Opinion
Appellate case number: 01-17-00049-CV
06-21-2017
ORDER OF ABATEMENT Trial court case number: 14-CJV-019101 Trial court: County Court at Law No 3 of Fort Bend County
This is an accelerated appeal from a decision of a juvenile court under section 54.02 of the Texas Family Code waiving its exclusive jurisdiction and certifying the juvenile to stand trial as an adult. See TEX. FAM. CODE § 54.02. Appeals in juvenile certification cases are to be brought to final disposition within 180 days of the date the notice of appeal is filed, so far as reasonably possible. See Texas Supreme Court Order Accelerating Juvenile Certification Appeals and Requiring Juvenile Courts to Give Notice of the right to an Immediate Appeal (Tex. Aug. 28, 2015) (Order, Misc. Docket No. 15-9156); see also TEX. FAM. CODE § 56.01(h-1). Appellant timely filed a notice of appeal on January 20, 2017.
J.G.M.'s appellant's brief was originally due on March 6, 2017. On March 28, 2017, after notice was sent informing appellant that the time for filing appellant's brief had expired, appellant's appointed counsel, Patti Sedita, filed a motion requesting an extension of time to file appellant's brief to June 22, 2017. This court granted the motion in part, extending the deadline to file appellant's brief to May 1, 2017 and noting that no further extensions of time will be granted. Appellant's counsel failed to file a brief and, instead, filed another motion on May 9, 2017 requesting an additional sixty-day extension of time to file appellant's brief. This court denied the motion on May 11, 2017 and notified counsel that, unless the brief was filed by May 15, 2017, the case would be abated and remanded to the trial court for counsel to show cause as to why the brief was not filed and to determine whether new appellate counsel should be appointed. Counsel failed to respond and no brief was filed on behalf of appellant. On May 24, 2017, the clerk of this court sent a final late-brief notice notifying counsel that the time for filing appellant's brief had expired and requested that the brief to be filed within 10 days of that notice. Counsel again failed to respond and, to date, no brief has been filed on behalf of appellant.
Accordingly, the Court abates this appeal for the trial court to hold a hearing to determine whether good cause exists to remove appellant's appointed counsel, Patti Sedita, of her duties and, if so, to enter orders withdrawing counsel and appointing new counsel. Any hearing shall be conducted within 7 days of the date of this Order. The trial court clerk shall file a supplemental clerk's record containing the trial court's orders within 10 days of the date of this Order.
The appeal is abated, treated as a closed case, and removed from this Court's active docket. The appeal will be reinstated on this Court's active docket when the supplemental clerk's record complying with this Order is filed with this Court.
It is so ORDERED. Judge's signature: /s/ Jane Bland
Acting individually Date: June 21, 2017