public offense? Grand Jury?

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? South Dakota--Iowa

Several Questions

What types of crimes can be considered a public offense? Does anyone have a link? Is it different in different states?

What type of crimes can be indicted by a grand jury?

Does a grand jury in one state have jurisdiction over a crime committed in another state?

As you can tell, I don't know a lot about the legal process.

Why don't you tell us what happened? It would be much easier to answer your questions if you let us in on the story behind them.

A public offense, and grand juries typically return indictments for felonies. Every state is different, I admit, but I have seen grand juries only for felonies. I have also seen prosecutors charge felonies by way of information. Because I prosecute criminal cases presently (also do quite a bit of civil), I can tell you that we use grand juries to return indictments on cases that we don't have a lot of information on, because of their broad investigative power (the grand jury subpoena is a mighty weapon), or on "weaker" cases, because an indictment is often easier to obtain than is the process associated with charging by information (basically there is a pretrial hearing when you charge by information to establish probable cause, and sometimes than can derail a prosecution).

As for the crime committed in another state, I would say that it depends. If its a federal grand jury, you often see interstate RICO (racketeering/conspiracy) type actions and the like. Sometimes a crime in one state affects people in another state. For instance, a fraud, while actually committed from California, the land of fruits and nuts, might well affect consumers in Oregon, giving rise to criminal liability in both California and Oregon. In that instance, grand juries in both Oregon and California would be able to investigate.

More info

Someone is accused of assault on a child or child abuse not sure which. One Dr says it was probably an accident, another says it couldn't be an accident. The defendent of course believes he is innocent and I do too. The child had a serious injury but in my own medical opinion could have happened the way the accused says. The child lives in another state than the injury occurred. DHS is really tearing everyone involved apart, twisting words and telling out right lies! Makes me sick! I have read their reports and much information is from 3rd parties and assumptions. (even the word assumed) was used many times.