The Fourth Appellate District granted a petition for a writ of mandate. The court held that a defendant was wrongfully denied her right to a neutral and independent grand jury where she was indicted for perjury by the same grand jury before which she had testified as a non-target witness in a proceeding ostensibly investigating someone else.
In August 2006, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office convened a grand jury investigation into possible misuse of public funds by the superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District, James Fleming. The district attorney’s theory was that the school superintendent had misused public resources by authorizing subordinates to compile lists of individuals who had supported a recall of the school district’s board of trustees in 2005.
