The judge handling the grand jury hearing in the rape case against Dennis Gallagher, Sheri Roman, today dismissed the grand jury, saying in her ruling that the assistant district attorney handling the case was “improper” and caused not only “a risk of prejudice” to the grand jury, but “created actual prejudice.”

District Attorney Richard Brown said he would bring the case before another grand jury.

Gallagher’s lawyer, unsurprisingly, told me he hoped Brown could be persuaded otherwise since, “there never was a rape to begin with.”

A spokesman for Brown could not immediately tell me how many times in the previous year a judge had made a similar ruling.

Here’s an excerpt from Judge Roman's decision, which Gallagher's lawyer emailed to me:

“The nature of the prosecutors cross-examination of the defendant, in addition to his refusal to seek judicial ruling when requested by defense counsel, and continuing refusal to seek judicial guidance when specifically requested by a Grand Juror, as well as his improper response to concerns voiced by the Grand Jurors, resulted in a significant impairment of the integrity of the Grand Jury proceedings and created prejudice in the minds of the Grand Jurors. More, this court finds that the cross-examination of the defendant by the prosecutor created more than just a risk of prejudice to the defendant, it created actual prejudice.”