§45-20-82.20. Clerk-secretary.

(a) The District Attorney of the Twenty-second Judicial Circuit is authorized to provide a clerk-secretary to attend all grand jury sessions in the circuit at the request of the grand juries. The clerk-secretary shall perform such clerical and secretarial duties as the grand juries and district attorney may prescribe and shall transcribe the testimony and other matters being brought before the grand jury.

(b) Either the secretary, administrative assistant, or trial coordinator in the district attorney's office shall be designated as the clerk-secretary by the district attorney. When directed by the district attorney for such circuit, the clerk-secretary shall attend in person, except as otherwise provided, the sessions of each grand jury held in such circuit and in every manner or proceeding before such grand jury take stenographic notes of the oral testimony and proceedings and note the order in which all documentary evidence is introduced.

(c) Such clerk-secretary shall collect, store, maintain, keep, and be the official custodian of all grand jury testimony or evidence given before the grand juries of such circuit which has heretofore been or shall hereafter be recorded or otherwise transcribed therein. Such clerk-secretary shall take appropriate action to insure that any grand jury evidence or grand jury testimony in such circuit shall be privileged and not subject to public disclosure or view unless authorized by the district attorney and the presiding judge of such circuit.

(d) The original stenographic notes of such clerk-secretary, as well as any recordings or transcriptions, of each case or proceeding officially reported, shall be preserved by such clerk-secretary and treated as part of the records of the district attorney for such circuit; and, upon such clerk-secretary's retirement or removal from office shall be turned over to the district attorney of such circuit or to some court officer so designated by the district attorney to receive same.

(e) In addition to the clerk-secretary, the court bailiffs and other employees of the district attorney's office in the Twenty-second Judicial Circuit shall be entitled to be present in the courtroom during sessions of the grand jury except when the jury is deliberating.

(Act 87-114, p. 160, §§1-5.)