A former police officer who was allegedly plotting a mass shooting at Jazz Fest earlier this year quietly had the charges against him dropped back in June. A grand jury in Louisiana declined to indict 45-year-old Christopher Gillum for terrorizing, after he was found at a Florida hotel in April with a handgun and several rounds of ammunition. Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino says a grand jury proceeding is not a trial.
“A refusal of a grand jury to return a true bill of indictment essentially says that there was no probable cause. There was not enough evidence for a reasonable person to believe that this man committed the crime of terrorizing,” Ciolino explained.
Ciolino says in contrast to a trial, where the standard is beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard in a grand jury proceeding is very low.
“The lack of a true bill of indictment shows that the grand jurors were not persuaded by whatever suggestions or implications of criminal conduct that led to his arrest were simply not enough to support a prosecution,” Ciolino noted.
Gillum had been held without bond but was released on June 30th after Attorney General Liz Murrill dropped the charges against him. Ciolino says while Gillum is off the hook for now, that doesn’t mean he’s completely out of the woods.
“It’s still conceivable that if more evidence turns up, the state could prosecute him just through a bill of information rather than a bill of indictment; or the state could take it back to this or another grand jury for reconsideration,” Ciolino said.