.P.S. timely appealed.

The issue on appeal involves the interaction of sections 985.475(2)(e) and 985.0301(5)(c), Florida Statutes (2017). Section 985.475(2)(e) provides, in pertinent part:

If the court determines that this juvenile sexual offender community-based treatment alternative is appropriate, the court may place the offender on community supervision for up to 3 years. As a condition of community treatment and supervision, the court may order the offender to:

1. Undergo available outpatient juvenile sexual offender treatment for up to 3 years.

(emphasis added). Section 985.0301(5)(c) provides:

The court shall retain jurisdiction over a juvenile sexual offender, as defined in s. 985.475, who has been placed on community-based treatment alternative with supervision or who has been placed in a program or facility for juvenile sexual offenders, pursuant to s. 985.48, until the juvenile sexual offender reaches 21 years of age, specifically for the purpose of allowing the juvenile to complete the program.

(emphasis added).

The distinction between the statutes is the court's authority to place a juvenile on community supervision, including probation, as opposed to its authority to retain jurisdiction over a juvenile to allow completion of a sex offender treatment program. Section 985.475(2)(e) limits community supervision to a period of up to three years. Section 985.0301(5)(c) permits the retention of jurisdiction over a juvenile until the age of twenty-one for the purpose of allowing the juvenile to complete treatment. Accordingly, the trial court was limited to imposing a three-year term of probation, rather than the five-year term imposed.

REVERSED and REMANDED for resentencing.

COHEN, J.

EDWARDS and SASSO, JJ., concur.