Grand Jury Processes Take Place Out of Public Eye

By: Dean Meminger Text size: +-

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All the attention surrounding the grand jury proceedings stops at the courthouse door. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report on the process, which takes place out of the public eye.

Grand juries are secretive court proceedings, so it's hard to say what's going on in the case of Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who put Eric Garner in a chokehold as he tried to arrest him in July. A grand jury's sole purpose is to determine if there's reasonable evidence to indict or charge a person with a serious crime and move forward with a trial.

'A grand jury consists of 23 people,' said defense attorney Jaye Ballard. 'You need at least 16 people to constitute a quorum. In other words, you need to have at least 16 grand jurors in the room to make a decision, and 12 people must agree to indict.'

Ballard has represented scores of clients. He's also worked in the Brooklyn district attorney's office. He said defense attorneys can only be present in a grand jury proceeding if their client is testifying. The defense lawyer can not intervene, but grand jurors can. 'Grand jurors have the ability to ask questions of the witnesses also,' Ballard said. 'Typically, what the prosecutor will do is look at the questions to make sure that the questions that the grand jury has for a particular witness have a legal basis.'

Because Pantaleo has not be charged with any crime yet, Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan doesn't have a time limit on when he has to present evidence to the special grand jury.

'Often times, in cases that are politically charged like this one, they will convene a special grand jury that will only hear this particular case, especially if there's volumes and volumes of evidence,' said civil rights attorney Gerald Cohen.

Most grand juries hear evidence in multiple cases. Two former Bronx prosecutors say it's not hard to indict because DAs usually present a limited amount of evidence.

'My clients would love it if in every situation, they presented the whole story to the grand jury and just kind of had a mini-trial,,' said civil rights attorney Joshua Fitch. 'But that's not the case. It's usually a much more focused presentation because at the end of the day, the prosecution typically knows exactly what they want.'

It's still hard to predict if there will be an indictment. It depends on what evidence and testimony was presented to the grand jury.