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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPost-Dispatch: "McCulloch's public statements were untrue."
McCulloch has a history.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's description of McCulloch's public assertions regarding the 2001 secret grand jury proceeding in which the officers who shot unarmed suspects Earl Murray and Ronald Beasley 21 times in the parking lot of a Jack in the Box, and were no-billed after claiming the suspects tried to run over them:
Grand jury proceedings are secret. McCulloch, in telling the public what the grand jury had found, repeatedly insisted that every witness had testified that the two detectives fired to defend themselves after the suspect tried to run them over with his car.
The Post-Dispatch reviewed the previously secret grand jury tapes and found that McCullochs public statements were untrue. Only three of the 13 detectives who testified said the suspects car had moved forward, in the direction of the two officers who shot him and his passenger. Two of those were the shooters themselves. The third was a detective who McCulloch later said he considered charging with perjury because his account was so at odds with the facts.
Contrary to McCullochs public statements, the grand jury tapes showed that four other detectives testified that they never saw the suspects car travel toward the officers....McCulloch never brought independent evidence before the grand jury to sort out who was right....Nor did he request the testimony of a nationally noted collision expert who investigated the case for the Justice Department. He determined that the suspects car had always been in reverse added proof that it did not move toward the detectives....
more at: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/sign-petitions-seeking-special-prosecutor-in-michael-brown-shooting/article_d0cc6e7f-8b32-5153-8ab4-86ebdc4659ca.html
Anansi1171
(793 posts)...with this Prosecutor. As with Angela Corrie in the Martin case, I smell bad-faith.
Faryn Balyncd
(5,125 posts)In 1997, McCulloch used a grand jury subpoena to identify a whistleblower who contacted the FBI and reported what he said was improper behavior by a member of then St. Louis County Executive George Buzz Westfalls cabinet. The whistleblower was Russ Signorino, then an employee of the St. Louis County Economic Council. He sent an anonymous fax to the media from a Kinkos store in Creve Coeur.
Without telling the grand jury what he was doing, McCulloch gave the subpoena to the St. Louis County police, who used it to obtain a video recording from Kinkos showing who sent the fax. After he was identified, Signorino was forced to quit his county job.
McCulloch at first claimed that he had issued the grand jury subpoena because the fax contained a threat.
He later admitted that there never had been any threat and conceded that no crime was involved. He denied that he had abused the grand jury process to identity a whistleblower who was acting lawfully.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/sign-petitions-seeking-special-prosecutor-in-michael-brown-shooting/article_d0cc6e7f-8b32-5153-8ab4-86ebdc4659ca.html
Marr
(20,317 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)so we should just wait and see what he does.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)They could not even IMAGINE someone taking a dive.
Again, it was a case where they didn't even want to charge the shooter with a crime which sends the message that it's always open season on black people. (...but bag limits haven't been established yet)
Keep in mind that after a criminal case establishes guilt that the next step is the civil case for damages. Finding the perp innocent is a money saver for the town, county, state governments as the award would be in the millions.
DefenseLawyer
(11,101 posts)I don't think most cities and police forces really fear a civil rights case. Sure, some cases are settled, but that's much more of a public relations calculation than a legal one. In most districts the (mostly) right wing federal judges use qualified immunity to knock the majority of cases out of the box on summary judgment. That's another big part of the overall problem with modern police culture. No one thinks twice about getting sued.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Far too many unqualified people are put in positions that should require a professional.
There was a case not long ago of police responding to a mentally ill kid. Two uniforms were being patient when a detective shows up out of the blue. He watches for a while,...says, "We don't have time for this." and shoots the kid.
I suppose it was far more important for him to get back on the famed Case of the Pilfered Pizza.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)Cases under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are extremely hard to win in my jurisdiction. I take a big risk with either of these types of suits. In most cases, it's just not worth it.
-Laelth
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)I hope while they're in town, the FBI and journalists start poking around in the closets... theres quite a few skeletons to be found. The DAs office is front and center in the culture of racism and corruption.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)HubertHeaver
(2,520 posts)We need to lean on Governor Nixon to appoint a special prosecutor.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)MO law gives the decision entirely to the local prosecutor. There is no mechanism for the governor to replace the local prosecutor against his will.
There's lots of people demanding Nixon do so, but that doesn't mean he actually can.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)Anyway, either way, Nixon should pressure the putz.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)where there was some pretty obvious problems with the local prosecutor. He could not be replaced until he stepped aside.
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/a/167020/analysis-missouri-attorney-general-koster-has-limited-prosecutorial-powers/
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)pintobean
(18,101 posts)in the largest county in the state. County primaries were just held 4 days before the Brown shooting. McCulloch won with over 70% of the vote. He also threw his support behind a relatively unknown councilman who upset the 10 year incumbent County Executive by more than a 2-1 margin.
Nixon has 2 years left as Governor. That's it, he's done due to term limits. Word is, he wants Blunt's senate seat. Nixon can't really fuck with the guy without jeopardizing that desire.
VanGoghRocks
(621 posts)only Nixon can remove him, that he's powerless to remove himself.
That is chicanery on a grand scale, Dreyfus Affair-style.
the fuck does McCulloch have on Nixon that bars him from naming a special prosecutor?
VanGoghRocks
(621 posts)simply 'name' a special prosecutor (barring, that is, enabling legislation from the MO state legislature).
Instead, McCulloch must first recuse himself.
But what McCulloch is doing is disingenuously insinuating that he can't step aside and that only Nixon can remove him, when the truth is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE.
Long and short: if scumbag McCulloch had one shred of human decency, he'd recuse himself ASAP and stop insulting the intelligence of his constituents and offending the decent opinion of mankind.
BuelahWitch
(9,083 posts)Nixon doesn't want to cross McCulloch because it might prevent him from getting Roy Blount's Senate seat when Blount retires. Or something like that.
pintobean
(18,101 posts)Blunt's a repub, all the others are Dems.
Lindsay
(3,276 posts)generally the governor cannot remove the prosecutor. However, the governor does have emergency power to do just that, and as he declared a State of Emergency in Ferguson, that does give him the power to remove the prosecutor from the case and name al alternative.
This looks to me like a political game of chicken, with neither Nixon nor McCulloch will to act with any honor whatsoever.
GeorgeGist
(25,311 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)First, thank you to St Louis Post-Dispatch! I sure hope they keep informing the public on McCulloch's machinations and how compromised he is.
Second, Mo AG, is there not a judge available to remove McCulloch from this case? Find one, for God's sake! The US Justice Dept and FBI are on the ground in that state, and if I were Gov Nixon and the MO AG, I would do the right thing and find a judge to get the job done. Otherwise, they (The Gov and AG of MO) might go down with McCulloch IF the US Dept of Justice and FBI takes action.
Thanks Faryn Balyncd for the OP!
jeff47
(26,549 posts)The only person who can remove the local prosecutor is the local prosecutor. There is no mechanism in MO law for the AG to remove the local prosecutor.
Here's a story from 2013 with some very obvious problems with the local prosecutor, and how the AG could do nothing until the local prosecutor stepped aside.
... I formed my assumptions about a judge being able to replace McCulloch from the Post-Dispatch article. I guess I read it too fast. Will go back and slow my reading down. Thanks!
... I went back and re-read it. Did you read it? So is the Post-Dispatch reporting biased & false info? Jeesh...McCulloch sounds like the King of Missouri! He seems to have more power than the Gov & AG of MO. And I guess there's nothing the Feds can do, if they discover all the shit McCulloch's gotten away with? Outta here....