The grand jury impaneled in Warren County earlier this year has completed its first session and has returned with 52 felony indictments. According to the report submitted by the grand jury to 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Jason Lamb the indictments included 32 indictments for felony sex offenses, 11 related to felony domestic violence offenses, 4 violent but nonsexual felony assault offenses and 5 other miscellaneous felony offenses. 

Prosecuting Attorney Hannah Dunakey was pleased with the results of the grand jury so far and hoped that the success would continue into the upcoming sessions. 

“We already have a great relationship with our law enforcement agencies and we want to preserve that, improve it, and we’re really looking for any efficiency that we can implement in the office without sacrificing any integrity of the judicial process,” said Dunakey. 

She also announced that the grand jury has been extended past its original two sessions, and will now run into February of 2025, with a new jury to be impaneled in September. 

The original jury convened on April 24 and ran until June 24, meeting four times in that timespan. The second session is currently underway and will run until a new jury is impaneled in September. 

“This is a way that spares a lot of time in the courtroom for law enforcement, so it’s better for their schedules, it’s better for taxpayer money as well really. And then it spares victims a lot of trauma being in court,” Dunakey said. 

Protecting those victims was a focus of the grand jury when it was convened as they planned to examine a number of felony sexual offenses and the process is seen as a way to spare victims from reliving their trauma in front of a crowded courtroom. 

“Every time a victim of sexual assault or a child who is a victim of physical or sexual assault has to talk about it, it opens it up and some of them relive it,” Smith said. “You’re almost retraumatizing them every time you drag them in, and so a grand jury allows law enforcement to discuss it and to handle it in a way that is less traumatizing to the victim.”

Lt. Scott Schoenfeld of the Warren County Sheriff’s Department said that the grand jury process is also considerably easier on officers that have to testify in court. According to Schoenfeld, officers are often required to testify at times that can cause problems with their work schedule, and grand juries can help them to maintain a healthier work-life balance.

“Officers don’t have any control over when they’re gonna go to court, … So that might be a day that officer just got off work at 6 a.m. and they had worked from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. the night before, and now they’re back up here at 1 p.m.,” Schoenfeld said. 

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 the 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.

Following the completion of the second session at the end of August, a new group of 12 jurors and six alternates will be selected and the work of the grand jury will continue.