As a general proposition, errors in grand jury proceedngs that do not rise to the level of due process violations are cured by a subsequent guilty verdict at trial. In other words, the finding of the grand jury is merely that there is probable cause to believe the accused commited the act at issue. If a criminal trial had returned a guilty verdict, errors in the grand jury process would not generally be sufficient to overturn the verdict.
The question here is, however, if the error would have mandated a dismissal before trial.
I believe not. While such decisions are ordinarily left to the discretion of the trial court, in this case, the error, to the extent there was error. did not meaningfully contribute to the grand jury’s decision. In other words, applying a sort of “harmless error” test (not usually done for grand jury proceedings) the conclusion would be that probable cause existed and would have been found even without the error.
In fact, if a trial court had quashed the indictment and dismissed the charge on this reasoning, I believe THAT decision would be properly reversed on appeal as an abuse of discretion.
- Rick