MODESTO, Calif. (AP) — A grand jury was scheduled Thursday to review allegations that Rep. Gary Condit obstructed justice when he asked flight attendant Anne Marie Smith to sign an affidavit stating they didn't have an affair.

The Stanislaus County Grand Jury was expected to meet at 4 p.m. in a hearing to take up unusual allegations made last week by Smith, said Marnie Ardis, the county employee who oversees the grand jury.

The civil grand jury proceedings are normally secret but Ardis said she was willing to confirm the agenda in this case because Smith went public when her lawyer, James Robinson, held a news conference on the county courthouse steps after filing the complaint.

The 19-member panel will decide whether to investigate Smith's claims, or reject her citizen's complaint. The decision won't be released to the public, but if the complaint is rejected, Smith and her lawyer would be notified by letter, Ardis said.

Citizen requests for criminal charges are usually made to police or prosecutors, who can present evidence to criminal grand juries.

"The whole purpose of this is to go around the DA because we don't trust the DA," Robinson said Thursday.

Still, it would be up to prosecutors to decide whether to pursue a criminal case, and District Attorney Jim Brazelton has said he isn't likely to take any action based only on Robinson's legal maneuvers.

Smith, who said she and Condit had a sexual relationship for 10 months, claims the congressman and his intermediaries tried to get her to sign a false affidavit denying they had an affair.

Condit has denied asking anybody to lie, and his attorney, Abbe Lowell, said Smith and the congressman apparently have different definitions of the word "relationship."

Smith's ties to Condit became public after the congressman was linked to Chandra Levy, a 24-year-old government intern from Modesto who vanished in Washington, D.C., on May 1.

Condit, 53, is not considered a suspect in her disappearance, but he has acknowledged having an extramarital affair with Levy, according to a police source.