Mary Jo Pasek did an excellent introduction of our speakers, Tom Pasek and Steve Bowles. One might say she had inside knowledge.
Tom Pasek opened up the discussion by sharing the process by which Grand Jurors are selected.
- Complete an on-line application. You can get more information here. Application solicitation begins in late December/January.
- You will be invited to attend an orientation meeting so you understand what is involved and the time commitment. You
- A judge will contact you for an interview.
- If the judge believes you would be acceptable for the position, a background check will be run on you.
- If you pass the background check, your name will be submitted to an initial random drawing. Thirty names are selected in this drawing.
- A second random drawing is conducted from the 30 selected in the first drawing. Up to 19 grand jurors are selected for Kern County. Up to ten jurors from the prior jury may be held over. The remaining seats are filled from the drawing. Alternates are also selected.
- The drawings are held in June for the jury that starts the next month. The Grand Jury term is July to June.
- If you are selected the normal work schedule is four days per week, five hours per day. You will be paid $30 per day + mileage. There may be situations where you need to work longer days.
Kern County is not a “law and order” type of Grand Jury. They rarely handle indictments. In fact, they have had two in the past year; the Cal City West boys murder/disappearance and the Corrections officer shooting on Stockdale. In both cases they indicted the perps.
There are twelve committees that the jurors may serve on. Of these twelve committees, the one that caught the members attention is the Special Districts committee. Kern County has 168 special districts, the most of any county in the state. While each special district should be reviewed at least every ten years (which would be over sixteen per year) they can only review four per year. There are lots of possibilities for corruption in the special districts due to the lack of oversight and trust by the constituents of the special districts.
How does Grand Jury decides what they will examine
- Complaints entered on the Grand Jury web page
- Committee members make recommendations to the rest of GJ
- A Special District has not been reviewed in more than ten years.
- The District Attorney may refer cases to the Grand Jury. It is their decision to accept or decline an investigation or indictment case.
What else?
- The objective of the committees is to write at least two reports per year, some write committees write three to four reports.
- If the Grand Jury finds illegal activity, such as genuine corrupt behavior in a group, it is referred to the District Attorney.
- The size of Grand Juries is determined by the population of the county, which ranges in size from 11 to 23 members.
- Sworn to lifetime secrecy, if violated, the juror can be charged with a misdemeanor or a felony.
Our two Kern County multi-term Grand Jurors, Tom Pasek and Steve Bowles did an excellent job of presenting information about the Grand Jury – it was both interesting and entertaining. Thank you to both!
