In re K.J.

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 1424

Syllabus

The trial court did not err by overruling in part objection's to a magistrate's decision that ordered a juvenile traffic offender to pay restitution of approximately $14,000 to the victims of his admitted offenses. R.C. 2152.203, which authorizes a juvenile court to order payment of full restitution for a victim's economic loss caused by a juvenile's delinquent act and which provides for reducing an unpaid restitution order to a civil judgment when the offender turns 21 years old, does not violate the provisions in the United States Constitution and the Ohio Constitution prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. As required by R.C. 2152.203, the amount of restitution ordered here represented the victims' actual economic loss, as established by a preponderance of the evidence at a restitution hearing, and was therefore not grossly disproportionate to the juvenile's offenses. The trial court did not err by refusing a request to apportion the restitution between the juvenile offender and other occupants of the car the offender was driving, when those occupants were not charged with any offenses and were not before the juvenile court.