Winston County Youth Court Judge Hugh Hathorn has released statistics for the Winston County Youth Court for calendar year 2019.
Winston County Youth Court held a total of 236 hearings in 2019. 105 hearings involved delinquency cases and included 57 adjudication, detention hearings and restitution hearings and 48 disposition and post-disposition review hearings.
The Youth Court also heard 131 cases involving child protection including 32 adjudication hearings, 18 disposition hearings, 66 permanency and review hearings and 15 shelter hearings.
The Youth Court has exclusive original jurisdiction in all proceedings concerning a delinquent child (a child accused of a criminal act), a child in need of supervision, a neglected child, an abused child or a dependent child excluding cases where the criminal act, if committed by an adult, would be punishable under state or federal law by life imprisonment or death, and excluding cases involving the use of a deadly weapon which would be a felony if committed by an adult. The Youth Court also hears truancy cases under the Mississippi Compulsory School Attendance law. Criminal offenses committed by a child over age 18 are under the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court.
Chancery Clerk Rusty Foster serves as Clerk of the Youth Court. County prosecuting attorney Zachary Madison serves as Youth Court prosecutor. Caroline Commer serves as Youth Court guardian and Emily Vandevender serves as MYCIDS Coordinator. MYCIDS is the acronym for the Mississippi Youth Court Information Delivery System and is the statewide youth court information and case management system.
In addition to the Youth Court hearings, Judge Hathorn also heard 25 mental commitment cases and 34 drug and alcohol commitment cases as Special Master in Chancery Court during 2019.
