Opinion ID: 1442633
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Intentional Misleading of Grand Jury

Text: The State next contends that the district court abused its discretion in holding that District Attorney Mills Lane intentionally presented half truths and intentionally misled the grand jury. [5] The district court found that its conclusion is supported by the testimony of Detective Brent Royle. We will confine our review to this testimony since the other factual basis cited by the district court to support its conclusion of intentional misconduct is not persuasive to us. The district court found that Detective Royle's testimony was misleading in two respects. First, it presented facts indicating that Rashidi and Sarkissian worked at the schools at the same time. This is not correct because Sarkissian left the school in December 1983, and Rashidi did not commence his work there until January 1984. Such information is important because some of the accusations were that both Rashidi and Sarkissian committed the crimes against the victims at the same time. Although the State concedes that Detective Royle's testimony was the result of poorly worded questions, it argues that its intent was to show that Rashidi was in Reno prior to beginning employment at the school, that there was no intent to deceive the grand jury and that the only sworn testimony before the district court was contrary to its findings. Second, the district court found that the facts presented by Detective Royle indicated that Babayan was present during the initial interviews with the children, and this created the impression that he was attempting to intimidate the children and prevent them from disclosing information. While Royle's testimony did establish that Rashidi was in the Reno area prior to his beginning employment in 1984, it also left the general impression that Sarkissian and he worked at the schools during the same period of time. At the very least, it left the issue unresolved. Rather than framing questions better, more questions should have been asked by the prosecutor to establish when Sarkissian and Rashidi were employed by the schools. The prosecution has the duty to present exculpatory evidence to a grand jury conducting a criminal case and this is discussed later in this opinion. Given the allegations against Sarkissian and Rashidi, their periods of employment were relevant and should have been clearly established before the grand jury. Royle's testimony also established that Babayan attended the initial questioning of the children at his school. However, to say that the only reasonable inference to be drawn from this fact is that Babayan was trying to influence the children is not correct. At best, this was only one of several inferences that could be drawn. The district court indicated that additional information should have been presented to the jury, such as the fact that Babayan attended only some of the interviews and he did encourage parents to attend their child's questioning. While testimony to establish these facts would have been relevant and helpful in explaining Babayan's presence at the initial questioning of the children, such additional information was merely alleged by Babayan and not established by competent evidence in the record. Further, it was not established that the District Attorney's office was aware of these acts at the time of Royle's grand jury testimony. Certainly, the misimpressions left with the grand jury may have influenced, to some degree, the district court's decision to dismiss the indictments; however, the district court goes too far in finding that Mills Lane or the District Attorney's office created the misimpressions intentionally. At best, it shows that the questions elicited some relevant facts to the grand jury that should have been more fully developed. But when viewed in context of the entire grand jury proceedings, these facts were secondary and we are concerned only with debating what reasonable inferences can be drawn from them. After a thorough review of the record, we believe that the evidence before the district court does not support its finding that through careful wording designed to deceive District Attorney Mills Lane or his staff intentionally misled the grand jury. Accordingly, we conclude that the district court was in error in so finding.