On the eve of the decision not to prosecute of Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, state prosecutors are considering charges against Michael Brown’s family. While potentially explosive in light of the rejection of civil rights charges, the case is based on what is reported as criminal acts of assault and theft by Brown’s mother Lesley McSpadden and other family members.
The incident stems from who is entitled to cash in on the name of Michael Brown. A “Justice for Mike Brown” stand was set up outside of a restaurant to sell teeshirts and other items. One of the vendors was Pearlie Gordon, 54, the mother-in-law of Michael Brown Sr. (who is divorced from McSpadden).
The police say that a group of about 20-30 suspects “jumped out of vehicles and rushed” Gordon, Tony Petty, and Matthew Cosey. McSpadden, 34, is quoted as saying “You can’t sell this shit.” What reportedly ensued was an intense debate of who had trademark options on the name of the dead teenager. Gordon reportedly states that “unless McSpadden could produce documentation stating that she had a patent on her son’s name she (Gordon) was going to continue to sell her merchandise.” Police say that Desureia Harris, McSpadden’s mother, then began to rip down t-shirts while other family members began “tearing her booth apart.” Gordon allegedly was knocked to the ground and repeatedly struck in the head. Gordon accused McSpadden of running up and punching her while one of McSpadden’s group encouraged her to “get her ass.”
Also accused is McSpadden’s husband, Louis Head, who was previously the subject of calls for prosecution in his encouraging protesters to “Burn this bitch down” after no charges were brought against Wilson.
Petty was also transported to a local hospital for treatment of “injuries sustained during the assault.” Police also found that more than $1500 in merchandise and $400 in cash “was stolen by unknown subjects” during the assault and that they fled before the arrival of the police.
To make matters worse for the Brown family, there is a witness as well as a videotape showing the assault on the vendors, according to police.
That record would seem highly compelling for criminal charges. They have sworn statements from the alleged victim, third-party witnesses and a possible videotape showing a vendor being pinned on the ground. That does not rule out defenses based on claims that the vendors started the fight. However, self-defense would not excuse the alleged taking of merchandize and cash.
In a normal situation, there would have already been arrests and charges in such a case. However, this case seems anything but conventional and prosecutors may be more timid after prior events triggered arson and looting. The delay may be a reflection of that caution, but (absent new evidence) there may be no avoiding arrests in the case since at least two people were sent to the hospital and violence was involved in the alleged crimes.
Here is the police report: Brown Family police report
Mark
“On your other broadside, you should know that I pay very little attention to testimony in a supposedly secret proceeding unregulated by judicial oversight, even less to one with hand-picked or colossally dumped evidence by an advocate with an apparent agenda. So, no, I didn’t read the transcript from the non-adversarial proceeding.”
Once again, how do you pontificate about that which you haven’t read?
You’re either a bad psychic or a liar.
Paul:
If the DA puts forth credible evidence on both sides of the criminal charges in every case, he’s a hero. If he picks and chooses or puts up incredible evidence before the GJ, he’s got an agenda. Really pretty simple concept.
Paul:
I like Lash. I brought him up.
mespo – Lash is a minor god. He isn’t Red Ryder though. 🙂
Bob:
I see we’re on your favorite topic.
Cops gone, city manager gone, judge gone, clerk of courts gone, chief of police gone, the mayor under fire and probably right behind them out the door. Racist emails, fines as finance against a predominantly black community that was stopped for traffic violations in disproportionate numbers to their population, a white power structure in a predominantly African-American town, a judge more concerned with ensuring his paycheck than justice, all point to something extremely rotten.
Here’s my favorite narrative from the DOJ report: “In 2012, after a city councilmember complained that the city’s municipal court judge, Judge Brockmeyer, wasn’t listening to testimony or allowing all witnesses to testify before imposing judgment, and that he shouldn’t be reappointed, Shaw urged that the judge remain in place, arguing that, “[i]t goes without saying the City cannot afford to lose any efficiency in our Courts, nor experience any decrease in our Fines and Forfeitures,” the report said. (NBC News).
On your other broadside, you should know that I pay very little attention to testimony in a supposedly secret proceeding unregulated by judicial oversight, even less to one with hand-picked or colossally dumped evidence by an advocate with an apparent agenda. So, no, I didn’t read the transcript from the non-adversarial proceeding. To me, it doesn’t help much. On the issue of Officer Wilson, he seems to be just the product of a dysfunctional city government that was slanted against its own majority population. Was Wilson guilty of some form of murder? We’ll never know for sure since the judicial mechanism was given only a passing glance by a municipal system that most agree was geared to avoid any scrutiny and to take advantage of the very people its was legally and honor-bound to protect. The DOJ report made that abundantly clear and the rats are now fleeing the ship. Justice served albeit not perfectly.
BTW the DOJ report did not clear Wilson. It did suggest the shooting was in self-defense, but the point is that it’s a report. I’d have preferred a trial where witnesses have to answer under oath before their community. That’s how we do things when the process works. In the same vein, I would have preferred a civil rights trial in Ferguson but the cowardly city lions weren’t up for it, apparently taking the deal to resign instead of fighting the allegations. Wonder why?
BTW I never said Wilson was a racist cop who got off with the aid of a corrupt DA. I said he should have stood for a jury trial for a set of facts (i.e, gunning down an unarmed man who had committed no offense) that every other similarly situated citizen would have encountered had the circumstances been juxtaposed. I also said the DA, by his history, had an apparent obvious bias in favor of the officer and should have recused himself to avoid the appearance of impropriety. I also said the DA “evidence-dumped” patently implausible evidence to confuse this confusing case and thus further calling into question his thumb on the scale of justice.
That all said, do you really want to leap to the aid of these people who run/ran Ferguson, MO into the ground?
mespo – I finally get your point about Wilson. You are for job security for attorneys.
Mespo: “Btw CB, my views on Wilson are well-known . He should have been tried and his innocence determined by a petit jury not become the beneficiary of an evidence dump on the grand jury by a friendly DA whose cop dad was killed in the line of duty.”
Mark you ignorant slut!
Where else in your life do you pontificate about topics and issues of which you are completely ignorant?
Did you read the Grand Jury transcript?
Did you read the DOJ Report on Wilson?
Since I’ve never known you to be a liar, I’m going to assume the answer to both of the above questions is “no.”
Because if you had read the above you would have been forced to conclude that the narrative you’ve held so dear, i.e. that “Wilson is a racist killer who got off with the help of a corrupt DA”, is as true as accusing the folks at Crest Tooth Paste of assassinating the Tooth Fairy.
Ferguson’s Police Chief Resigned, Now Fire the Rest of the Cops
Trained for years to ticket and harass the citizens they were supposed to protect and serve, it’s going to take more than a new boss to fix the department.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/11/ferguson-s-police-chief-resigned-now-fire-the-rest-of-the-cops.html
Excerpt:
The Ferguson Police Department (FPD) arrested 460 individuals for outstanding warrants between October 2012 and October 2014: 96% of those arrested were African American. According to the DOJ report, from 2011-2013, African Americans accounted for 95% of Manner of Walking in Roadway charges, 94% of Failure to Comply charges, 92% of Resisting Arrest charges, 92% of Peace Disturbance charges, and 89% of Failure to Obey charges. “Despite making up 67% of the population, African Americans accounted for 85% of FPD’s traffic stops, 90% of FPD’s citations, and 93% of FPD’s arrests from 2012 to 2014.” The race-based enforcement tactics and strategies employed by the FPD have a disparate impact on African Americans that is violative of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The DOJ report also found that the FPD has engaged in a “pattern and practice of constitutional violations (that primarily target African Americans) in stopping people without reasonable suspicion, arresting them without probable cause, and using unreasonable force.” The FPD’s policies and practices were found to routinely violate the Fourth Amendment in racially profiling African Americans and disproportionally singling them out for “pedestrian checks,” ”Failure to Comply,” and illegal “Stop and Identify” offenses. DOJ found that the FPD consistently uses excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment and that African Americans accounted for almost 90% of the use of force incidents from 2010-2014. FPD used force involving a canine bite 14 times during this time period and in all incidents the person bitten was African American.
Elaine – again – those statistics are twisted and you need to realize that as there are Hispanics and Asians and Whites and Women who are also abused and pushed around there by the police. the African Americans have no corner on the market and I am tired of hearing that they do. Look at that little boy that was just shot and killed that was black that the white policeman tried to save. What say you to that?
I forgot to mention that Anthony Gray is black.
Mark,
CharlieBrown isn’t deflecting; you are. Law finds its root in universal principles. Judging people and municipalities differently simply because it happens to fit our particular agenda at the time is the very definition of discrimination.
With the DOJ report on Ferguson we are now told to adopt the premise that disparate impact and the funding of a municipality via excessive ticketing and warrants is ipso facto proof of racist discrimination.
CharlieBrown brought up the issue of Pine Lawn being run by Brown family attorney Anthony Gray. In 2013 Gray was both the Police Chief and municipal prosecutor for Pine Lawn. In that year, with a population of only 3,000, Pine Lawn issued 17,000 tickets and 23,000 warrants.
By the DOJ’s own inane “logic,” we must conclude that the Brown Family Attorney is far more racist than the Chief of Feguson Police who is currently being forced to resign.
Nick is classy, Kenny. Isn’t it obvious? And witty too.
CB:
Nice deflection as I ve said. We were talking about Ferguson. You want to bring in every other wrong you see to justify systematic racial discrimination don’t expect me to fall for it. It’s the tactic of the poor debater.
mespo –
I thought moral relativism was the hallmark of liberalism.
Hey now that we’ve conceded defeat about Ferguson by avoiding the topic, let’s talk some inconsequential bs about somebody else. I vote Lash Larue.
mespo – don’t be talking s**t about Lash LaRue.
Charlie, OMG! Gray’s Pine Lawn white cop shot an unarmed black kid in July!! You can’t make this stuff up. How the hell is this hypocrisy not in the Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Salon. Oh wait, never mind. Doesn’t fit the template.
Charlie, Thanks for the lead. I’ve been reading up on the hypocrite/sleazeball barrister, Anthony Gray. Got decent coverage in St. Louis, but nothing national I have found yet. A real “Inconvenient Truth.” I don’t think the DOJ will be going after him or his nearby fiefdom. We all know people prey upon their own more than anyone else. It is the case in all cultures.
CB that is just pure bull shark. That poor town just paid out $100k in severance for their town manager and will be paying another $100k to Chief DoLittleTooLate. Poor, poor Ferguson. Admit it, they got caught and will have to pay the piper. Good riddance. I await your defense of the emails and the racist jokes. Maybe they need that too just to survive. And maybe you can tell that cricket interrupting our conversation to crawl back into that sidewalk crack of his.
Charlie, Great piece of info. I have seen the barrister Grey on TV many times. I am shocked, just shocked, to find hypocrisy in racial ambulance chasers.
mespo
Don’t confuse my comments as condoning racist emails or jokes made by various individuals in Ferguson; I don’t. The purpose of my comments was to bring some personal and relevant info to the table. Regardless of what is being paid out in severance, the town of Ferguson, like many other poor and somewhat blighted municipalities, survive on the fees generated by their courts. I’m not saying that it’s a good thing or a bad thing, it just is. I just find it ironic that the bulk of the blame is being placed on Ferguson, portrayed as victimizing the poor and the black. I encounter the same grab for revenue in all of the municipalities that I visit, even in predominantly poor black communities where the police, clerks and prosecutors are black. Can you call them racist? The Anthony Grays of the world subsidize their law practice income by getting contracts with these various municipalities to become the prosecutor or judge in the cities on a monthly or bimonthly basis. They don’t survive if they don’t generate revenue. Period. Ron Brockmeyer, who just resigned from his position as judge in Ferguson, is no bigger an offender than the attorney for Michael Brown’s family, who works as a prosecutor in Pine Lawn. Only one difference. One is white and one is black. If you condemn one, you must condemn both, otherwise, mespo, you are a racist.
I am very familiar with the workings of the the various municipal courts in St. Louis, including the one located in Ferguson, Missouri. These are, unfortunately, towns with a very limited tax base. They survive on the money generated by these courts. Having said that, the courts with black defendants AND black personnel, like judges, prosecutors and clerks, behave in the exact same manner as those that you condemn as being racist. I represent clients in all of these courts, and I can attest to the fact that this behavior is pervasive throughout these courts, regardless of the color of the personnel.
One of the players, who you may wish to google, is an attorney by the name of Anthony Gray or Grey. He is one of the attorneys for the Brown family, usually in front of the cameras denouncing the system as broken. Just so happens, he is the prosecutor in another municipality by the name of Pine Lawn, where outrageous fines and penalties are leveled at a predominantly black and poor pool of defendants. He denounces the system, yet when he is dishing out the excessive fines, it’s okay. He’s black. He’s not taking advantage of anyone. Last I heard, he still had a job. Hmmmmmmm.
Democrat DA.
Charlie, Mespo doesn’t believe in personal responsibility, he’s a plaintiff/work comp attorney. So, Michael Brown was not responsible for anything.
Nick Spinelli
“Charlie, Mespo doesn’t believe in personal responsibility, he’s a plaintiff/work comp attorney. So, Michael Brown was not responsible for anything.”
Classy, Nick. Very classy. Thanks for reminding us that no one ever gets hurt on the job.
Btw CB, my views on Wilson are well-known . He should have been tried and his innocence determined by a petit jury not become the beneficiary of an evidence dump on the grand jury by a friendly DA whose cop dad was killed in the line of duty. Maybe that DA will be the next one out the door. We can only hope.
mespo – as you are aware the DA in Ferguson (St. Louis) used the grand jury as an investigative tool, not a rubber stamp to conviction. When the story broke there were already conflicting stories of what happened and under the circumstances I think the DA did the honorable thing. The ruling of the grand jury and the DoJ were in sync. They found the same fact pattern which found that Wilson was not liable for any criminal charges. Both are available for your light reading.
I think the Brown family have much to answer for as does the MSM.