Opinion
May, 1902.
John C. Judge, for relator.
John F. Clarke, District Attorney (William C. Courtney, Assistant District Attorney), opposed.
No substantial right of the relator was invaded. He had a hearing before the magistrate on a charge of larceny. The magistrate held him to await the action of the grand jury for the crime of grand larceny; the grand jury failed to indict him. The fact that the grand jury refused to find a bill of indictment, with a memorandum that the case be sent to the Court of Special Sessions to be disposed of as petit larceny, was irregular, but its legal effect was the same as a simple refusal to find an indictment. The court of Special Sessions had jurisdiction to try the relator upon the charge of petit larceny. He is not entitled to a discharge now because the magistrate erred in sending the case to the grand jury in the first instance instead of the Court of Special Sessions, where it belonged.
Writ dismissed.