Opinion ID: 2338879
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: grand jury motions

Text: Following his arrest, the defendant timely filed motions to require that a record be made of the grand jury proceedings and to permit counsel to be present during the grand jury proceedings. Both motions were denied by the court, and the defendant has claimed those rulings to be constitutional error.
Although we agree with the defendant that recordation of grand jury testimony may well be a more acceptable procedure, [1] [i]t has been unequivocally established in this state that neither precedent nor the due administration of justice requires ... that a stenographic record be made of the grand jury proceedings. State v. Delgado, 161 Conn. 536, 539, 290 A.2d 338, remanded for resentencing, 408 U.S. 940, 92 S. Ct. 2879, 33 L. Ed. 2d 764; State v. Vennard, 159 Conn. 385, 390, 270 A.2d 837, cert. denied, 400 U.S. 1011, 91 S. Ct. 576, 27 L. Ed. 2d 625. (Emphasis added.) 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. There is no constitutional... right to have a stenographer present in the grand jury room and we find no error in the refusal of the trial court to permit it in this ease. State v. Delgado, supra, 540; accord, United States v. Rubin, 559 F.2d 975, 988 (5th Cir.); see United States v. Ayers, 426 F.2d 524, 528 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 842, 91 S. Ct. 85, 27 L. Ed. 2d 78.
As the defendant recognizes, this court has consistently stated that there is no constitutional right that counsel be present at grand jury proceedings. State v. Cobbs, supra; State v. Delgado, supra, 539; State v. Vennard, supra; State v. LaBreck, 159 Conn. 346, 347-48, 269 A.2d 74; State v. Stallings, 154 Conn. 272, 282, 224 A.2d 718. The defendant argues, nevertheless, that since none of the above cases expressly comes to grips with the rationale of Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U.S. 1, 90 S. Ct. 1999, 26 L. Ed. 2d 387, we should reconsider our position that the presence of counsel at such proceedings is not constitutionally mandated. In Coleman, the United States Supreme Court held that an Alabama preliminary hearing was a critical stage of that state's criminal process at which the accused was entitled to counsel. Id., 10. On the basis of that decision, the defendant suggests that we reexamine our holding in State v. Stallings, supra, that proceedings before a grand jury in this state are not a critical stage requiring the presence of counsel. The precise claim raised by the defendant in the present case was recently rejected by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Cobbs v. Robinson, 528 F.2d 1331, 1338-39 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 947, 96 S. Ct. 1419, 47 L. Ed. 2d 354. In that case, the court noted that Connecticut grand jury proceedings are readily distinguishable from the Alabama preliminary hearing referred to in Coleman, supra; Cobbs v. Robinson, supra, 1339 n. 4; and concluded that the dangers and circumstances which the United States Supreme Court has described as calling for the assistance of counsel are not present in this state's grand jury proceedings. Id., 1339. The trial court was not in error in overruling the defendant's claim.