In the Interest of D. D.

Evidence that the juvenile intentionally made unwanted physical contact with a classmate's breast supported his delinquency adjudication for sexual battery.

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D. D. was adjudicated delinquent in Rockdale County Juvenile Court for committing sexual battery against a classmate at his middle school. He appeals his adjudication, claiming that the evidence of sexual battery was insufficient and that the juvenile court improperly engaged in ex parte communications with a State witness. For the reasons noted infra , we affirm the juvenile court’s delinquency adjudication on condition and remand this case with direction. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the juvenile court’s adjudication,1 the record shows that D. D. and the victim, M. T., were sixth-grade students at the same middle school when 11-year-old D. D. approached M. T. at her locker and touched her left breast for approximately two seconds. Although M. T. did not say anything in response, or otherwise react perhaps out of shock, she informed her mother about the incident later that day. M. T. testified that she did not immediately approach her teacher because she “felt violated” and as if she should first tell her parents about what had happened. Her parents then informed the school, and M. T. spoke to the school resource officer and made a written statement the following day. Two days later, a complaint for misdemeanor sexual battery was filed in the Rockdale County Juvenile Court with the school resource officer listed as the complainant, and D. D. was thereafter charged by the State with felony sexual battery.2

Shortly before his adjudicatory hearing on the sexual-battery charge, D. D. was also charged with bringing a weapon to school, a felony, after another student witnessed him with “a folding tool kit which contained a silver colored knife blade.” D. D. admitted to this subsequent charge, claiming that he had gone fishing with his father the day before and had forgotten that the tool was in his jacket pocket, but he continued to adamantly deny the sexual-battery charge.

In the Interest of D. D.

Evidence that the juvenile intentionally made unwanted physical contact with a classmate's breast supported his delinquency adjudication for sexual battery.

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