Someone mentioned that local reporters know if a GJ is being convened. That may be true for a local GJ, but I was on a Federal GJ once in California for a 6 month term and there were only 2 places in the state in which they convened. One was in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco I believe. I went to the LA one. The cases were all crimes that had been committed at least several months prior. It's a lot different from being on a regular jury. We went once a week every Friday and the jurists are called from all over the state even if you live 4 hours away. It's almost impossible to get out of serving. One time I called in sick and said I couldn't drive there. It was an hour away from where I lived. They said they would send the marshalls to come and pick me up. I drove there, hours late and they were waiting for me to start. They have to have I believe it is 16 jurors to make a quorum in order to decide on cases. Also, we heard case after case of mostly bank robberies, fraud, drug busts and cases where the postal service was involved in the crimes, and we indicted every single case. After the cases were presented we were each asked if we voted to indict and everyone always said yes. It was the kind of situation where you would feel very uncomfortable voting not to indict, so no one ever did it. And this was done right there in the courtroom verbally in front of everyone.
So if the case involves any Federal charges it would have to be heard by the Federal GJ, not the local one. And we did see at one time on the LCSO's website that they stated the case had been turned over to another agency, which indicates at least to me, that it must be a Federal agency because what other agency is there that's not Federal? There's the FBI and the DEA and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms - all Federal. Am I missing another agency that could be local at the county level?
I'm with you regarding reporter notice of proceedings, info on GJs prior to when the indictment is issued is not the norm. Thank you for your personal insight into the federal process, and for honoring your duty to serve, even when you were sick!
It would be very interesting if LCSO did indeed
confirm that the investigation has been handed over to another agency - can we verify this? That would explain the disappearing updates on the LCSO website and subsequent silence. My guess would be the case might be in the hands of DHS (FBI/ICE) now. If federal jurisdiction was asserted here, and it easily could be if for example; the unsub (and co-consipirators) communicated across state lines, used the postal service, violated a federal statute (RICO?). The case would be immediately removed from LCSO as soon as whatever federal issue was
revealed to LSCO.
Just a little food for thought regarding fed GJ process & where the local PD was used by the feds during a covert investigation. I'm aware of one case in particular where the general facts were as follows: local drug kingpin ordered a hit on a drug mule for stealing a significant amount of cash. Meanwhile, FBI/ICE had been looking at the kingpin's criminal organization for months, wiretaps on most of the crew's cell phones and pole cameras. One of these cameras was mounted near the mule's home, and sure enough the feds were watching when three hit men approached the home. There is no question that the feds heard about the hit on the wiretaps, and then watched the hit men approach. Did the federal agency contact the local police to share this information? Did the FBI show up at the crime scene to arrest the hit men? No and no. Doing so would have jeopardized their investigation (and informants) in many ways. First, they had not identified the 'target' of the investigation (the 'boss' above the kingpin) and if they revealed federal involvement at this stage, the target would have likely left the country and/or got rid of potential witnesses because he had tons of cash. Second, the wiretaps would become useless, the criminal org would find another method to communicate thus making it even more difficult to indict.
So, instead the feds called the local police as a 'concerned citizen' and reported the men trying to break in to the mule's house. Local police apprehended the hit men and charged them with breaking into the home/drug charges. Local police did not know they were apprehending hired hit men or about the existence of an ongoing federal investigation, they processed the crime scene and gathered the evidence. No feds were on the scene, ever. At the same time, the feds stopped the would-be victim drug mule on his way home and explained to the mule that the kingpin ordered a hit, his life was in danger, and oh by the way we have a ton of incriminating evidence on you. Mule is not arrested, he retains a lawyer. Local police still have no idea that they are booking hit men hired by the criminal org. Criminal org is overheard on wiretap discussing the arrests of the hit men by local PD but are not worried because the hit men did not rat, and it was just the local PD and not the feds moving in. Drug mule agrees to work with the feds to secure a more favorable sentencing recommendation from the US Attorney at trial. Drug mule testifies truthfully multiple times before the GJ in February. During this time, additional actors involved in the conspiracy are compelled to testify before the GJ, and of course, they lie because they aren't aware of the depth of the almost year long federal investigation. This continued for months, no indictment. In late March, a federal indictment was filed under seal against 30+ defendants (some unidentified) including the boss, kingpin, drug mule, the hired hit men and other GJ witnesses. The defendants didn't even know they were formally indicted until the feds had the target defendant in custody (April), and subsequently arrested the others. The local PD had no information about this long term investigation until the indictment was unsealed.
My point here is this: IF the feds have jurisdiction in this case and were not on the scene processing evidence initially, that could point toward two scenarios: 1. local pd discovered evidence that gave the feds jurisdiction, triggering their involvement [the simple answer] or 2. a federal investigation may have been in process before the murder, involving unsub(s) but had the feds asserted jurisdiction from the beginning, this would hinder the larger investigation, and tip off the wrong people. This second scenario may explain why, if we take the sheriff's statements as truth, initially he seemed confident that a POI would be arrested soon because of the connectivity, lots of evidence, etc. Sheriff would feel more comfortable making such statements under the belief that LCSO has jurisdiction and the feds won't be swooping in soon. IMO, its quite possible that after the sheriff made such media-friendly statements, a potential covert fed investigation was compromised and as a result, the feds asserted jurisdiction.