http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IndictmentSealed Indictment
An indictment can be sealed so that it stays non-public until it is unsealed. This can be done for a number of reasons. It may be unsealed, for example, once the named person is arrested.
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http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1800748What is a sealed indictment? Or, the case of the missing third Duke lacrosse player.
Two Duke lacrosse players from New York's suburbs were arrested on April 18, 2006 in the Duke University gang-rape case, bringing home to Durham, N.C. an explosive scandal of sex, race and college athletics. Both suspects come from prestigious Catholic prep schools and well-to-do suburban communities where million-dollar homes sit on manicured cul-de-sacs.
The charge? A black woman who attends a nearby college charged that she was hired to perform a $400 strip show, and ended up being assaulted, raped, and sodomized by the two lacrosse players - as well as a third, unnamed assailant -- in a bathroom in a fraternity house for 30 minutes.
The racial and political overtones aside, one simple legal question needs to be answered. Why don't we know the name of the third alleged assailant?
The answer is simple. The indictments handed down by the Durham, N.C. grand jury were immediately sealed by the District Attorney Mike Nifong, who made clear in a public statement that "upon my motion, and pursuant to the order of Judge Ronald L. Stephens under N(orth).C(arolina).G(eneral).S(tatute). 15A-623(f), the bills of indictment were sealed. Because of that, no one in the court system was permitted to disclose that those bills had been returned - or even that they had been submitted to the Grand Jury - until such time as the defendants were arrested."
But what is a sealed indictment? Quite simply, a magistrate to whom an indictment is returned may direct that the indictment be kept secret until the defendant is in custody or has been released pending trial. Until the defendant is in custody, the clerk of court must then seal the indictment, ensuring that no person will be allowed to disclose the return of the indictment except when necessary for the issuance and execution of a warranty or summons.
In other words, the indictment is kept secret from everyone but the sheriff until the defendant is in custody. This may be done because a defendant is a flight risk, or because the publicity surrounding a case is so great as to make public disclosure prior to arrest prejudicial. In the Duke case - with rich, preppy lacrosse players and nationwide news coverage - my guess is that both factors came into play.