A.W. v. Commonwealth

Opinion of the Court by

Justice SCOTT.

This is an appeal from the Court of Appeals, which upheld the Juvenile Court’s exercise of contempt powers as punishment for violations of conditions of probation; yet reversed the contempt sentence due to the absence of several due process safeguards during the hearing.

A.W., a fourteen-year-old juvenile, was adjudicated a public offender on March 21, 2001 by the Campbell District Court, juvenile session, and given a thirty (30) day detention sentence, probated with conditions — two of which where “to abide by a nightly curfew” and “to receive no new…