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Tag: ferguson shooting
In An Effort To Make A Lesson Better, Missouri’s Teacher Of The Year Found Himself In The Middle Of Violence

In An Effort To Make A Lesson Better, Missouri’s Teacher Of The Year Found Himself In The Middle Of Violence

By Jessica Bock, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

HAZELWOOD, Mo. — The scar on Chris Holmes’ left temple could be considered a marker of the measures he’ll take to make a lesson matter to his journalism students at Hazelwood West High School.

After the fatal shooting of Michael Brown on Aug. 9, Holmes attended what was supposed to be a peaceful vigil Aug. 10 in Ferguson. It was the Sunday night before the new school year began in Hazelwood, and he wanted to get an eyewitness perspective from the scene for his students.

His plan: Spend the first day of his intro to journalism class exploring how to accurately, responsibly, and ethically cover what would likely be a massive news event.

Instead, Holmes became part of the story.

“You never want to put yourself in a dangerous situation, but it made for a great conversation in class,” Holmes said last week. “It still does.”

Holmes, 48, had been marching on West Florissant Avenue with hundreds of others, taking notes and pictures to capture details from the scene. When night came, the peaceful tone changed to violence. Holmes had parked his car near the QuikTrip that would later be burned. As he headed back to it, he saw the looters.

“I was sad because I didn’t want this going on. Intrigued because it was incredibly newsworthy. And a little scared,” he said.

Someone yelled out that he was a detective, based on his black pants and black polo shirt, He explained he was a teacher, showing a woman his shirt with a Hazelwood West logo. The woman apologized.

A second later, someone threw a brick, cutting a deep gash on his forehead. Someone took his phone.

“If it wasn’t for several kind young women who led me to a police barricade, I’m not sure what would have happened,” Holmes said.

He spent the next five hours at the barricade, where he eventually got bandaged up while waiting to get back to his car and go home. He never got his phone back. Meanwhile, his wife and children were sleeping at home.

The next day, he went to school. Principal Dennis Newell sent him to see a doctor. He came back to school, stitched up and ready to teach, and Newell told him to go home and rest.

“That first day is so important,” Holmes said. “I hated missing it.”

He knew the kids were probably going to be talking about the teacher who got hurt in Ferguson. So he wanted to make sure they knew the truth.

You’re going to need to know this, he told his students the next day. This is what it was really like, he said. 99 percent of the people were mortified that there was violence. They didn’t come for the violence. This was not Ferguson.

“What we saw on TV, while it was news — and I get it, we’re journalists, we report the most newsworthy stuff — but most of what we saw was out of context,” he said.

Two weeks later, during a schoolwide assembly he thought was about attendance, officials announced that the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education had named Holmes as the state’s Teacher of the Year, and that he will represent Missouri in the national competition. The crowd erupted with cheers.

Newell says Holmes’ passion for teaching is unquestionable.

And while his visit to Ferguson may be an example of his dedication, it was not the reason for the honor. The award was based on much more than one night, such as the dropout prevention program he’s helped initiate at West. Then there’s the spring break trip he and a colleague took students on to the southern tip of Texas to report on immigration issues and teens along the Mexico-U.S. border.

And students say that although he may be one of the most popular teachers at West, he’s also one of the toughest.

“Mr. Holmes will push you no matter what. No matter where you are, you’re gonna improve,” said Onesty Pertillar, a senior.

Photo: St. Louis Post-Dispatch/MCT/Christian Gooden

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Officer In Ferguson, Missouri Shooting Testifies Before Grand Jury

Officer In Ferguson, Missouri Shooting Testifies Before Grand Jury

By Kim Bell and Robert Patrick, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

CLAYTON, Mo. — Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson testified here for almost four hours Tuesday in front of the St. Louis County grand jury investigating his Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown, a source with knowledge of the investigation said Wednesday.

Wilson was not obligated to appear, and also has spoken with St. Louis County investigators twice and federal investigators once, the source said. The source said Wilson was “cooperative.”

A spokesman for Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch’s office, Ed Magee, refused to comment Wednesday on who has testified.

The shooting of Brown, 18, an African-American who was unarmed, by Wilson, who is white, gave rise to racially charged protests and looting. Some activists have threatened more of the same if the grand jury does not indict Wilson.

Police have said that Brown struggled with Wilson before being shot. Brown’s family and some witnesses have said Brown was surrendering when he died. Others who have spoken publicly said it was not clear what Brown was doing when he turned toward Wilson after fleeing from their initial encounter.

McCulloch has pledged to present every witness and every shred of evidence to let the grand jurors independently decide whether to indict Wilson, without the prosecutor making a recommendation. Magee has said that prosecutors will help them navigate legal issues.

Veteran defense lawyer John Rogers, who is not involved in this case, said Wednesday, “It’s unusual but not unheard of for a prosecutor to extend an invitation” for the target of an investigation to testify to a grand jury. He said he has rarely allowed it.

Witnesses cannot take their lawyers inside the grand jury chamber, although they may interrupt the proceedings to go outside for a consultation.

“You don’t always want to preview what your defense would be at such an early stage,” Rogers explained. He added, “I would only consider allowing my client to testify at a grand jury proceeding if I was convinced that the prosecutor presenting the evidence to the (grand jury) was convinced that his testimony would help them reach the decision not to indict.”

Attorney Chet Pleban, who is not part of this case but has represented a number of accused police officers, said that sworn grand jury testimony could be used in any state or federal prosecution, potentially exposing the witness to damaging questions.

“The problem in this case is, one way or the other, his story had to be told in order for this grand jury to know what was in his mind,” Pleban said. “And I don’t know any way to accomplish that other than to have him testify.”

Wilson must persuade grand jurors that he acted in reasonable fear of death or serious injury, Pleban said, “And he’s pretty much the only one that can do that.”

Evidence is being presented to a grand jury that was empaneled before the shooting, with a term recently extended at the prosecutor’s request to Jan. 7. At one point, McCulloch had predicted a decision in October.

The pace remains uncertain, but Tiffany Mitchell, a witness to the shooting who has spoken publicly about what she saw, has not yet been subpoenaed, her lawyer, Peter Cohen, said Wednesday.

McCulloch took the rare step of having audio recordings and a transcript made of the secret proceedings, with a promise to release them publicly if there is no indictment. McGee acknowledged that opening the material would require an order from a judge, who could say no.

Jim Cohen, an associate professor of law at Fordham University, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last month that grand jury material rarely has been made public anywhere, even to scholars researching historical cases. He also worried that fear of being publicly identified might inhibit witnesses.

Magee said McCulloch’s office has talked about the potential effect on witnesses “a little bit” and “it’s still being discussed.” He said prosecutors could decide to withhold witness names, especially those who are not police officers and may have particular safety issues.

He said the names of the grand jurors will not be made public, and it was unclear whether documents would be released that necessarily would carry the foreperson’s signature.

Magee said the timing of the announcement of the grand jury’s decision, once it’s made, is “still being discussed.”

Back on Aug. 13, McCulloch urged that “anyone and everyone” with relevant information come forward. He said then that, “Absolutely everything will be presented to the grand jury, every scrap of paper that we have, every photograph that was taken, every bit of physical evidence that has been gathered, every video clip, anything that we can get.”

“Every witness who has anything at all to say will be presented to the grand jury,” he promised.

McCulloch has delegated management of the grand jury to two assistants: Kathi Alizadeh and Sheila Whirley. Alizadeh, who is white, is a homicide prosecutor with 27 years of experience.
Whirley, who is black, has the grand jury assignment, with 18 years of experience.

Christine Byers of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

AFP Photo/Joshua Lott

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Grand Jury Now Has Until January To Decide Whether To Charge Ferguson Officer

Grand Jury Now Has Until January To Decide Whether To Charge Ferguson Officer

By Christine Byers, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

CLAYTON, Mo. — The grand jury considering whether Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson should be criminally charged in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown now has until Jan. 7 to decide.

The extension of the grand jurors’ term of duty does not necessarily mean the job will take that long, officials said. But it could.

There is significant apprehension, especially along the West Florissant Avenue business strip hit by looting and rioting after the killing Aug. 9, that violence might return if the grand jury does not send Wilson to trial for something. Some activists have threatened as much.

A St. Louis County grand jury usually sits for four months, a period that for the current panel expired last week. State law provides for a term of up to six months, which moves the date to November. On Sept. 10, Circuit Judge Carolyn Whittington issued an order adding 60 days more.

“She extended it to the full amount allowed by law,” Court Administrator Paul Fox said Monday. But he said the grand jury will keeping meeting until Jan. 7 only if it needs to.

The panel now is hearing evidence in the Michael Brown case exclusively, and can meet whenever it needs to, Fox said.

The grand jury is 12 people selected from the standard jury pool to meet in secret, usually weekly, to hear evidence and decide whether criminal charges are warranted. It takes nine votes to issue an indictment, which sends a defendant to a public trial.

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch can bypass a grand jury and take a case to trial by filing a complaint that goes first to a preliminary hearing, a public proceeding in which a judge decides if there should be a trial. Often, his office files a charge first and then obtains an indictment to replace it, avoiding the preliminary hearing.

McCulloch chose to take the full investigation of Wilson’s use of deadly force to the grand jury. He announced weeks ago that he would present all the evidence gathered, leaving to grand jurors the decision of what to do.

His spokesman, Ed Magee, said Monday it is a somewhat unusual circumstance in that the office is not asking the grand jury to endorse a charge already filed. He said prosecutors will help the grand jury navigate legal issues while drawing its own conclusion about what to do with Wilson.

Wilson is entitled but not obligated to testify. If he does, he must leave his attorney at the door.

Police said that Wilson, who is white, struggled with Brown, 18, who is black, and that during the episode Brown was killed by Wilson’s shots. Some witnesses claimed Brown was surrendering when he died.

AFP Photo/Joshua Lott

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Justice Department To Expand Probe In Michael Brown Shooting

Justice Department To Expand Probe In Michael Brown Shooting

By Chuck Raasch, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is preparing to announce as early as Thursday that it will expand its investigation of the police shooting death of Michael Brown, 18, into a broader civil rights probe of the practices of the Ferguson Police Department.

Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said Wednesday night that he had met at Ferguson City Hall with two Department of Justice employees from Washington on Wednesday afternoon.

Knowles said he was surprised that a decision had been made so quickly.

“It’s surprising to me that the story was filed less than 1.5 hours after I met with them,” he said. “They told me they would report their findings to higher-ups and a decision would be made.”

“I told them honestly that we’re not hiding anything, so if someone wants to look into this, I welcome it,” Knowles said. “I have nothing to hide and neither does our city, and we will comply and participate with their investigation. I hope this will restore confidence in our police department and the city government.”

“I hope that at some point we’ll be able to tell our story and people will listen,” Knowles said.

A law enforcement official who has been briefed on the plan confirmed to the Post-Dispatch on Wednesday that the investigation will initially focus on Ferguson. The Washington Post first reported on the expanded investigation by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, saying the investigation would also include other St. Louis County jurisdictions. But the law enforcement official who has been briefed on the plan said the civil rights investigation would cover only Ferguson.

The official would not speculate on whether the investigation could broaden to other St. Louis County departments and jurisdictions.

Brown was killed by Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9. In the aftermath, amid demonstrations, looting, and violence erupted. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon eventually called in the Missouri National Guard and the Highway Patrol to help police in the aftermath. On Wednesday, Nixon removed the state of emergency declaration for Ferguson.

Two days after the shooting, the Justice Department announced it would conduct its own investigation, but Attorney General Eric Holder emphasized that it would be concurrent with any investigation by local police, not supersede it.

A St. Louis County grand jury has been hearing evidence.

The expansion into a broader civil rights investigation of the practices, procedures, and use of force by the Ferguson department would follow a pattern of the Justice Department under Holder.

The Post-Dispatch reported in the wake of the Brown shooting that since 1997, 21 law enforcement agencies around the country — starting with Pittsburgh and ranging from East Haven, Conn., to Los Angeles — have signed consent agreements to improve policing after Department of Justice investigations. But the pace of Justice probes into local police departments has accelerated under Holder.

The attorney general visited Ferguson on Aug. 20 and met with Brown’s family. He gave no hint then that he would expand the investigation.

“The eyes of the nation and the world are watching Ferguson right now,” Holder said then. “This is something that has a history to it, and the history simmers beneath the surface in more communities than just Ferguson.”

According to The Washington Post, over his five-plus years as attorney general, Holder has initiated twice the number of civil rights investigations of police departments as any of his predecessors, and that at least 34 departments are now being investigated.

On the same day that Holder announced the department’s initial investigation of the shooting, three members of Congress — including Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) — had urged him to broaden it to look for “any pattern or practice of police misconduct by the Ferguson Police Department.”

The Aug. 11 letter was also signed by Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Marcia Fudge, D-(OH).

“Only the federal government has the resources, the experience, and the full independence to give this case the close scrutiny that the citizens of Ferguson and the greater St. Louis area deserve,” their letter said. “Moreover, to the extent that a pattern or practice of police misconduct may exist, such misconduct would be a clear violation of federal law,” including a statute “which makes it unlawful for state or local law enforcement officers to engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives persons of rights protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

Clay was unavailable for comment Wednesday night. His spokesman, Steven Engehlardt, said the congressman would wait to comment until after any announcement of an expanded investigation was made.

Margaret Gillerman of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

AFP Photo/Joshua Lott

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