Right. In the case I was talking about, I know two of the witnesses who were called, but I suppose you could ask questions a certain way to get the answer you were looking for. The neighbor wasn’t anyone of special importance in the town to my knowledge, but maybe it was a good ole boy situation nonetheless.
If a grand jury panel was motivated and had a strong interest in finding the truth, the panel could issue subpoenas and call witness on their own. A “runaway jury” so to speak.
But 99 of 100 people don’t want to be there in the first place, and are ready to get it over with asap and go home.
In this case, YOU KNOW the DA got some phone calls from folks with lots of connections and money. Cleveland is still enough of a blue collar union town that there are plenty of folks around who know how to do things “the old fashioned way.”
Likely also, the citizens on the jury want to continue to live in the area. Jury panel names are public record.