Continuing today with the 4th installment of The Franklin Scandal...A Story of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse and Betrayal
By Nick Bryant....

....One of Gary Caradori’s ultimate objectives was to move the Committee’s child abuse investigation beyond the shady margins of provincial law enforcement and into a grand jury. As I’ve already mentioned, after the Committee submitted Caradori’s videotaped statements of Alisha Owen, Troy Boner, and Danny King to Attorney General Spire in January of 1990, Spire requested that Douglas County’s district judges convene and call for a grand jury to investigate Franklin-related child-abuse allegations. And on January 31, Douglas County’s Presiding Judge, James Buckley, announced that the Douglas County judges had signed an order to impanel a grand jury. Spire didn’t consult with Senator Schmit about the grand jury, but Schmit weighed in on the Committee’s role in the grand jury’s formation: “I think we contributed to the facts that led to the calling of a grand jury,” said Schmit. “There would not have been a grand jury if there had not been a legislative committee.”

Though Caradori initially welcomed the impaneling of a grand jury, he also realized the inherent flaws of the grand jury process, which makes the initial decision to indict—formally accuse—a criminal defendant to stand trial. Unlike a trial, a grand jury proceeding is private, and there is no cross-examination or presentation of the defense’s case. The special prosecutor calls the witnesses, questions the witnesses, and selects the evidence that is shown to the grand jurors, who are ordinary citizens. Generally, only witnesses and evidence deemed relevant by special prosecutors are pursued by grand juries, and special prosecutors are in a unique position to twist grand jurors’ judgments in a particular direction. A former Chief Appellate Judge of New York State once quipped that a special prosecutor could persuade a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.”

The Douglas County judges originally wanted to name Douglas County Attorney Ronald Staskiewicz as the grand jury’s special prosecutor. But Staskiewicz publicly rejected their offer, citing a possible “conflict of interest” because of innuendo that Douglas County law enforcement had abetted a cover-up of the child-abuse allegations. In early February 1990, the Douglas County judges tapped Samuel Van Pelt as the special prosecutor.

https://exploringrealhistory.blogspot.com/2019/08/part-4the-franklin-scandala-story-of.html