DA says no request yet for grand jury in Moore case
John Driscoll/The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 09/13/2007 04:24:22 AM PDT
Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos insists he has not decided whether to ask a judge to convene a grand jury in the fatal police shooting of Cheri Lyn Moore in April 2006, contrary to a news report this week citing unspecified public officials.
Gallegos said that remains a possibility, as he has said repeatedly. A request to a judge would be confidential and a jury would meet in closed session until an indictment was handed down or dismissed.
Arnie Klein, the prosecutor said in the news report to have been asked by Gallegos to begin the process of convening a grand jury, also said no decision had been made.
”The reporter for the Eureka Reporter has never contacted me, never verified with me, or verified it -- to my knowledge -- with any responsible or knowing authority,” Klein said Wednesday.
Klein said that all cases are ongoing, and that when a final decision has been made, the DA's office would act on it.
Cheri Lyn Moore was shot after a standoff with Eureka police officers on April 14, 2006. A mentally ill Moore brandished a flare gun and threatened to burn down her apartment building at Fifth and G streets. Police have said they believed Moore had put down the flare gun when the order was given to kick in her door. But when officers went in, according to police reports, Moore was pointing the signal-flare gun at them. They shot her multiple times.
Gallegos has yet to announce whether he will press charges against the police department and the officers who shot Moore, or whether to pursue a grand jury route.
According to California law, a presiding judge -- or a judge appointed by the presiding judge -- can impanel a grand jury, or decide to at the request of the district attorney. The judge would select a jury from a list of trial jurors. A grand jury meets in secret, hearing evidence and returning an indictment if it finds probable cause. If an indictment is issued, the matter would be tried by a regular jury.
Gallegos said that if the grand jury course is pursued, he has to think of the effects the media has had on potential jurors in the county. The case has been the subject of intense and continual media and public attention, and has been revisited after each of several police shootings and police-related deaths in 2006 and 2007.
If the case does go to the grand jury, Gallegos said, he hopes jurors can be found that haven't been tainted by press reports.
”Everyone is entitled to an impartial finding,” he said.
The Times-Standard
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