Pino v. Rich

ORIGINAL PROCEEDING Petition For Extraordinary Writ The petition is facially valid. In Cook v. Smith, 114 N.M. 41, 45, 834 P.2d 418, 422 (1992), we stated that a district court Judge must determine the legality of a petition to convene a grand jury by deciding whether ""the petition on its face delimits an area of inquiry that colorably lies within the permissible scope of grand jury inquiry."" In McKenna we state that a petition is facially valid ""if geographical jurisdiction exists, if the applicable statute of limitations has not run, and if the petition sets forth facts upon which a grand jury could determine just what criminal conduct or malfeasance colorably has been committed."" N.M. at , P.2d at (Slip Op. at 6). In this case there is no challenge to the geographical jurisdiction or to the applicable statute of limitations. Therefore, we need determine only whether the petition states a sufficient factual basis for its claim.