Don’t misjudge grand juries

Throughout the years, grand juries have played a vital part in the

lives of every one of us who live in Orange County. Aside from their

little-used power to investigate crime and bring indictments, grand

juries render invaluable service in carrying out their basic

responsibility of investigating and recommending improvements in

county government.

Unless there is a criminal charge, grand juries do not investigate

city governments. Those who called for a grand jury investigation

into recent charges of sexual harassment in the local police

department simply didn’t understand a grand jury’s function and its

limitations.

It takes a grand jury a full year to investigate county

government. With more than 20 cities, it would be a physical

impossibility to go into their various problems.

I qualify as an expert in grand juries. During my 23 years on the

Superior Court, I selected, impaneled, advised, instructed and lived

with 13 grand juries. While each left office with a feeling of

frustration that its recommendations were not being followed,

nevertheless from where I was sitting I could see a pattern of

improvement in county government directly traceable to various grand

juries. Government moves and changes with glacial speed but, when

nudged, it does move. And various grand juries nudged Orange County

into some remarkable changes. I could write a master’s thesis or a

doctorate on the subject but will refrain -- a decision that will

come as a considerable relief to the reader.

The most important person on a grand jury is its foreperson. He or

she sets the tone and leads the grand jury into either success or

failure. All the instructions from the judge are meaningless unless

there is a strong foreperson to lead his or her 18 other grand jurors

in a pursuit of better government. Since I came from Newport Beach,

it is not surprising that several of my grand jury forepersons came

from this town.

My first Orange County grand jury foreperson was Braden Finch.

Braden was an outstanding local citizen, a former city councilman and

owner, with his wife, of Kay Finch Ceramics. Orange County government

was right out of the Chicago or New York ward heeler type of

government. Each of the five supervisors ran his little fiefdom.

There was no central authority. Braden Finch’s grand jury completed

its year of investigation into county government with a scathing

report charging the county with “horse and buggy” practices. From

that first report, followed by others, the county finally hired a

county manager.

After Braden Finch, my next Newport Beach grand jury foreperson

was Sam Meyers, who had just retired after selling the local

newspaper to Ben Reddick and Charley Crawford. Sam, as a newsman, saw

the weakness in waiting until the end of the year and filing a

monumental report the media simply couldn’t digest. He started the

system of interim reports, a practice followed to this day.

When I appointed Dora Hill as foreperson, she was the first woman

foreperson of an Orange County grand jury. With her background in

dragging Newport Beach from its “good old boys” days, she followed

the same practice into her investigation of county government.

My last grand jury foreperson was Marge Weed, wife of the

then-publisher of the Pilot. Poor Marge grew quite a few gray hairs

trying to keep her grand jury from investigating the internal affairs

of the Santa Ana police department over which the grand jury had no

jurisdiction. (As in the case of our local police department and the

sexual harassment case.)

About the middle of my term on the court, I appointed my old

friend Les Steffensen to be the foreperson of a grand jury. With his

background of community service, including the chairmanship of the

Board of Freeholders of this city, he was well-qualified to be

foreperson of a grand jury. His grand jury did yeomen’s work, but it

is best remembered in grand jury history for Les’ last advice to his

succeeding grand jury. Traditionally, the foreperson of the last

grand jury meets with the incoming grand jury. Les did so. After

advising them of the status of ongoing investigations, he ended the

presentation with that well-known twinkle in his eye.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, I will give you what is probably

the most important advice I can. The best martinis in Santa Ana are

to be found at Frank Brigg’s Bar just a block from this courthouse.”

* ROBERT GARDNER was a retired judge who lived in Corona del Mar.