Matter of Andrew R.

Thirteen-year-old Andrew R. (defendant), an intelligent, generally well-behaved boy with some minor emotional issues, was persuaded by his father (plaintiff) to voluntarily enter a residential treatment center for what Andrew believed would be just one month, but his father left him there seven months without any judicial review of the placement. Andrew ran away, returned home, and begged his father not to make him go back; when his father insisted and even handed him a knife after Andrew threatened to kill him, Andrew did not act on the threat. His father then petitioned to have Andrew declared a person in need of supervision (PINS) for being beyond parental control and truant from school; during the fact-finding hearing, the guardian ad litem's objection to expanding testimony beyond the petition's specific allegations was sustained on due-process grounds.