Art. 879. Presence at adjudication hearing; exclusion of witnesses

            A. The child, his parents, counsel, the district attorney, authorized officials of the court, and witnesses called by the parties may be present at the adjudication hearing.

            B.(1) All proceedings in a juvenile delinquency case involving a crime of violence as defined in R.S. 14:2(B) or a delinquent act which is a second or subsequent felony-grade adjudication shall be open to the public.

            (2) Except as otherwise provided by law, in all juvenile delinquency proceedings involving the violation of first degree murder (R.S. 14:30), second degree murder (R.S. 14:30.1), aggravated or first degree rape (R.S. 14:42), aggravated kidnapping (R.S. 14:44), armed robbery (R.S. 14:64), negligent homicide (R.S. 14:32), or vehicular homicide (R.S. 14:32.1), the court shall allow the victim, the victim's spouse, children, siblings, parents, grandparents, guardians, and legal custodians to be present at the adjudication hearing.

            C. On its own motion the court may, and on the request of a party the court shall, order that the witnesses, other than parties, be excluded from the courtroom or from a place where they can see or hear the proceedings, and refrain from discussing the facts of the case with anyone other than counsel in the case. In the interest of justice, the court may exempt any witness from its order.

            D. This Article does not authorize exclusion of any of the following witnesses:

            (1) A party who is a natural person.

            (2) A single officer or single employee of a party which is not a natural person designated as its representative or case agent by its attorney.

            (3) A person whose presence is shown by a party to be essential to the presentation of his cause such as an expert.

            (4) The victim of the offense or the family of the victim.

            E. A court may impose appropriate sanctions for violations of its exclusion order including contempt, or when such sanctions are insufficient, disqualification of the witness.

            Acts 1991, No. 235, §8, eff. Jan. 1, 1992; Acts 1993, No. 769, §1; Acts 1994, 3rd Ex. Sess., No. 120, §1, eff. July 7, 1994; Acts 1995, No. 1313 §1, eff. June 29, 1995; Acts 2011, No. 251, §2; Acts 2015, No. 184, §8; Acts 2023, No. 448, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2024.