Hahah There quite a few folks over in /r/law that would be much better AMA folks than myself! I'm a complete amateur compared to them.
Yeah, but you're actually willing to comment about stuff!
As for an example of an unexpected True Bill case, I know it's happened in a few child endangerment cases. I don't handle those cases, but over the past three years I've learned of indictments handed down in cases involving children that truly surprised me. However, parents are easily polarized over crimes involving children.
I can see both sides regarding a child endangerment issue. As a single 30-something guy who neither has nor wants kids, I might be the one on a [grand] jury thinking "geez, they could have accused me of attempted kidnapping or something, and all I was trying to do was help..." And yet I know that some of my friends with kids would see the polar opposite, "there was a man talking to a child, he must be up to no good!" It's a sad commentary on our society, but if I see a kid in trouble, I'm not likely to step in. I don't need the hassle. It's scary how people react when kids are involved, there's a complete defenestration of logic as their primal emotions take over.
There was a local situation last month where parents spotted a car near a middle school with some questionable looking men luring kids towards the car as they walked by. The parents called the police and the news, and one of the TV stations did a big story about how child molesters are loitering right in front of schools just waiting to snatch kids up. A few moms who saw the perpetrators spoke about the great danger that these men pose, and provided pictures they'd taken of the vehicle and the men in question.
Fast forward a couple of days. The "suspicious looking pervert men trying to kidnap children" turned out to be some sweet 80-year-old grandma who sells candy out of her car's trunk. She went by the school because that's where the customers are, and she came forward after seeing pictures of herself and her car on the news. There was never any threat to anyone's kids, there were never any perverts trying to lure children away from the school, but parents across the city were primed to string those men up by the balls right now.
Thanks again for your answers. I won't go so far as to say that there's an overwhelming anti-prosecutor bias around here, but I think there's definitely a feeling that prosecutors are complicit when cops and other connected people either aren't indicted, or are indicted for something petty compared to what the average citizen would face. It's enlightening to get a look into the process and hear some legitimate reasons why things might play out like that.