SanFranChron

Civil grand jury will not investigate complaint against Condit

Monday, September 10, 2001 Breaking News Sections

(09-10) 19:38 PDT MODESTO, Calif. (AP) --

A county grand jury rejected flight attendant Anne Marie Smith's complaint that Rep. Gary Condit obstructed justice when he asked her to sign an affidavit stating they didn't have an affair.

The Stanislaus County civil grand jury -- usually charged with overseeing government abuses -- decided in a secret session Thursday that the criminal complaint wasn't in its jurisdiction.

Smith's lawyer James Robinson released a letter from the grand jury foreman Monday that announced the decision.

Robinson said he plans to refile the complaint with the civil grand jury that claims Condit, his chief of staff, Mike Lynch, and Don Thornton, an investigator who worked for one of Condit's lawyers, conspired to obstruct justice by encouraging Smith to commit perjury.

Smith, 40, said she and Condit had a 10-month romance and that his intermediaries tried to get her to sign a false affidavit denying the affair.

Condit, D-Calif., has denied asking anybody to lie, and he disputes Smith's characterization of their association. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, said Smith and the congressman apparently have different definitions of the word "relationship."

Robinson took the unusual tactic of filing the complaint with the civil grand jury instead of letting the district attorney investigate and forward it to the county's criminal grand jury.

California law allows citizens to file complaints with a civil grand jury. But if a criminal grand jury is also empaneled then a civil grand jury is not authorized to issue indictments, said Marnie Ardis, the county employee who oversees the grand jury.

Robinson said he was told there was no criminal grand jury, but Ardis said a panel was sworn in two months ago.

Robinson and Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, specifically chose the civil panel to bypass District Attorney James Brazelton because they don't trust him to investigate the matter. Judicial Watch filed the complaint because Robinson is not a member of the California bar.

Prosecutors have said the complaint does not allege that any state law was broken, said Carol Shipley, assistant district attorney.

Robinson said there was no legal basis for the grand jury's decision. And he said there was clear evidence that a crime was committed in California by Condit and his associates.

He said he plans to refile the complaint explaining why the grand jury does have jurisdiction over the case. He also hopes it breaks what he called Brazelton's "stranglehold" over the system.

"I hope, if nothing else, we start a legal debate whether it's constitutional for a D.A. to have a stranglehold over indictments in his county," Robinson said.

Shipley said there were other jurisdiction problems with the complaint because it has only a tangential connection to Stanislaus County.

The only tie to the county is the allegation that Lynch called Smith on June 13 from Condit's district office in Modesto and told her that Condit wanted her to contact Thornton.

Smith said Condit called her four times encouraging her to sign the statement sent to her lawyer by Thornton.

Smith's relationship with Condit became public after the congressman was linked to Chandra Levy, a 24-year-old government intern from Modesto who vanished in Washington on May 1.

Condit, 53, is not considered a suspect in her disappearance, but police sources say he acknowledged having an extramarital affair with Levy.

Robinson has been candid about his efforts to keep the case in the spotlight to put pressure on Condit and the grand jury. Robinson said last week that the lens of the news media would not let the grand jury "sweep it under the rug."

He said he had arranged an interview with The Modesto Bee -- Smith's only newspaper interview -- "to woo the hearts and minds of the grand jury."

The story ran on the newspaper's front page four days after the interview -- on the day the grand jury was meeting.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001