Bob McCulloch, Prosecutor in Michael Brown Case, Hit with Lawsuit, Bar Complaints Over Impropriety
Bob McCulloch, the prosecutor who controversially provided every single piece of evidence to the grand jury in the Michael Brown case, including information he knew to be untrue, has been sued by a juror, while a number of St. Louis residents formally filed a complaint to the Missouri Bar.
The New York Times reports that one of the 12 jurors in the grand jury that chose not to indict Darren Wilson over the death of Michael Brown has sued for the right to discuss the case on the grounds that McCulloch misrepresented the work the grand jury did and the conclusions it reached.
The American Civil Liberties Union is representing the juror in federal court. The juror contends that the evidence in the Brown case was obtuse and untimely in comparison to other cases the grand jury heard from McCulloch. The Times reports that juror also felt the case was focused too closely on Michael Brown, rather Wilson, who was supposed to be the subject of the legal inquiry.
Just as news of the lawsuit broke, KMOV reported that seven St. Louis residents have filed a formal complaint against McCulloch and two assistants of his, Kathi Alizadeh, and Sheila Whirley.
This is because McCulloch made the unusual and unprecedented decision to provide the grand jury with every single piece of evidence related to the death of Michael Brown, even though McCulloch has stated publicly he knew some of that information was not true.
Another possible focus of the complaint could the fact that Alizadeh provided the grand jury with a Missouri law that said it was legal to shoot a fleeing suspect in the back. This law was invalidated by the US Supreme Court in the 1980s, but this understanding informed the grand jury's deliberations until Alizadeh corrected this mistake weeks later.
Even at that time, when asked if Supreme Court decisions were of more importance than state law, which they are, Alizadeh told the grand jury, "Just don't worry about that."
