Oklahoma Supreme Court allows decision on multicounty grand juries to stand

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The state Supreme Court's decision to let stand a ruling that bars multicounty grand juries from investigating crimes in a single county could make it harder to try some cases,

Friday, October 4th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The state Supreme Court's decision to let stand a ruling that bars multicounty grand juries from investigating crimes in a single county could make it harder to try some cases, prosecutors say.

The state's high court on Thursday refused to hear an appeal of the lower court ruling in an Enid police officer's case.

``It will make it more difficult, and in some cases impossible, to investigate cases in single counties,'' said Lisa Goodspeed, assistant attorney general who handles multicounty grand juries.

``There's going to be times they'll (law enforcement agencies) not be able to get information they need.''

The attorney general's office asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to overturn an Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals decision limiting the scope of multicounty grand juries.

The criminal appeals court said the Oklahoma Constitution does not authorize a multicounty grand jury to investigate allegations of criminal activity that are isolated to a single county of the state.

It affirmed a lower court ruling that threw out evidence obtained by a multicounty grand jury against Kevin Bezdicek, an Enid police officer who was charged two years ago in Garfield County with using a scanner to intercept a telephone conversation between two people he knew.

The Enid Police Department had requested the multicounty grand jury issue a subpoena so police could get telephone records in connection with the investigation of Bezdicek.

In a brief order, the Supreme Court denied the request by the attorney general to hear the case.

Bezdicek and his attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

Richard Wintory, senior assistant district attorney for Oklahoma County, said the opinion ``really strikes a blow at our ability to help sort out the guilty from the innocent at the earliest possible stage.''

A search warrant is more difficult to obtain than a subpoena that can be obtained from a multicounty grand jury, Wintory said.

To get a search warrant, a law officer must show probable cause to believe a crime has been committed and that evidence sought will be in a particular place, he said.

A subpoena only has to show the evidence sought is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation, Wintory said.

``The really critical thing about subpoenas is, they're the first diagnostic tools we use to figure out whether a crime has been committed,'' Wintory said.