After Getting No-Billed, DOJ Tries Presenting Case To Local Grand Jury. Court Not Amused. - Above the Law

"The beatdown came in the case of Kevontae Stewart, a DC resident who was sitting in his car on September 17, smoking a joint and bothering no one, when ATF agents started hassling him. Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint alleging that Stewart fled and tried to get rid of a gun, which he was not permitted to possess due to a prior criminal conviction."

""This desire to just at all costs get people charged and arrested is losing, every day, credibility before the court," Judge Faruqui railed, adding, "You can't even get grand juries returned now, because the public seems to have lost all faith in the process." The court refused to accept the indictment and ordered briefing on the legality of using a DC Superior Court grand jury to return an indictment in federal court, a process the court described as potentially unlawful and at a minimum unseemly."

Kevontae Stewart was stopped while sitting in his car and smoking on September 17, leading to an ATF interaction and a federal criminal complaint alleging flight and disposal of a firearm. A federal grand jury declined to return an indictment, and the same case was presented to a DC Superior Court grand jury, which returned an indictment. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui refused to accept the local indictment in federal court, ordered briefing on the practice's legality, and sharply criticized perceived prosecutorial eagerness and the resulting loss of public confidence. The Department of Justice filed an emergency motion and argued the magistrate's role is ministerial.

Read at Above the Law