Gwinnett County Grand Jury Proceedings, In re, 72526

• Decision Date: 09 September 1986
• Docket Number: No. 72526,72526
• Citation: 180 Ga.App. 241,348 S.E.2d 757
• Parties: In re GWINNETT COUNTY GRAND JURY PROCEEDINGS.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 757

348 S.E.2d 757

180 Ga.App. 241

In re GWINNETT COUNTY GRAND JURY PROCEEDINGS.

No. 72526.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Sept. 9, 1986.

Macklyn A. Smith, Lawrenceville, for appellant.

Thomas C. Lawler III, Dist. Atty., for appellee.

BIRDSONG, Presiding Judge.

This action was brought by Randolph Simpson, the Gwinnett County Coroner, to expunge a paragraph of the General Presentments of the March Term, 1985, Gwinnett County Grand Jury. The grand jury's General Presentments were divided into reports from thirteen different committees, investigating thirteen departments of the county. The committee report on the Coroner's Office recommended the "establishment of a Code of Ethics for elected County Officials, to insure that when an elected official's conduct is improper, that there is a method and procedure for reprimand." Simpson sought to expunge this recommendation by the committee on the grounds that it "accuses the Petitioner of wrongdoing in general terms which tends to impugn his character and question[s] his integrity, but which fails to charge the Petitioner with any specific wrongdoing or crime." Following a hearing, the trial court expunged one paragraph relating to the operation of the coroner's office, but denied Simpson's request to expunge the paragraph quoted above because it was "within the permissible scope of grand jury findings and recommendations." Simpson filed this appeal. Held:

Simpson argues that the recommendation of the grand jury, by innuendo and implication, casts reflections of misconduct upon his office. The State contends the paragraph is directed to all elected county officials and therefore does not impugn the character of Simpson, or his office, and is within the authorized recommendations of a grand jury.

This court addressed a similar issue in In Re Presentments of the Lowndes County Grand Jury, 166 Ga.App. 258, 304 S.E.2d 423, in which the grand jury noted "substantial funds were missing due to careless accounting and spending practices as well as theft ... [and was] shocked and appalled that such conduct could take place among some of our police officers...." Id. at 258, 304 S.E.2d 423. This court found such statements "overbroad and exceed the [specific statutory] powers of the grand jury" because "the report is critical of identifiable individuals or institutions but no indictment is returned." Id. at 258, 304 S.E.2d 423.

The decision in Lowndes County Grand Jury, supra, was premised, in part, upon Kelley v. Tanksley, 105 Ga.App. 65, 123 S.E.2d 462, in which this court held that "a grand jury has no right in the absence of specific statutory authority to file a report charging or casting reflections of misconduct in office upon a public officer or impugning his character, except by presentment or true bill of indictment charging such individual with a specific offense against the State.... This is not to infer, however, that the...