Dooley Calls for Koster to Remove McCulloch from Brown Investigation

[cal04]

Source: CBS St. Louis

St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley is asking Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster to remove St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch from the Michael Brown investigation.

“I think he should recuse himself,” Dooley says of McCulloch. “I think that Chris Koster ought to come on and assign a special prosecuter. I think Mr. McCulloch’s objectivity is in question. And if it’s in question, that should be enough to bring another special prosecutor to resolve this issue.”

McCulloch’s objectivity has come under question because his father – a police officer – was killed in a shooting, and because he opening criticized the decision by Gov. Jay Nixon to remove county police from the streets of Ferguson this week.



Read more: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/08/15/dooley-calls-for-koster-to-remove-mcculloch-from-brown-investigation/

[tk2kewl]

1. not to mention he let the killer skip town

Nt

[handmade34]

2. ...

No one answered at Wilson's door in his home in suburban Crestwood, Mo. A police officer keeping an eye on the house said Wilson and his family left days ago

[ReRe]

3. This is looking just like...

... the Zimmerman case. The SOB killer is running free. Why isn't his guilty butt in jail?

[Jack Rabbit]

4. What's this you're saying, ReRe?

Sounds like "Those creeps always get away." Or whatever it was Zimmerman said as he proceeded to disregard instructions not to pursue.

If I were Wilson, I'd be out of town, too. His attorney (let's assume he has one, he had better have one) probably knows how to get hold of him. If I were Wilson and still in Ferguson, jail is exactly where I'd want to be.

[passiveporcupine]

5. I agree

This whole story has been turned on it's head. Without video, we don't know what happened between the officer and Brown. It's his word against Johnson's.

However...I don't understand why the police let this develop into a national outrage before releasing the info of the robbery, which would have at least corroborated the officer's side of the story in being "attacked" by Brown, who would not have known that the officer did not know he just committed a crime. And it brings Johnson's statements of what happened under suspicion too.

This whole thing may not be what we were all led to believe, and escalated beyond necessary, simply from the police chief taking the wrong course of action in how to handle this.

I'm not ready to condemn the officer yet, because we really don't know what happened now, and I'm not surprised he and his family left town.

The militarization issue needs to be addressed, and the shooting needs to be thoroughly investigated. For now, everyone just needs to calm down and wait till we have more info.

[wordpix]

9. @ThreePharoah's (witness) tweets/photos are totally believable, shed light on what happened

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/man-may-have-live-tweeted-michael-brown-death.html

7 shots, first 2 in back while Brown was running away, he then turned around and got 5 more in front

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/15/witness-michael-brown-photo-dead_n_5683166.html

What doesn't make any sense is why the murderer shot Brown.

Thinking about all those movies about cops who "go bad" and get involved in drug sales. Could it be there was bad blood between these two? Just conjecturing, but why would anyone shoot anyone running away, esp. when the cop has a taser which would easily stop a person running? Did the cop just lose his mind? Seems there's more to it than that.

[ReRe]

8. Yeah...

... he's not going to poke his head out, that's for sure.

[easychoice]

6. or helped him

n/t

[annabanana]

7. 100% agree. Hope this gets mega-traction. . .n/t

[VanGoghRocks]

10. Filling in a few details for those interested in what McCulloch actually said:

McCulloch blasts Nixon

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch Thursday night blasted the decision by Gov. Jay Nixon to replace St. Louis County Police control of the Ferguson situation with the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

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

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/mcculloch-blasts-nixon-for-replacing-st-louis-county-police-control/article_0806541b-ed48-5d06-9267-323531ad6cf1.html

*****************

I woke up this morning thinking that a special prosecutor with no ties to the St. Louis political scene or metro area would probably be a good thing (perhaps someone of repute from the Kansas City metro area?)

If McCulloch announces there will be no prosecution -- for whatever reason -- few will trust his decision at this point; he has 'skin in the game,' given his LE ties. OTOH, if a KC special prosecutor reaches the same conclusion based upon a review of the evidence and witness testimony, the decision may not be greeted with outright scorn and ridicule.

Moral of the story: state officials need not only to avoid conflict of interest. They need to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. Basic Civics 101.