Opinion ID: 2216328
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of unsworn statement

Text: At the grand jury proceeding, the prosecutor read Betty Cole's unsworn statement to police because Cole was unavailable to testify before the grand jury. Appellant argues that reading the unsworn statement introduced inadmissible evidence on which the grand jury returned the indictment. See Minn.R.Crim.P. 18.06, subd. 1(5). Betty Cole testified at trial. An indictment must be based upon admissible evidence. Minn.R.Crim.P. 18.06. However, if otherwise inadmissible evidence is introduced before the grand jury, an indictment will not be dismissed if there is sufficient evidence to sustain the indictment, and it is not shown that incompetent evidence has so far influenced the grand jury that an indictment would not have been returned without it. State v. Thompson, 273 Minn. 1, 15, 139 N.W.2d 490, 502, cert. denied, 385 U.S. 817, 87 S.Ct. 39, 17 L.Ed.2d 56 (1966). There was substantial admissible evidence against appellant including appellant's confession. Thus, we conclude that the grand jury would have returned the indictment even without Cole's statement. Consequently, we need not reach the question whether a statement to police satisfies the sworn statement requirement of Minn. R.Crim.P. 18.06, subd. 1(5). See Scruggs, 421 N.W.2d at 717.