Dear poetaster-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.
I have spent the past 22 years in the field of law enforcement, which
I hope qualifies me to answer your questions.
A person who is indicted is indeed being accused of a crime. Up until
the point that formal charges are brought against him, he is merely a
“suspect”, whether he realizes it or not. An indictment is usually
handed down by a grand jury that convenes and holds fiercely guarded
secret hearings, during which they hear all the testimony in the case
from the accusing authorities (normally this consists of a police
officers, detectives, Prosecuting Attorney/District Attorney, and
carefully selected witnesses). Up until this point, it would do to say
that your character has been “implicated” in the crime. If the grand
jury finds that there is sufficient cause to affect an arrest and
bring the accused to trial, a warrant will be issued for his physical
arrest and he would be taken to jail (from wherever he happens to be
at the moment; work, home or wherever).
As you suggested for the necessity of your projected storyline, some
indictments are in fact sealed and even the accused might not know
that he is even being investigated or suspected of having committed a
crime. It would be appropriate under the right circumstances to keep
him in the dark until the moment of truth and break the news to both
him and the reader at time of his arrest.
You can follow this search strategy to find and read about actual
cases in which sealed indictments were returned by grand juries in
real world insider trading crimes:
GOOGLE ("sealed indictment" "insider trading")
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22sealed+indictment%22+%22insider+trading%22&btnG=Google+Search
As for whether or not your character “would rather find out he is
being investigated”, well, for the sake of the story and the
entertainment value for the reader, it would certainly produce a lot
of suspense. Besides, his paranoia or sense of dread would certainly
provide you with other opportunities to write in a number of sweaty,
heart pounding scenarios as he struggled to get out of his dilemma as
the story progresses. If the reader is being encouraged to empathize
with the character, and herald him as the eventual hero, that type of
shared suffering will make the reader celebrate his vindication even
more. Personally, I think it would make a better storyline if the
character suffered, especially if he is exonerated or acquitted when
in the end.
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
GLOSSARY OF POLICE ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONYMS AND TERMINOLOGY
http://www.ci.chi.il.us/CommunityPolicing/Glossary.html#anchor158329
SUPERIOR COURT OF ARIZONA LEGAL TERMINOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS
http://www.superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/publicInfo/legalTerms/legalTerms.asp
GOOGLE
://www.google.com
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
INDICTMENTS TEMINOLOGY
“SEALED INDICTMENTS”
GRAND JURY INDICTMENT
"SEALED INDICTMENT" "INSIDER TRADING" |
Request for Answer Clarification by
poetaster-ga
on
10 Feb 2003 05:44 PST
I find your answer rather general, and following the links did not
come up with a narrative of an actual sealed indictment case.
In fact this is not a major plot element, so the suspense element is
not important.
Here's what would work best in terms of the story: the public and the
accused find out about the investigation at the same time; later,
within weeks, there is a hearing or deposition or (less likely) trial;
later still, another week or month or so, the charges are dropped for
lack of evidence, or in case of trial he is found innocent.
I guess that my question is better stated as: I am looking for
information on how the SEC usually proceeds, in a nuts and bolts, day
by day way, on insider trading cases, and how this would look from the
outside to the accused and to the public. If there's a good book on
the subject, that would be great.
Thanks, poetaster
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