## Facts

- MLC, a sixteen-year-old, was charged in Utah juvenile court with armed robbery.
- The juvenile-court matter was a civil proceeding initiated by a petition of criminal information.
- Because armed robbery qualified MLC as a “serious youth offender” under Utah statute, the juvenile court was required to hold a determination hearing to decide whether to transfer MLC to district court for adult prosecution.
- While waiting for the determination hearing, MLC requested that the juvenile court set bail so he could be released from detention.
- The juvenile court denied the request and detained MLC until the determination hearing.
- At the determination hearing, the juvenile court ordered MLC transferred to adult criminal court.
- After ordering the transfer, the juvenile court set MLC’s bail.
- MLC appealed the earlier denial of bail during the pre-hearing detention period, claiming violations of the Eighth Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause, and related provisions of the Utah Constitution.
- By the time the appeal was heard, MLC’s bail had been set in connection with the adult prosecution, making his individual claim moot; the Utah Supreme Court nonetheless reviewed the issue because it was likely to recur and otherwise avoid appellate review.

## Issues

1. Whether the Utah Supreme Court should decide the bail question even though MLC’s personal claim had become moot.
2. Whether denying bail to a juvenile held in juvenile court custody while awaiting a serious-youth-offender determination (transfer) hearing violates the Eighth Amendment, equal protection, or parallel Utah constitutional provisions.

## Decision

- The court addressed the merits despite mootness because pre-transfer bail disputes are likely to recur and typically end before appellate review can occur.
- The court affirmed the juvenile court’s denial of bail during the period MLC awaited the determination hearing.
- The court treated the pre-transfer juvenile proceeding as civil in character and concluded that adult criminal-law bail expectations did not control that detention period.
- The court rejected MLC’s Eighth Amendment claim, reasoning that the constitutional bar on excessive bail does not create an across-the-board right to bail in this setting.
- The court rejected equal protection and related state-constitutional arguments, concluding that juveniles detained pending a transfer determination are not similarly situated to adults charged in criminal court and that the different detention treatment was justified under the applicable level of review.

## Legal Principles

- An appellate court may decide an otherwise-moot issue when it is likely to arise again yet consistently ends before review can be completed.
- Pre-transfer juvenile proceedings are treated as civil proceedings even when they involve conduct that would be criminal if charged in adult court.
- The Eighth Amendment’s excessive-bail clause limits bail when bail is available; it does not require the state to provide bail in every detention context.
- Equal protection does not require identical bail treatment for juveniles in civil juvenile-court custody and adults in criminal court when the groups are not similarly situated and the classification has a rational justification tied to legitimate governmental aims.
- Parallel Utah constitutional provisions concerning bail and equal treatment do not supply broader protection on these facts where the juvenile is detained in juvenile court pending a statutory transfer determination.

## Conclusion

In *State v. MLC*, the Utah Supreme Court reviewed a moot pre-transfer detention dispute because it was likely to recur and evade review, and it affirmed the juvenile court’s refusal to set bail for a serious youth offender awaiting a statutory determination hearing, holding that the civil juvenile posture did not trigger an affirmative constitutional right to bail and that the challenged differential treatment did not violate equal protection or Utah constitutional guarantees.


State v. MLC, 933 P.2d 380 (1997)