The Vermont Senate is taking up legislation to deal with people who commit a crime as a juvenile but aren’t caught and prosecuted until reaching adulthood.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Sears says his committee decided to examine the issue after judges in both juvenile and adult courts in Bennington said they didn’t have jurisdiction to hear the case of an 18-year-old charged with committing sex crimes when he was 13.
The Vermont criminal division judge – who normally hears cases in which adults are charged – said the case belonged in Family Court, where cases involving juveniles are heard. But the Family Court said an 18-year-old is too old to have a case heard in juvenile court.
Sears says that effectively put the case in limbo.