29-1412 Witness; refusal to testify or provide other information; contempt; right to counsel; penalty; hearing; confinement; limitation. - Nebraska Statutes

29-1412. Witness; refusal to testify or provide other information; contempt; right to counsel; penalty; hearing; confinement; limitation.(1)(a) Whenever a witness in any proceeding before any grand jury refuses, without just cause shown, to comply with an order of the court to testify or provide other information, including any book, paper, document, record, recording, or other material, the prosecuting attorney may submit an application to the court for an order directing the witness to show why the witness should not be held in contempt. After submission of such application and a hearing at which the witness may be represented by counsel, the court may, if the court finds that such refusal was without just cause, hold the witness in contempt and order the witness to be confined or to pay a fine of not to exceed five hundred dollars. Such confinement shall continue until such time as the witness is willing to give such testimony or provide such information, except that the court may release the witness from confinement if the court determines that further confinement will not cause the witness to give such testimony or provide such information. No period of such confinement shall exceed the term of the grand jury, including extensions, before which such refusal to comply with the court order occurred, and in no event shall such confinement exceed six months.(b) If a witness has been confined in accordance with subsection (1)(a) of this section, he or she may, upon petition filed with the court, request a hearing to be held within ten days to review the contempt order at which hearing he or she shall have the right to be represented by counsel. The court, at the hearing, may rescind, modify, or affirm the order.(c) In any proceeding conducted under this section, counsel may be appointed for a person financially unable to obtain adequate assistance.(2) No person who has been confined or fined by a court for refusal to testify or provide other information concerning any criminal incident or incidents in any proceeding before a grand jury impaneled before any district court shall again be confined or fined for a subsequent refusal to testify or provide other information concerning the same criminal incident or incidents before any grand jury. SourceG.S.1873, c. 58, § 403, p. 815; R.S.1913, § 9042; C.S.1922, § 10066; C.S.1929, § 29-1412; R.S.1943, § 29-1412; Laws 1979, LB 524, § 7.