fairmaiden
January 9th, 2015, 02:11 PM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2902587/Now-Ferguson-prosecutor-accused-lying-evidence-grand-jury-cleared-police-killing-two-unarmed-black-men.html (click the link to see the full story, I only quoted some of it)
The prosecutor at the center of the Ferguson scandal has been accused of lying about evidence presented to grand jurors in an earlier case in which police shot dead two unarmed black men.
The explosive allegation is made in a court case that threatens to lift the lid on the final secrets of the investigation into the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown last summer.
The unarmed black teen was shot dead by Ferguson cop Darren Wilson, 29, on 9 August. Violent protests raged in the immediate aftermath.
Witness accounts that Brown had raised his hands and begged ‘Don’t shoot’ were later discredited but ‘Hands Up Don’t Shoot’ remained the banner under which protesters marched in November, when public fury reignited with the grand jury’s failure to indict Wilson on any charges.
Mr Rothert continued, ‘Any government official should be questioned,but there is true reason to be skeptical when Bob McCulloch says he is being fully transparent. He made that claim once before, in the investigation of a June 12, 2000, police shooting.
‘He wasn’t telling the truth. Years later, evidence that he was withholding came out.’
On 12 June 2000 two police officers shot dead two unarmed black men in Berkeley, Missouri – within walking distance of the Ferguson street on which Michael Brown was gunned down.
The incident became infamous locally as the Jack in the Box shootings, named after the fast food chain in whose parking lot the killings took place.
Victim Earl Murray, 36, was a small time drug dealer. His friend Ronald Beasley, also 36, was a married father of three who worked in an auto repair store and just happened to be in Murray’s car when officers sprayed it with 21 bullets.
What followed – public outrage, official reluctance to name the officers, a grand jury’s failure to indict and, significantly, the central roles played by Bob McCulloch and Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson – is strikingly similar to the events that have unfolded in Ferguson over the past five months.
According to Mr Rothert who has referenced the case in the lawsuit filed on Monday, the extent to which history is repeating itself, ‘highlights the fact that we can’t take McCulloch’s word about what the grand jurors thought and what the evidence was,’ in either case.
It was broad daylight when Earl Murray drove his car into the parking lot of Jack in the Box and realized, too late, that he was the target of an undercover sting. A dozen cops awaited his arrival.
Panicking he threw his car into reverse and backed into the police SUV behind him.
Officers Robert Piekutowski and Keith Kierzkowski approached the front of the car and began firing volley after volley. They shot Murray and Beasley 21 times.
The officers maintained that they fired because Murray started driving towards them and they believed he would mow them down. They used deadly force, they claimed, because they feared for their lives.
The supervising officer at the time was Thomas Jackson, then a Lieutenant, now St Louis County Chief of Police. The Prosecutor was Bob McCulloch.
Both presented the officers’ version as fact in the face of outrage and anger from the black community.
Police Chief Jackson told reporters, ‘I am convinced that the officers were in fear of their lives and that they were in immediate danger.’
‘It was obvious to everyone,’ he stated, ‘that he [Murray] was going to go right through them…they thought, “this is it.”’
He backed his men’s then, just as he backed Darren Wilson when the Ferguson claimed that, after two punches during a car-side tussle with Brown, he feared that a third blow from the teen would kill him.
Meanwhile, Mr McCulloch made a public statement asserting that ‘every witness who has anything to say or to offer will be presented to the grand jury.
‘It’s important that the integrity of this office and public confidence in the judicial system be maintained.’
In an echo of his utterances regarding the Darren Wilson grand jury he acknowledged, ‘There is widespread concern in the whole community about this case, and no decision will be reached until every shred of evidence is presented.’
Yet, while publicly preaching impartiality, Mr McCulloch consistently referred to both Murray and Beasley as ‘suspects’ not victims, though Beasley was never accused of any wrongdoing. Later he stated that both men were ‘bums.’
In what was slammed as a concerted effort on the prosecutor’s part to denigrate the men, a list of all Murray and Beasley’s interactions with law enforcement, including those that led to no charges, was read out to the grand jury before members began their final deliberations.
Fourteen years later, Chief Jackson released CCTV footage showing Michael Brown stealing a box of cigarillos moments before Wilson gunned him down.
At 6ft 4 and weighing 292lbs the teenager was shown making full use of his bulk to intimidate the storekeeper when challenged.
Amid allegations of an attempt to smear the teenager, Officer Jackson claimed that he had released the footage on the request of the media. This was later revealed to be untrue.
The prosecutor at the center of the Ferguson scandal has been accused of lying about evidence presented to grand jurors in an earlier case in which police shot dead two unarmed black men.
The explosive allegation is made in a court case that threatens to lift the lid on the final secrets of the investigation into the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown last summer.
The unarmed black teen was shot dead by Ferguson cop Darren Wilson, 29, on 9 August. Violent protests raged in the immediate aftermath.
Witness accounts that Brown had raised his hands and begged ‘Don’t shoot’ were later discredited but ‘Hands Up Don’t Shoot’ remained the banner under which protesters marched in November, when public fury reignited with the grand jury’s failure to indict Wilson on any charges.
Mr Rothert continued, ‘Any government official should be questioned,but there is true reason to be skeptical when Bob McCulloch says he is being fully transparent. He made that claim once before, in the investigation of a June 12, 2000, police shooting.
‘He wasn’t telling the truth. Years later, evidence that he was withholding came out.’
On 12 June 2000 two police officers shot dead two unarmed black men in Berkeley, Missouri – within walking distance of the Ferguson street on which Michael Brown was gunned down.
The incident became infamous locally as the Jack in the Box shootings, named after the fast food chain in whose parking lot the killings took place.
Victim Earl Murray, 36, was a small time drug dealer. His friend Ronald Beasley, also 36, was a married father of three who worked in an auto repair store and just happened to be in Murray’s car when officers sprayed it with 21 bullets.
What followed – public outrage, official reluctance to name the officers, a grand jury’s failure to indict and, significantly, the central roles played by Bob McCulloch and Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson – is strikingly similar to the events that have unfolded in Ferguson over the past five months.
According to Mr Rothert who has referenced the case in the lawsuit filed on Monday, the extent to which history is repeating itself, ‘highlights the fact that we can’t take McCulloch’s word about what the grand jurors thought and what the evidence was,’ in either case.
It was broad daylight when Earl Murray drove his car into the parking lot of Jack in the Box and realized, too late, that he was the target of an undercover sting. A dozen cops awaited his arrival.
Panicking he threw his car into reverse and backed into the police SUV behind him.
Officers Robert Piekutowski and Keith Kierzkowski approached the front of the car and began firing volley after volley. They shot Murray and Beasley 21 times.
The officers maintained that they fired because Murray started driving towards them and they believed he would mow them down. They used deadly force, they claimed, because they feared for their lives.
The supervising officer at the time was Thomas Jackson, then a Lieutenant, now St Louis County Chief of Police. The Prosecutor was Bob McCulloch.
Both presented the officers’ version as fact in the face of outrage and anger from the black community.
Police Chief Jackson told reporters, ‘I am convinced that the officers were in fear of their lives and that they were in immediate danger.’
‘It was obvious to everyone,’ he stated, ‘that he [Murray] was going to go right through them…they thought, “this is it.”’
He backed his men’s then, just as he backed Darren Wilson when the Ferguson claimed that, after two punches during a car-side tussle with Brown, he feared that a third blow from the teen would kill him.
Meanwhile, Mr McCulloch made a public statement asserting that ‘every witness who has anything to say or to offer will be presented to the grand jury.
‘It’s important that the integrity of this office and public confidence in the judicial system be maintained.’
In an echo of his utterances regarding the Darren Wilson grand jury he acknowledged, ‘There is widespread concern in the whole community about this case, and no decision will be reached until every shred of evidence is presented.’
Yet, while publicly preaching impartiality, Mr McCulloch consistently referred to both Murray and Beasley as ‘suspects’ not victims, though Beasley was never accused of any wrongdoing. Later he stated that both men were ‘bums.’
In what was slammed as a concerted effort on the prosecutor’s part to denigrate the men, a list of all Murray and Beasley’s interactions with law enforcement, including those that led to no charges, was read out to the grand jury before members began their final deliberations.
Fourteen years later, Chief Jackson released CCTV footage showing Michael Brown stealing a box of cigarillos moments before Wilson gunned him down.
At 6ft 4 and weighing 292lbs the teenager was shown making full use of his bulk to intimidate the storekeeper when challenged.
Amid allegations of an attempt to smear the teenager, Officer Jackson claimed that he had released the footage on the request of the media. This was later revealed to be untrue.