Way Eased to Gain Indictments With Grand Jury System : Supreme Court: State justices refuse to raise the required standard of proof for prosecutors. They also rule that the panel need not be told it can indict on lesser charges.

The state Supreme Court on Monday eased the way for prosecutors to obtain indictments through California’s newly revitalized grand jury system.

In a 5-2 decision, the court refused to raise the standard of proof required for an indictment. The justices also said prosecutors need not tell the grand jury it could indict on lesser charges, nor must they remind the panel of its independent powers to seek more evidence.

The court emphasized that it is up to grand jurors to determine only whether there is “probable cause” to believe that the defendant committed the crime and should stand trial.

It is then the trial jury’s task to decide whether the defendant is guilty “beyond reasonable doubt” of the charges or some lesser offense, the court said in an opinion by Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas.

Under statute, grand juries have broad investigative powers but as a practical matter these citizen panels are closely controlled by prosecutors. The district attorney presents evidence in closed proceedings without the presence of the defendant or defense lawyer, and there is no opportunity to challenge the prosecution’s case.

In California, criminal grand juries have been used sparingly since a 1978 state high court ruling that criticized the system as one-sided. The ruling granted indicted defendants the right to a preliminary hearing--the same right due defendants charged directly by prosecutors through complaints. In such hearings, defendants can present evidence in open court to try to win dismissals.

The 1978 ruling was repealed under Proposition 115, a June, 1990, initiative backed by prosecutors. Now, as before, grand juries are being used primarily in complex or sensitive cases or when witnesses need protection. But their number is sharply increasing: in 1989, only 20 indictments were brought by grand juries statewide; last year, there were 232.

Quin Denvir of Sacramento, an attorney for the defendant in the case, said Monday’s ruling would encourage prosecutors to use the grand jury. “It makes it much easier to take a case (to trial) and basically reduces the role of the grand jury as an independent body serving as a buffer between the prosecutor and the defendant,” Denvir said.

State Deputy Atty. Gen. W. Scott Thorpe welcomed the ruling, saying it correctly established that the same standards of proof will be used in grand jury proceedings and preliminary hearings.

The case arose when Sacramento County prosecutors obtained a grand jury indictment of Michelle Cummiskey, a former prostitute known as “Bat Girl” because of tattoos of bats and dripping blood on her arms and neck. Cummiskey was charged with the first-degree stabbing murder and robbery last year of Phillip Henry Inhofer.

Cummiskey’s lawyers challenged the indictment, saying the prosecutor had improperly refused to answer grand jurors’ questions about possible additional evidence and failed to tell them they could summon more witnesses.

The grand jury also should have been told it could bring a manslaughter charge instead of murder and was required to find more than just “probable cause” to return an indictment, the attorneys said.

The high court disagreed, saying that after jurors were properly instructed by a judge on their powers, there was no need for prosecutors to remind them that they could seek more evidence.

The court said there was no indication prosecutors withheld evidence that would clear Cummiskey or told jurors that they could not exercise their independent authority. Unless the grand jury asks for it, there is no duty for prosecutors to tell jurors that they can indict on a lesser charge, the justices said.

Justices Stanley Mosk and Joyce L. Kennard dissented.

In other action, the high court upheld the death sentences of Theodore John Wrest for the murders of two women in Santa Barbara in 1987 and of William Charles Payton for the murder and rape of a Garden Grove woman in 1980.