Utah’s highest court will hear the case of a Utah boy who was 16 years old when he was sent to adult prison for an aggravated robbery, though he was paroled just six months later.
In February, the Utah Court of Appeals vacated a 2013 order that moved Cooper Van Huizen’s case to district court, finding that the juvenile court judge assigned to the case should have recused herself because she was married to the then-chief criminal deputy in the Weber County Attorney’s Office, who was prosecuting the matter. Because the judge did not disclose the relationship, Van Huizen’s lawyers did not have the opportunity to request her disqualification, the decision says.