According to the statutes, there are two ways to charge someone with a crime in Idaho.
1) Submit information to a judge and if the judge believes there is sufficient reason to believe the accused committed the crime, a warrant is issued, the accused has an arraignment and a preliminary hearing.
2) Take the case to a Grand Jury and if the Grand Jury returns an indictment, a warrant is issued, the accused is arraigned but there is not preliminary hearing.
Given that these are the two methods listed in the statutes, is it legal for a prosecutor to file an information with a judge, wait until the accused is arraigned (first appearance) and THEN present the case to a Grand Jury for indictment?

It seems to me that this is at the very least unethical and a waste of the court’s time. From what I have been told, it is more difficult to get a person charged with a crime by filing an information than it is to present the case to a Grand Jury, since Grand Jury’s seem to almost always return an indictment. The preliminary hearing offers the accused the opportunity to challenge the State’s evidence in front of a judge with the potential to have the case dismissed. The Grand Jury does not give the accused this opportunity. So, to file an information would mean that the prosecutor should be confident enough that they will be successful at the preliminary hearing. After the prosecutor filed an information, if they wanted to then pursue a Grand Jury, shouldn’t they have first dismissed the previous charges? IT just doesn’t make sense that they would go to a Grand Jury to get an indictment when they’ve already gotten charges filed against the accused unless it is to deny the accused the opportunity to challenge their evidence.