## Facts

- C.T. was a Cherokee juvenile accused of committing property offenses on the reservation on September 27, 2009.
- On November 12, 2009, a juvenile-services intake counselor with the Cherokee Court of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians took delinquency complaint JV10-07 concerning the September 27, 2009 allegations.
- On January 6, 2010—55 days after the intake complaint was taken—the Tribe filed delinquency petition JV10-07 in tribal court, charging C.T. with property offenses arising from the September 27, 2009 incident.
- C.T. moved to dismiss JV10-07 based on filing defects.
- On April 16, 2010, the Tribe filed a second delinquency petition, JV10-20, alleging additional offenses tied to the September 27, 2009 incident and reiterating charges from JV10-07.
- C.T. moved to dismiss JV10-20 on multiple grounds, including that the petition violated Cherokee Code (C.C.) § 7A-8, which sets a time limit for filing delinquency petitions in tribal court.

## Issues

1. Whether delinquency petition JV10-20, filed months after the intake complaint and based on the same September 27, 2009 incident, was barred by the filing deadline in C.C. § 7A-8.
2. Whether the Tribe could avoid the C.C. § 7A-8 time limit by filing a second petition that repeated charges from an earlier petition facing dismissal for filing defects.

## Decision

- The tribal court granted C.T.’s motion to dismiss delinquency petition JV10-20.
- The court ruled that C.C. § 7A-8 imposes an enforceable deadline for filing delinquency petitions and that JV10-20 fell outside that deadline.
- The court rejected the Tribe’s attempt to keep the same prosecution alive by bringing a later petition that reiterated charges from JV10-07 after the statutory time period had run.

## Legal Principles

- A statutory time limit for filing a juvenile delinquency petition under C.C. § 7A-8 is binding, and a petition filed outside the required period is subject to dismissal.
- When the government brings a later petition arising from the same underlying incident after the filing window has expired, the later filing does not cure the timeliness problem simply because an earlier petition was filed and later challenged for defects.
- In juvenile delinquency matters, time limits for initiating proceedings protect the juvenile’s interest in prompt resolution and limit the government’s ability to prolong exposure to delinquency charges through serial filings.

## Conclusion

In *In re C.T.*, the Cherokee tribal court dismissed the Tribe’s later-filed delinquency petition under C.C. § 7A-8, holding that the statutory filing deadline could not be avoided by submitting a second petition that repeated charges from an earlier, procedurally defective filing based on the same incident.


In re C.T., 8 Am. Tribal Law 386 (2010)