Judge to release Grand Jury findings Friday
The Bourbon County Grand Jury investigating allegations against local city officials will meet Friday behind closed doors to disclose its findings, followed by an open session giving the public a glimp of its decision, Sixth Judicial Chief Judge Richard Smith said.
The jury will meet at 1 or 1:30 p.m. at the Bourbon County Courthouse.
The courtroom will be closed to the public during the session. Smith said it will be closed, because the proceedings have been secret and closed since commencing in August.
Smith, who will preside over the procession, said after he dismisses the jury during the closed door session, he'll hold an open court session for the public.
"We're going to have something in open court where I report on what the grand jury has done," Smith said. "I think people deserve an explaination as to what went on(in the grand jury findings)."
The jury has frequently convened to investigate investigate allegations of state and federal misconduct by Fort Scott city commissioners and staff. Some of the criminal violations alleged in the petition that prompted the grand jury investigation involve misuse of public funds, presenting a false claim, permitting a false claim, making a false writing and obstruction of official duty.
The petition, circulated by members from the Citizens Advisory Committee, called for the grand jury to investigate the alleged wrongdoings.
The jury's options include issuing one or more indictments or issuing no indictments. If no indicments are ordered, the jury could release a public statement saying mistakes were made but without criminality occurring.
If the jury indicts, which can only happen if 12 of the 15 jurors agree, it's up to the prosecuting agency to decide the next course of action. Smith said it's unknown, if there are indictments, whether the Kansas Attorney General's Office or the Bourbon County Attorney's Office will spearhead legal action.
The prosecuting agency has options, as well. It could issue either summons or arrest warrants.
Typically, the summons will announce to the person to whom it is directed that a legal proceeding has been started against that person, and that a file has been started in the court records. The summons announces a date by which the defendant or defendants must either appear in court or respond in writing to the court. Summonses are public record, Smith said.
An arrest warrant, if issued, would be sealed until law enforcement makes the arrest, upon which the warrant would become public record, Smith said.
Legally, there's no difference in level of severity between a summons and an arrest warrant.
One summons or warrant will be issued for each of the defendants indicted, if there are multiple indicments, Smith said.
The prosecutor can't dismiss an indicment unless they ask a court of appeals for authority to dismiss the charge, effectivly overriding the indicment, Smith said.
"I'd say that would be really rare," Smith said.
The jury, from a legal standpoint, doesn't have to explain why it didn't issue indicments.
However, the jury could possibly release a public statement explaining that city officials made mistakes and there were problems with aspects of their decision making, but that no criminal violations happened, Smith said. The statement could include suggestions to city officials about how to correct the errors. A grand jury in Miami County a couple of decades ago released a just such a public statement after investigating Paola city government.
"Dare I use the phrase, but they're kind of going over the top if they do something like that," Smith said. "If you just read the law, really, their only decision is indict or not indict."
"I don't know if anyone will be indicted or not," Smith said.