State v. Mathews

OPINION

LANSING, Judge.

This is a pretrial appeal by the State from a trial court order dismissing a grand jury indictment against respondent Duane Erwin Mathews for arson in the first degree, Minn.Stat. § 609.561 (1984). We reverse.

FACTS

Duane Mathews was the vendee on a contract for deed of the Copper Still Bar in Plato, Minnesota. The bar was destroyed by two separate fires on August 5 and August 8, 1985. A grand jury was impaneled to inquire into the cause of the fire, and on January 29 they indicted Mathews for arson.

As part of his opening remarks the prosecutor told the grand jury:

I have…