Court Opinion

ID: 9603527
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:07:06.874844+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:12.726084
License: Public Domain

LOHR, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I agree with the majority that David W. Hackenbach’s disclosure of grand jury information to Yvonne Azar, a member of his prosecutorial staff, did not violate Rule 6.2(a) of the Colorado Rules of Criminal Procedure. I also agree that Azar’s disclosure of this information to the defendant, Steven D. Rickard, violated the secrecy of the grand jury. Contrary to the majority, however, I would hold that a breach of grand jury secrecy also occurred when the grand jury investigators confronted Officer Johnson with the news that at least two other grand jury witnesses had testified differently than had Johnson. Finally, I cannot agree that dismissal of a grand jury indictment for breach of secrecy is justified only if prejudice to the defendant is affirmatively demonstrated. Accordingly, I would reverse the trial court and remand for a determination of whether either instance of disclosure of confidential grand jury information warrants dismissal of the indictment.
Turning first to the grand jury investigators’ disclosure to Johnson, I would characterize the investigators’ conduct as a violation of Crim.P. 6.2(a). That the investigators did not disclose the identity of the other grand jury witnesses or the precise content of their testimony cannot obscure the fact that the information provided to Johnson had its source in the grand jury proceedings and breached the veil of secrecy imposed by Crim.P. 6.2(a). The majority *196cites no authority for the proposition that only a disclosure of the specific content of grand jury testimony would amount to a breach of grand jury secrecy, and I see no basis for such a rule. Furthermore, the use of testimony of some grand jury witnesses to persuade another to change his testimony under threat of loss of employment and prosecution for perjury tampers with the integrity of the grand jury process and is by no means the product of a compelling need outweighing the countervailing policy of secrecy as contemplated by Granbery v. District Court, 187 Colo. 316, 531 P.2d 390 (1975).
Having determined that grand jury secrecy has been breached, I would describe the standard for quashing the indictment somewhat differently than does the majority. While I agree that harmless error analysis should apply to grand jury secrecy violations, I would not limit the remedy of dismissal to cases in which the defendant can show prejudice in fact.
I understand the majority to say that there can be no dismissal of an indictment for breach of secrecy without a finding of prejudice; absent such a finding the error will be deemed harmless.1 Maj. op. at 193 -195. According to the majority, prejudice would exist “only if it is established that the violation substantially influenced the grand jury’s decision to indict, or if there is grave doubt that the indictment was not substantially influenced by the violations.” Maj. op. at 195. The United States Supreme Court provides the source for this rule in Bank of Nova Scotia v. United States, — U.S. —, 108 S.Ct. 2369, 101 L.Ed.2d 228 (1988) (applying a harmless error analysis based on Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(a), which is identical to Crim.P. 52(a)). The Bank of Nova Scotia Court, however, did not so narrowly limit its holding as to require actual prejudice in every case. The Supreme Court noted that a class of cases exists in which “indictments are dismissed, without a particular assessment of the prejudicial impact of the errors in each case, because the errors are deemed fundamental.” Id. 108 S.Ct. at 2375. In these cases, “the structural protections of the grand jury have been so compromised as to render the proceedings fundamentally unfair, allowing the presumption of prejudice.” Id. (emphasis added); see also Vasquez v. Hillery, 474 U.S. 254, 260-64, 106 S.Ct. 617, 622-24, 88 L.Ed.2d 598 (1986) (dismissal of indictment upheld where it could be presumed that racial discrimination in selection of grand jurors would prejudice the defendant); Ballard v. United States, 329 U.S. 187, 67 S.Ct. 261, 91 L.Ed. 181 (1946) (defendant presumed to be prejudiced where women had been intentionally and systematically excluded from the grand jury panel and any inquiry into harmless error would have required unguided speculation).
The principle that prejudice may be presumed in select cases comports with our decision in People v. Lewis, 183 Colo. 236, 516 P.2d 416 (1973). In Lewis, we presumed prejudice where grand jury investigators acted as advocates before the grand jury. This practice was antithetical to the “orderly development and presentation of evidence in a calm and dignified atmosphere,” and “necessarily work[ed] to the prejudice of those under investigation.” 183 Colo. at 241, 516 P.2d at 418. As a consequence, dismissal of the indictments was required.
Grand jury secrecy contributes in several ways to the grand jury’s dual roles as an investigative body and a shield protecting individual citizens against oppressive and unfounded government prosecution. 1 W. LaFave & J. Israel, Criminal Procedure 628 (1984). As we stated in Granbery v. District Court, we maintain the secrecy of grand jury proceedings for the following reasons:
(1) To prevent the escape of those whose indictment may be contemplated;
(2) to insure the utmost freedom to the grand jury in its deliberations, and to prevent persons subject to indictment or *197their friends from importuning the grand jurors;
(3) to prevent subornation of perjury or tampering with the witnesses who may testify before a grand jury and later appear at the trial of those indicted by it;
(4) to encourage free and untrammeled disclosures by persons who have information with respect to the commission of crimes;
(5) to protect innocent accused who is exonerated from disclosure of the fact that he has been under investigation, and from the expense of standing trial where there was no probability of guilt.
187 Colo. 316, 321, 531 P.2d 390, 393 (1975) (quoting United States v. Procter & Gamble, 356 U.S. 677, 681-82 n. 6, 78 S.Ct. 983, 986, n. 6, 2 L.Ed.2d 1077 (1958)). Thus, in addition to protecting the accused, the secrecy requirement ensures that the grand jury operates as an independent body, free from outside influence and prosecutorial overreaching. A harmless error analytical framework that leaves room for presumptions of prejudice based on fundamentally unfair deviations from the prescribed grand jury process would accommodate these objectives. Cf. People v. Lewis, 183 Colo. 236, 516 P.2d 416 (1973).
The difficulty of assessing the actual impact of fundamentally unfair breaches of prescribed grand jury procedure underscores the need for continued recognition of a presumption of prejudice in appropriate circumstances. Such presumption would lift from the accused the often insurmountable burden of discovering and proving prejudice in cases of egregious violations of grand jury procedure. Because the secrecy of the grand jury process itself can conceal both the existence and prejudicial impact of prosecutorial misconduct, the accused should be left some avenue of redress when serious prosecutorial misconduct rendering the proceedings fundamentally unfair comes to light but actual prejudice cannot be affirmatively demonstrated.
For these reasons, I would join in the majority’s adoption of the harmless error standard only with the understanding that the prejudicial impact of breaching grand jury secrecy can and should be presumed in certain cases.
I would hold that the limited breaches of grand jury secrecy that occurred in this case were not so fundamentally unfair as to give rise to a presumption of prejudice. The harmless error standard should therefore be applied with respect to each of the breaches of secrecy at issue here. The case should be remanded to the trial court for application of that standard.
QUINN, C.J., and KIRSHBAUM, J., join in this concurrence and dissent.

. Crim.P. 52(a), captioned “Harmless Error,” provides:
Any error, defect, irregularity, or variance which does not affect substantial rights shall be disregarded.