Federal civil rights charges unlikely against police officer in Ferguson shooting

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Justice Department investigators have all but concluded they do not have a strong enough case to bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., law enforcement officials said.

When racial tension boiled over in Ferguson after the Aug. 9 shooting, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. traveled to the St. Louis suburb to meet with city leaders and protest organizers in an effort to bring calm. He assured them that the federal government would open a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. But that investigation now seems unlikely to result in any charges.

“The evidence at this point does not support civil rights charges against Officer Wilson,” said one person briefed on the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Justice Department officials are loath to acknowledge publicly that their case cannot now meet the high legal threshold for a successful civil rights prosecution. The timing is sensitive: Tensions are high in greater St. Louis as people await the results of a grand jury’s review of the case.

Many supporters of Brown say they are already convinced there will be no state-level indictment of the officer. Federal officials have wanted to show that they are conducting a full and fair review of the case.

Justice spokesman Brian Fallon said the case remains open and any discussion of its results is premature. “This is an irresponsible report by The Washington Post that is based on idle speculation,” Fallon said in a statement.

Other law enforcement officials interviewed by The Post said it was not too soon to say how the investigation would end. “The evidence we have makes federal civil rights charges unlikely,” one said.

A lawyer for Brown’s family, Benjamin L. Crump, said he would not comment “on something that is not official.”

James P. Towey Jr., Wilson’s attorney, did not return calls or e-mails seeking comment.

The Justice Department is continuing its broad investigation of the policing practices of the Ferguson Police Department, which could result in wholesale reforms and reorganization. The Justice Department on Friday announced an agreement with the city of Albuquerque intended to overhaul the way its police department uses force, the result of one such civil rights investigation.

At a forum this week organized by the Aspen Institute and the Atlantic magazine, Holder indicated that a similar overhaul could be called for in Ferguson.“It’s pretty clear that the need for wholesale change in that department is appropriate,” Holder said.

Federal law sets a high bar in bringing civil rights charges against a police officer because prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer intended to violate someone’s constitutional rights.

Authorities faced a similar challenge in the investigation of George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. Under federal law for hate crimes, prosecutors have to show that someone has been victimized intentionally because of a racial or other bias.

Law enforcement officials have said privately that there is insufficient evidence to bring federal charges in that case, although the two-year probe technically remains open.

The investigation of the Brown shooting is being conducted by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under a federal statute that makes it a crime for a person with government authority — the legal term is “acting under color of any law” — to “willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

Sometimes the department is successful. In 2010, prosecutors won convictions of two New Orleans police officers for civil rights violations in connection with the killing of a man and the burning of his body during the disruption that followed Hurricane Katrina. The officers have appealed their convictions.

Holder and other officials have decried recent news reports about investigative findings in the Ferguson case that have revealed new but conflicting details about the three-minute encounter between Wilson and Brown. Some of those details potentially corroborate the officer’s account that the killing was an act of self-defense and could complicate a civil rights case against Wilson.

The St. Louis County autopsy report, published Oct. 21 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was interpreted by some forensic pathologists as indicating that Brown may have struggled for control of Wilson’s gun during their initial altercation, but they also said the evidence was inconclusive.

After two shots were fired inside Wilson’s patrol vehicle, the officer got out and Brown fled but later turned around as Wilson continued firing. Some pathologists said the report indicates — but not conclusively — that Brown’s hands were not over his head. Several witnesses said his arms were raised in surrender when the officer shot him again.

Rachel A. Harmon, a law professor at the University of Virginia and a former prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said it is especially challenging to prove a civil rights case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“There is an extra burden in federal civil rights cases because the statute requires that the defendant acted ‘willfully,’ ” Harmon said. “It is not enough to prove that he used too much force. You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did so willfully.”

Harmon also said that if Wilson “genuinely believed he was acting in self-defense,” then his actions are not considered “willful,” meaning he did not intend to deprive Brown of his constitutional rights.

Brown was shot a total of nine times, including three times in the head, according to the county autopsy.

Dorian Johnson, the 22-year-old who was with Brown when the two encountered Wilson, has said the officer was the aggressor and did not act in self defense.

David Klinger, a former Los Angeles police officer and now a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, said enduring disputes over what happened likely raise reasonable doubt that would make a successful civil rights prosecution almost impossible.

“The autopsy report is devastating because it raises doubts about him standing still with his hands in the air in surrender,” said Klinger, who shot and killed a suspect in the line of duty when he was an officer. “If you have a halfway competent lawyer, the defense could raise reasonable doubt with this.”

Samuel Bagenstos, a former Justice Department principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights and now a law professor at the University of Michigan, said the obstacles prosecutors face in the Ferguson case are typical, as are the frustrations of Brown’s supporters.

It is common to have a situation “that looks like a constitutional violation and may well be an injustice,” Bagenstos said. “But sometimes the Justice Department does not have the ability to bring a civil rights case under the statutes it enforces.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/federal-civil-rights-charges-unlikely-against-police-officer-in-ferguson-shooting/2014/10/31/56189d80-6055-11e4-8b9e-2ccdac31a031_story.html

[RonD1120 58]

Thanks for posting.

Look for the shiny things of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. They only last for an instant but it is a Holy Instant. Let your soul absorb them.

[regulator 0]

Thank you.

I think it should be well known to race baiters and the like that if you attack a police officer unarmed or not and attempt to retrieve his firearm by force then you deserve to be shot.

[normiss 635]

Perception will continue to be an issue to the poor inner city.
When every police shooting is justified, what message does that send to them?

[rhaig 0]

normiss

Perception will continue to be an issue to the poor inner city.
When every police shooting is justified, what message does that send to them?

I think the police would be quite happy not having to send a message. What would you propose? Convict an innocent man of civil rights violations?

--
Rob

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Here's an idea Michael Brown should have stuck with.

Stop robbing stores and assaulting cops and you might have lived another day: End of story.

[normiss 635]

While I'm not disagreeing, the perception by those communities is a large part of the problem.
Just like the cops, they see each other as the enemy.

[regulator 0]

What the black community needs more of people like Dr. Ben Carson and much less of al sharpton, jesse jackson and eric holder.

[Anvilbrother 0]

Awesome! Shame to know the the cop will still go down in public court of opinion as the bad guy even if evidence shows otherwise.

Postes r made from an iPad or iPhone. Spelling and gramhair mistakes guaranteed move along,

[kelpdiver 2]

Anvilbrother

Awesome! Shame to know the the cop will still go down in public court of opinion as the bad guy even if evidence shows otherwise.

That presumption came from decades of bad police work. This particular incident, and certainly the police actions in the aftermath, do little to change that.

As does the fact that we don't even know accurately how many citizens are shot dead by LEOs each year in our country.

[normiss 635]

Some of us are still going to have issue with him being shot to death.
It's starting to sound like he had a couple of shots in him when he did give up, only to be executed.

We ALL need to work on improving our relations.
More so in the police community than anywhere.

I'm still seeing the effort here in Sanford where Mr. Zimmerman defended himself with deadly force. It's having an impact on the current election.

[Bolas 5]

kelpdiver

That presumption came from decades of bad police work. This particular incident, and certainly the police actions in the aftermath, do little to change that.

That presumption came from decades of crime and the neighborhoods fighting the police instead of helping them clean up their neighborhood. This particular incident, and certainly the citizens actions in the aftermath, do little to change that.

It's a two way street.

While there's always going to be lies by known accomplices and family members in denial, it doesn't mean the entire community has to go along with it.

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[Anvilbrother 0]

Yea the hundred or so cops you hear about a year really represent the 600,000+ Leo in the us

If a cop does bad shit it hits the Internet and news like a wildfire. What about the other hundreds of thousands that are doing the job to the letter and helping the community without a peep from anyone as it should be.

Postes r made from an iPad or iPhone. Spelling and gramhair mistakes guaranteed move along,

[Anvilbrother 0]

Sounds like to me a cop did not stop shooting till the threat was stopped as his training taught him.

Postes r made from an iPad or iPhone. Spelling and gramhair mistakes guaranteed move along,

[regulator 0]

Once deadly force is required shoot until the threat is eliminated.

[normiss 635]

That's the problem.
It's sometimes excessive.

While we're discussing this based on some leaks, the feds are not very happy with that fact.
Whether it's softening up the citizens or just bs leaks, it's not really right for that to be happening. Which can also mean we're all talking about inaccurate details.

[Anvilbrother 0]

It's life, they are human, it's not happening at a pandemic rate... There are more healthcare workers abusing the elderly than there are cops shooting people, and both take an oath to protect and serve.

Postes r made from an iPad or iPhone. Spelling and gramhair mistakes guaranteed move along,

[kelpdiver 2]

Anvilbrother

Yea the hundred or so cops you hear about a year really represent the 600,000+ Leo in the us

If a cop does bad shit it hits the Internet and news like a wildfire. What about the other hundreds of thousands that are doing the job to the letter and helping the community without a peep from anyone as it should be.

Posting like this - "It's really not that big a deal" - are part of the problem. And then we see the other excuse - the community won't cooperate. Of course they won't - the cops were part of the institutions that kept them in the gutter for decades.

Again - we don't even keep statistics on the subject of shootings. And let's not pretend the problem stops there....criminal or excessive action by LEOs is far great than 100/year.

[Anvilbrother 0]

No im just not living my life with tunnel vision and paranoia like you are. Its not ok to beat, frame, or shoot innocent people I agree, but its near the bottom of my list of things we must stop everything fucking right now and fix.

Doctors kill more people than cops
Pharmacies kill more people than cops
Poor road designers kill more people than cops

You just drank the coolaid the media laid out for you is all.

Postes r made from an iPad or iPhone. Spelling and gramhair mistakes guaranteed move along,

[kelpdiver 2]

Anvilbrother

No im just not living my life with tunnel vision and paranoia like you are. Its not ok to beat, frame, or shoot innocent people I agree, but its near the bottom of my list of things we must stop everything fucking right now and fix.

Doctors kill more people than cops
Pharmacies kill more people than cops
Poor road designers kill more people than cops

And yet, none of these are actually true.

Doctors do not intentionally kill their patients, but they deal with the sick, who don't always have obvious causes and the patients don't always give good information, or abide by recommendations.

Likewise, pharmacists aren't trying to kill customers by giving them the wrong drug or ones that interact poorly with other drugs.

Road designers make best compromise between competing factors (speed, capacity, cost vs safety). I'm not going to blame them for failing to prevent sloppy drivers from killing themselves.

But when those cops beat Rodney King, when that cop elected to taser or shoot Oscar Grant in the back when he was on the ground cuffed, when they beat up people who film them beating up other suspects, when they hang a suspect in jail and claim suicide, etc....these are ACTIVE decisions they made. I'm not even addresses the situations where they have to make a judgment call that inevitably sides with "use taser or beat suspect." In the Ferguson case, there has been too much conflicting information and enough reason to believe at least the initial firings were justified, and to exonerrate the officer. I'm having a harder time with the subsequent firings and suspect that it's good for the LEO that there weren't working cameras.

I have no problem concluding that there is no valid reason that we don't uniformly collect the information on every justified LEO shooting in the country. I can think of many bad, self serving reasons for it.

Transparency leads to trust, and the police departments show a strong disinterest in going that route. Far more interested in trying to make it illegal for them to be filmed/recorded.

[Anvilbrother 0]

Keep your head in the sand if you wish. Go look for the numbers the 300+ cop shooting deaths that kallend or whoever linked from Wikipedia, we went through all of them and found all were justified but I think like 20......

So 20 cops killed someone in the entire 2011 I think it was. Tell me there wasn't 20 doctors in the US that did not intentionally kill someone on purpose out of empathy for suffering, or evil doing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/02/farid-fata-fraud-doctor_n_4031564.html

Same thing for pharmacists
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/woman-tricked-abortion-sues-florida-pharmacy-f8C11314243

Its not a run away train like you are led to believe. Im more worried about street thugs, and crack heads than I am cops.

I have had my house broken into twice, had one of our firetrucks shot and hit with a bullet, my fence was hit with a ricochet by someone shooting into a pond across the street in front of my house. I have had to hide under a car in a parking garage while a riot happened in New Orleans at mardi gras. Not one time have I been beat up, tazed, or shot by a cop.

Postes r made from an iPad or iPhone. Spelling and gramhair mistakes guaranteed move along,

[Anvilbrother 0]

Once the riot finally ran under the parking garage and continued down the street we were able to get up and go to the edge of the building and see what was going on. There was about 200 black men in full riot over who knows what. Thats when we got to see a New Orleans horse mounted police officer dive off his horse while at full gallop to tackle a guy beating another guy with half a road barricade was pretty bad ass!!

Postes r made from an iPad or iPhone. Spelling and gramhair mistakes guaranteed move along,

[wolfriverjoe 1,365]

It's not just the deaths.

How many people are put in the hospital by cops? How many of those are justified?
How many innocent people are wrongly arrested, jailed, tried and convicted? That's not all on the cops, it's also on the DA.

How often in recent times have people been arrested/beaten/had their phones taken or destroyed while vidoeing cops behaving badly?

The huge rise in video cameras in peoples hands (mostly in cell phones) has given us a huge ability to see this kind of stuff.
And the cops don't seem to like it.

And BTW, Kelpdiver brought up Rodney King.
Believe it or not, that wasn't a "police brutality" situation. The cops didn't just beat on him for the hell of it. King kept trying to get up. The first jury that acquitted the cops got it right (IMHO).

But...
There's a ton of videos of cops out of control.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[kelpdiver 2]

Anvilbrother

Keep your head in the sand if you wish. Go look for the numbers the 300+ cop shooting deaths that kallend or whoever linked from Wikipedia, we went through all of them and found all were justified but I think like 20......

So 20 cops killed someone in the entire 2011 I think it was. Tell me there wasn't 20 doctors in the US that did not intentionally kill someone on purpose out of empathy for suffering, or evil doing.

Wait one fucking moment.

The cops killed 300, per you. (Even though no one actually knows the correct number - it was at least that 300)

Not 20. You don't get to filter it down to the ones that didn't lead to a prosecution, particularly when LEOs don't get the same scrutiny that one George Zimmerman got (and we spent thousands of posts discussing, for this SINGLE event).

And you're going to count assisted suicide against doctors, but not against cops for suicide-by-cop incidents? More dirty pool.

Same with citing the abortion drug causing miscarriage as having anything to do with pharmacists. Your other citation is a doctor giving drugs to healthy people - they did not die, though clearly not good for them.

So are you white? Minorities might tell a different story than you. But even that aside, I had an officer come over to my aunt's house and tell her how I beat up some lady in a road rage incident. Based on what? Who can tell - the suspect was in a brown BMW sedan and the closest thing to that I own was a BMW motorcycle. (and a red subaru) Sloppy police work coupled with poor judgement. Good thing I wasn't black or he'd might have ordered the dawn raid on the house.

If you want to debate this seriously, cut out this sort of nonsense already.

[kelpdiver 2]

wolfriverjoe

And BTW, Kelpdiver brought up Rodney King.
Believe it or not, that wasn't a "police brutality" situation. The cops didn't just beat on him for the hell of it. King kept trying to get up. The first jury that acquitted the cops got it right (IMHO).

Not to me.

The use of force was justified, but what we saw was well in excess. As I recall at the time, the video prompted many departments to consider buying clear plastic batons that wouldn't show on video as well.