By Lew
AveraLast month I suggested grand jury
service as an opportunity of a lifetime. In so doing, I provided background
information on the derivation, statutory background and other information, but
little on the real dynamics of full time service for a year on our local Orange
County Grand Jury. Briefly, some of those are below.
Grand jury members are selected from
across the county. They represent a very wide and diverse range of experiences
and perspectives. The foreperson of the jury is selected by the court, however,
other positions such as pro tem, secretary, committee chairs, etc. are selected
by the jury members themselves. These kind of organizational dynamics require a
very high level of teamwork and collegiality. It doesn’t mean that all members
have to see eye-to-eye or agree on everything. Quite the contrary. The law
requires that public actions and decisions be made with a vote of at least 12
of the 19 members. Should we not agree with the “supermajority” vote, crucial
is the ability to put the issues behind us and move on to the next matter of
business. Among the sterling rewards of serving are the potentially lasting
relationships and friendships with fellow jurors developed through serving and
working together for the year.
The county grand jury is organized
into six “investigative” committees of six members each. Each member of the
jury serves on two of these committees. In addition, there are two larger committees,
editorial and orientation, which provide support to the entire jury. The
activities of the six investigative committees represent the major time
commitment of the jury members over the year.
For the first several months, a
significant amount of time is spent with all 19 members together, organizing
and determining topics for investigation, bringing in outside speakers and
making site visits to county organizations. As time goes on and investigative
topics are determined, the majority of time will be spent working in the six
member committees actually conducting interviews, accomplishing the
investigations and writing the actual investigative reports.
In carrying out their work, jury
members are, by law, sworn to “secrecy for life” for all matters and
information coming before the jury. In this same sense, the jury has no outside
parties telling it what to do or looking over its shoulder. The grand jury is a
completely independent body. Its advisors include a supervising judge,
primarily for administrative matters and the final sign off on investigations,
but not for operational or decision making supervision. In addition, the
CountyClerk, District Attorney, and state Attorney General, may act as “legal
advisors” and are available to the jury only at the jury’s request. One
exception to this rule is the role of the District Attorney in bringing
criminal indictment hearings to the jury. This is done at the request of the DA
to the jury and with the jury’s cooperation. The DA does all the investigative work,
develops all of the evidence and brings the case to the jury via a closed and
secret hearing. The jury makes the decision to forward for trial based upon the
DA’s work.
Given the above, you can see that
the jury members are working closely with each other for a full
year. Again, you are encouraged to apply and serve. More information is
available online at www.ocgrandjury.org. In addition, I am happy to answer
questions, and can be reached at lewavera@cox.net.
Lew Avera
is a retired career officer, Lt. Col., U.S. Marine Corps. He was a resident of
San Clemente in 1963-1965 while serving as a Company Commander at Camp San
Mateo. He returned to San Clemente in 2001 when he retired from
PricewaterhouseCoopers as a senior managing director. He has been a director of
the Talega HOA since 2003, was foreperson of the Orange County grand jury in
2004-2005 and served on the San Clemente Planning Commission from 2005 to 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment