Santa Clara Council, Superior Court Building
191 North First Street
San Jose. California 95113
(408) 299 3949

Chambers of
Leonard P. Edwards. Judge

March 18, 1993


Dennis Handis
Chief Probation Officer
840 Guadalupe Parkway
San Jose, CA 95110

Dear Dennis:

I am writing to you about the need for your probation officers to obtain certain information about children and their parents who are before the juvenile dependency court. I understand that your probation officers need to have information about what the juvenile court has ordered with regards to a parent who is also a defendant in a criminal case. The child abuser who is a defendant in a criminal action and also a parent in a dependency action is subjected to two potentially conflicting sets of orders, those from the criminal court judge and those from the juvenile dependency judge. The probation officer should have full knowledge of what the juvenile court has ordered. In that manner, the probation department can best serve the court and the interests of the child victim.

I hereby authorize your probation officers to receive copies of juvenile court orders with regards to children and their parents when one parent or parent figure is either before the criminal court for sentencing or is being supervised by your department. I believe you should have a copy of the juvenile court orders and the reunification plan as it affects the defendant you are supervising.

I suggest that you work with the juvenile court clerk's office to establish a procedure whereby copies of these documents can he identified, copied and exchanged. Of course, these are confidential documents and may be used only in conjunction with your probation responsibilities. They cannot be given to others.

I have discussed this matter with Deputy counsel Rima Singh and conclude that a court order is not necessary to accomplish what I have outlined here. I hope that this letter will enable you to gain the information you need in order to complete your responsibilities. If you have any questions, please contact me.

Sincerely yours,

Leonard Edwards
Presiding Judge, Juvenile Court

LE:hd

cc:
Richard O'Neil, Director, DSS
Rima Singh, Deputy County Counsel
Darrell Campolong, Probation Department
Steve Love, County Clerk
Karen Sanguinetti
Chris Jolliff