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Juries, but not cases, ruled tainted Josephine County must try only 12 of 270 again The Associated Press GRANTS PASS - A judge has ruled that grand juries in 270 cases were tainted by secret orientations on sexual abuse and drugs, but only 12 cases where defendants were charged with child sexual abuse can be retried. Arguing the orientation sessions violated due process and equal protection clauses of the Oregon and U.S. constitutions, defense attorneys had called on Benton County Presiding Judge Robert S. Gardner to throw out the indictments against 260 defendants so they cannot be indicted again on the same charges. Gardner agreed with defense attorneys that such orientations were improper. But he disagreed with their argument that all of the indictments handed up by tainted grand juries should be thrown out. Instead, he sided with prosecutors, saying Wednesday that Oregon law provides no obvious remedy beyond reindictment. "There is insufficient Oregon law on the subject for me, as a trial judge, to hold that there is a power of supervision of the grand jury vested in trial judges such as would allow a trial judge to set aside an indictment with prejudice," Gardner wrote. The outcome of the case could affect indictments in Jackson, Marion, Deschutes and Douglas counties, where grand juries have received similar secret orientations about drugs, sexual abuse or family violence. Oregon Public Defender David Groom plans to challenge the decision in Oregon Supreme Court. He will ask the state's highest court to stay further proceedings on the Josephine County cases while deciding whether defendants' constitutional rights were violated by the improper grand jury proceedings. At issue is Josephine County's practice since 1987 of using narcotics detectives to educate grand jurors about drugs. Since 1997, prosecutors have used family therapists to educate grand jurors about child sexual abuse. The experts were not sworn in as witnesses, and some later reappeared before grand jurors as witnesses in specific criminal cases. Gardner's ruling Wednesday also calls for grand jury reform, including adoption of standards by the Oregon District Attorneys Association, formalizing the selection and orientation of grand jurors and a law requiring "at the very least" that grand jury orientations be recorded. "It seems to me the district attorneys need to adopt some written standards by which they agree to be bound in their dealings with the grand jury," Gardner wrote. "Eventually, those standards will be imposed by the courts or the Legislature." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.