CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The FBI raids of the Fulton construction office and the home of Corpus Christi ISD school board member John Longoria's home were done under a federally sealed indictment. That means no information has been released about why the raids were conducted in the first place. This has left everyone with many questions and there's a good reason for that and it's all about how the legal system works in these cases.
“I don't want to opine at all on what anyone has or who is involved or who is even potentially indicted because none of those things are known to me or to you and with it being sealed I have no way of assuming what that information is,” said Legal Analyst Matt Manning.
Manning is a former prosecutor with the Nueces County district attorney’s office. 3News went to Matt Manning for some answers about what a sealed indictment actually is and why it's used?
“It's where there is a concern that if the defendant or the person who is being investigated might be tipped off by the indictment and the court might find good cause to seal the indictment so as to not give them a heads up on the investigation that's coming or compromise any investigation that's already in place,” said Manning.
While that explains why an indictment might be sealed another question is whether a grand jury has already looked at evidence in a case like this?
“The way it works at both the state and federal level it's the grand jury issuing the indictment the only difference is the indictment itself is sealed so presumably that means the grand jury has actually issued an indictment,” said Manning.
Now if a grand jury has already looked at evidence in a case and a judge has signed off on sealing the indictment then many people might wonder why law-enforcement would still need to raid businesses and homes and seize things like paperwork and computers from those places?
"The fact that a person is indicted does not preclude the prosecutor or the appropriate law enforcement agency from continuing to supplement information so they may say we have enough information to go before grand jury,” said Manning. “ Because they feel like they have enough information to find probable cause to get an indictment and thereafter continuing the investigation."
Of course just because the FBI raided Fulton construction and John Longoria's home it doesn't mean they have done anything wrong in this case.
"I don't think we can necessarily infer from that anything about the nature of this or frankly even who's involved because there may be people who have been determined to be witnesses or have been determined or believed to have had certain information about alleged offenses,” said Manning. “But they may not even be the ones who are the subject of the indictment so until you have more information, I don't think it be helpful to viewers or anyone to try and assume."
When the indictment is unsealed over the raids is anyone's guess. The FBI has offered no information on when those charges will be made public.
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