The Sonoma County Grand Jury is embarking on a recruitment campaign to draw more Latinos and younger people to the jury.
"Basically, grand jurors are older, gray-haired people who are white, and they really do not reflect accurately the population of Sonoma County," said current jury foreman Richard Klein of Santa Rosa. "There are significant issues in Sonoma County that have to do with Hispanics and Latinos and things that have interest to younger people, and we just don't have those (jurors)."
The jury examined its own makeup in an investigation and has begun reaching out to community groups of active young people and Latinos.
The group is also on a quest to generate more applicants from all county residents. The goal is to receive 80 applications, but only 30 have been submitted to date, and the deadline is April 19.
"Last year, we had so few applicants to the grand jury that we ran the risk of not having a complete jury," Klein said. "It's an untenable situation." READ FULL STORY
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