Clarett Legal Update (1 Viewer)

[wannabee]

Clarett Waives Right to Hearing Over Alleged Robbery

Former Ohio State Star Free on $50,000 Bond

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Jan. 11) - Former Ohio State star Maurice Clarett on Wednesday waived his right to a preliminary hearing as prosecutors prepared to ask a grand jury to charge him with using a gun to rob two people.

The hearing had been set for Thursday in Franklin County Municipal Court.

Prosecutors expect to present evidence to the grand jury in the next week to 10 days, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said.

According to a police report, Clarett flashed a gun and demanded property from a man and a woman behind a downtown Columbus bar on Jan. 1. He got into a sport utility vehicle with two men after he was identified by the bar owner, who happened to come out into the alley.

No one was injured, and only a cell phone was taken from the alleged victims, police said.

Clarett, 22, was wanted by police on two aggravated robbery charges for almost two days before he turned himself in around 9 p.m. on Jan. 2. He posted a $50,000 bond and was released from jail the next day.

Clarett helped Ohio State win the 2002 national championship, but sat out the 2003 season after he was charged with misdemeanor falsification for filing a police report claiming that more than $10,000 in clothing, CDs, cash and stereo equipment was stolen from a car he borrowed from a local dealership. He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Clarett was suspended from the team for misleading police and for receiving special benefits worth thousands of dollars from a family friend. He dropped out of Ohio State, then lost a legal challenge to the NFL's requirement that players wait three years after high school before turning pro.

He was taken in the third round by the Denver Broncos in last year's draft, but the team cut him in August.

01/11/06 19:24 EST

 

[BigJim®]

And they all lived happily ever after.

 

[Weiner Dog]

Any lawyers here??Why would Clarett waiver his right to a preliminary hearing and dive directly into the grand jury segment of the process??

 

[BigJim®]

Any lawyers here??

Why would Clarett waiver his right to a preliminary hearing and dive directly into the grand jury segment of the process??

Here's a link that walks through prelim hearings in one county, as an example. It explains what the prelim hearing is and why one might waive the right to one. I can't tell by your question whether you understand what a grand jury is... in case you do not know it is not the actual jury that would be used at trial, it is another hearing where the state proves it has evidence to put a defendant through the rigors of a trial to begin with, with a low standard to move forward. As to prelim hearings, essentially they are a fact finding exercise which would typically come before the case is presented to a grand jury. As a defense attorney, you'd want one of these if you were not exactly clear what evidence is being put forward against your client... you would not want to go to a grand jury and be caught off guard. If, in Clarett's case, the evidence against him is just the testimony of a bar owner and the iffy testimony of the victims (they apparently were not positive it was Clarett), his defense may have felt the state had enough for probable cause and believed all facts pointing to Clarett were on the table. Also, it sounds as if he may have waived his right to get the low $50,000 bond that allows him to be out of jail pending the grand jury.http://pdknox.org/Video%20Text/preliminary.htm

 

[The Royal Jack]

It simply expidites the process. Grand juries are a mere formality and a rubber stamp for your charges to be heard by the court. 99.99999999% of the time the grand jury approves the charges.Some states have abolished the formailty of Grand Juries for this reason.