Opinion ID: 2079616
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: presence of counsel before grand jury

Text: The defendant claims the court erred in denying his motion that counsel be allowed to be present at the grand jury proceeding. He contends that a grand jury proceeding is a critical stage of a prosecution and that he, therefore, had a constitutional right to counsel, or, alternatively, that the court abused its discretion in not allowing counsel to be present. It is well established that an accused person has no constitutional right to the presence of counsel before a grand jury. State v. Cosgrove, 186 Conn. 476, 479, 442 A.2d 1320 (1982); State v. Piskorski, 177 Conn. 677, 680, 419 A.2d 866, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 935, 100 S. Ct. 283, 62 L. Ed. 2d 194 (1979); State v. Cobbs, 164 Conn. 402, 411-12, 324 A.2d 234, cert. denied, 414 U.S. 861, 94 S. Ct. 77, 38 L. Ed. 2d 112 (1973). This is the settled law of this state. State v. LaBreck, 159 Conn. 346, 348, 269 A.2d 74 (1970). See State v. Kearney, 164 Conn. 135, 139, 318 A.2d 100 (1972); State v. Delgado, 161 Conn. 537, 539, 290 A.2d 338 (1971), remanded for resentencing, 408 U.S. 940, 92 S. Ct. 2879, 33 L. Ed. 2d 764 (1972); State v. Stallings, 154 Conn. 272, 282, 224 A.2d 718 (1966); Lung's Case, 1 Conn. 428 (1815). Federal authorities take the same view. E.g., Cobbs v. Robinson, 528 F.2d 1331, 1337-40 (2d Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 947, 96 S. Ct. 1419, 47 L. Ed. 2d 354 (1976); United States v. Scully, 225 F.2d 113, 116 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 350 U.S. 897, 76 S. Ct. 156, 100 L. Ed. 788 (1955). Nor may a court exercise its discretion and allow counsel for a defendant to be present at grand jury proceedings. The traditional secrecy of the grand jury has been changed to the limited extent of allowing certain persons to be present in the discretion of the court; however, Practice Book § 609 does not include counsel for a defendant among the persons permitted to be present. A trial court has no authority to exercise its discretion to permit what the law proscribes. We see no reason to depart from our settled case law prohibiting the presence of the state's attorney and the defendant's attorney at proceedings before a grand jury. The court did not err in denying the defendant's request for the presence of counsel at the grand jury proceeding.