The Warren County Prosecutor’s Office this week announced it had requested the impaneling of a grand jury to begin serving next month.
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The Warren County Prosecutor’s Office this week announced it had requested the impaneling of a grand jury to begin serving next month.
The order was authorized by 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Jason Lamb on Monday and goes into effect April 24, according to prosecutors.
The grand jury panel will be comprised of 12 jurors and six alternates and will be selected from a pool of around 75 citizens, prosecutors said.
They will meet twice a month, through Oct. 24, to review evidence in criminal cases. Prosecutors noted the term can be extended if needed.
It’s believed this is the first time a grand jury has been ordered in the county. Prosecutors noted the process has been used in neighboring counties with success.
“It's prioritizing law enforcement, prioritizing victims and getting community input, which are our priorities moving forward in this office,” Assistant Prosecutor Hannah Dunakey said.
Dunakey will officially take over as interim prosecutor on April 1. She will be sworn in this Friday. She replaces Keith Freie, who had been filling in on an interim basis after former prosecutor Kelly King was appointed as deputy attorney general in October 2023. Freie is the full-time prosecuting attorney in neighboring Montgomery County.
Rachel Wilson, the first prosecutor in the office, also has been assisting on the grand jury request.
Primarily, the grand jury will be looking at cases involving assaults, sexual offenses, and drug offenses involving confidential informants or undercover officers where privacy is important.
“This is really more to do with protecting victims and being more efficient for law enforcement than anything else,” Wilson said. “In this county, there are a fair number of cases involving child physical and sexual assault. On sexually related offenses and for those victims, the preliminary hearing is extremely traumatizing.”
Freie added, “We're really targeting those cases that are very victim centered. Your standard felony possession case will still go before a judge for a preliminary hearing. The other aspect, one of the important things of being a prosecuting attorney, is reflecting the community in which you serve. We get that feedback from this grand jury. It helps us to know what the pulse of the community really is.”
It takes nine grand jury members to return a "true bill," or indictment, against a defendant.
A "no true bill" means the jury did not believe there was sufficient evidence to issue an indictment.
By law, information about cases heard by the grand jury may not be released until defendants are arrested and served indictments.
Defendants who are indicted do not go through the normal preliminary hearing process in associate circuit courts to determine if there is enough evidence for trial. Instead, cases in which indictments are issued go directly to circuit court for arraignment and trial setting.
