Cloud Over Michael Brown Inquiry as Attorney General Arrives in Ferguson

By Chris Campbell, Rory Carroll, Guardian UK

20 August 14

• County prosecutor Bob McCulloch accused of bias


• Night of relative calm in Ferguson ahead of Holder visit

he investigation into the killing by a police officer of an unarmed Missouri teenager has been thrown into uncertainty with a tussle between the state governor and the local prosector, hours before a grand jury was due to begin hearing evidence and on the eve of a visit on Wednesday by US attorney general Eric Holder.

As Ferguson experienced a night of relative calm – at least compared to the violent clashes of recent nights – governor Jay Nixon and St Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch issued duelling statements over the investigation into the death of Michael Brown, shot dead by a Ferguson police officer on 9 August.

McCulloch, whose impartiality has been repeatedly called into question, threw down what amounted to a challenge to Nixon, saying that he would recuse himself from the inquiry into the death of Brown if the governor demanded he do.

Nixon responded by saying that he would not make such a demand. But in a late-night statement that stopped well short of a ringing endorsement, the governor reiterated that McCulloch could step down if he wished.

“There is a well-established process by which a prosecutor can recuse themselves from a pending investigation and a special prosecutor be appointed,” Nixon said. “Departing from this established process could unnecessarily inject legal uncertainty into this matter and potentially jeopardize the prosecution.”

The uncertainty hours before the arrival of Holder, and as the city experienced a relatively peaceful night despite anger over an earlier shooting by police in St Louis.

Ron Johnson, a highway patrol captain who commands police around Ferguson, told a 2am press conference on Wednesday that officers arrested 47 people and recovered three loaded handguns.

He praised religious and community leaders with calming tension and thanked volunteers who cleaned debris from previous nights’ disturbances. “That is the true spirit of Ferguson,” Johnson said.

For most of the night a crowd several-hundred strong marched without incident under the gaze of police, who stayed further back than previous nights.

By 11pm Antonio French, a local alderman, was upbeat. “We just want to get a few peaceful nights in a row to restore faith that people are getting back to normal,” he said.

French, who has joined the nightly marches, said police appeared to have caught agitator ringleaders the previous 24 hours. He himself had tackled one on Monday night. “I didn’t see him tonight,” smiled the alderman.

Some trouble broke out: plastic and glass bottles were thrown, including some with urine, according to police. Officers faced off against dozens of chanting youths and occasionally lunged into the crowd to seize individuals, spraying some with pepper gas.

They herded the rest of the crowd down Florissant avenue, which has been the protest epicentre. There was jostling, pushing and several more arrests until 1am when the crowd gradually dispersed. There were no gunshots, Molotov cocktails or tear-gas - a peaceful night by Ferguson standards.

Community leaders appeased some restive elements in the crowd by announcing a rally on Wednesday outside the courthouse in St Louis where a grand jury is expected to hear evidence about the shooting of Michael Brown.

The grand jury, which will decide whether charges should be laid against Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Brown on 9 August, was due to begin hearing evidence at 9am local time on Wednesday. Holder is due to visit Ferguson to check up on a parallel civil rights investigation, being conducted by the FBI.

In an op-ed published in the St Louis Post-Dispatch, Holder wrote: “At a time when so much may seem uncertain, the people of Ferguson can have confidence that the Justice Department intends to learn – in a fair and thorough manner – exactly what happened.”

The St Louis investigation has been clouded by the pressure on McCulloch, who has deep ties to law enforcement agencies. His impartiality was called into question when he criticised the decision by Nixon last week to remove the responsibility for policing the protests against the killing of Brown from the St Louis County police force.

“It’s shameful what he did today, he had no legal authority to do that,” McCulloch said of the decision. “To denigrate the men and women of the county police department is shameful.”

McCulloch has also been challenged by the St Louis County executive, Charlie Dooley, and has been the target of a citizen’s petition demanding his removal, led by state senator Jamilah Nasheed.

Nasheed has cited McCulloch’s handling of an investigation into an undercover drug sting that left a drug suspect and his passenger dead at the hands of police. McCulloch has been criticized for misrepresenting secret grand jury testimony in his public statements about the 2001 case.

An investigation by the St Louis Post-Dispatch uncovered audio tapes of the grand jury proceedings, which showed several witnesses testified that the men did not move toward police before being gunned down. McCulloch had previously maintained such testimony never occurred.

McCulloch, whose career as the St Louis County prosecutor stretches back more than two decades, caused further controversy by calling the dead men “bums”.

The prosecutor’s family history has also been cited by opponents. McCulloch’s father, a police officer, was killed on duty by a black assailant – a fact his opponents have raised when accusing him of bias. Additionally McCulloch’s mother and brother had careers in law enforcement.