Justia Maine Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

In 2014, Hailey’s mother petitioned the Cumberland County Probate Court for Hailey’s paternal grandparents to be appointed as guardians so that Hailey could attend school in Freeport. She withdrew the petition weeks later, stating that the arrangement was “for an educational purpose that [was] no longer needed.” .Weeks later, the grandparents petitioned to have themselves appointed as guardians of the child, stating that the child needed a safe and supportive environment and had threatened to run away from her mother’s house. The child began to live with her grandparents in January 2015. The child’s father consented to the guardianship, but her mother did not. The court heard testimony from the child, then 15 years old; her parents; and a clinician who had provided treatment services to the child and her mother, and entered a judgment finding, by clear and convincing evidence, that the mother had created a living situation that was at least temporarily intolerable for the child and that a guardianship with the grandparents was in the child’s best interest; mother had shown an inability to meet the child’s needs that threatened the child. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, rejecting challenges to the court’s findings and to the award of a full, rather than limited, guardianship, with no arrangement for transition back to mother’s home. View "Guardianship of Hailey M." on Justia Law

G.F., a juvenile, was adjudicated to have committed an assault. The district court committed G.F., who was thirteen years old at the time, to the Department of Corrections Mountain View Youth Development Center for an indeterminate period up to age seventeen. The superior court affirmed the district court’s judgment. G.F. appealed, arguing that the disposition was disproportionate to the assault adjudication and not rationally related to the purposes of the Maine Juvenile Code. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, holding that the Court lacked jurisdiction over the appeal because the statutes do not authorize the Court to review a disposition. View "State v. G.F." on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Appellant Scott Brockelbank was convicted of aggravated criminal trespass and assault. The Court of Appeals affirmed Appellant's judgment and sentence, holding (1) the evidence was sufficient to disprove Appellant's competing harms defense because there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find that the State disproved at least one of the elements of the defense; and (2) the sentencing court acted within its discretion by permitting the State to introduce information related to Appellant's nonpublic juvenile adjudication during the sentencing proceedings to the limited extent reasonably necessary to respond to and explain information introduced by Appellant related to the same adjudication. View "State v. Brockelbank" on Justia Law