First Grand Jury since 2008 to be seated in Douglas County

The Ninth Judicial District Court was given $100,000 to fund a Grand Jury by the Douglas County commissioners during their meeting Thursday in Lake Tahoe.

Funds will be used to cover the jury's costs for the remainder of this fiscal year and next year, and includes their fees, supplies, travel expenses, security costs and attorney fees among other expenses needed to function.

Citizens of the county must ask for a grand jury. Once this happened, the judges got on board and the names of 700 residents were gathered according to Bobbie Williams, the Court Administrator and Jury Commissioner, during her presentation to the commissioners. Out of those names, the list was narrowed down to 70, and now 36 will be selected for the Grand Jury, 17 of those as members and the rest will be alternates.

"I would hope all areas are included in this Jury and not just a handful from one spot," said Commissioner Nancy McDermid.

The proceedings and names of those selected will not be released publicly until the final report is released.

Among the items the Grand Jury will be responsible for will be investigations into misconduct by public officers, operations of the county jail and matters that affect the county's health and welfare. They may also issue criminal indictments.

Since September 1, citizens have been filing complaints for the Grand Jury to investigate. Call 775-782-9820 for more information and for the deadline on filing.

The last Grand Jury report filed for Douglas County was in 2008. Normally they have one every five to six years so many residents felt it was time to reconvene. In Nevada, counties with a population of 100,000 or above are required to hold the jury every four years. The population of Douglas County is under 50,000.