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[Reelya]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_P._McCulloch_%28prosecutor%29

In 1997, in the so-called "Kinkogate" case, McCulloch gave - using the power of the grand jury, but without informing it - a subpoena to the police in order to identify a whistleblower who was acting lawfully. He first claimed the fax contained a threat but later conceded that there was no threat and no crime, but denied any wrongdoing. The whistleblower had to quit his job.

^ corruptly feeding documents to the police to help silence their critics. plus caught out misusing a grand jury.

In 2000, in the so-called "Jack in the Box" case, two undercover officers, a police officer and a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officer, shot and killed two unarmed black men in the parking lot of a Jack in the Box fast-food restaurant in Berkeley, Missouri. In 2001, the officers told a grand jury convened by McCulloch that the suspects tried to escape arrest and then drove toward them; the jury declined to indict. McCulloch told the public that every witness had testified to confirm this version, but St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalist Michael Sorkin reviewed the previously secret grand jury tapes, released to him by McCulloch, and found that McCulloch's statement was untrue: only three of 13 officers testified that the car was moving forward. A subsequent federal investigation found that the men were unarmed and that their car had not moved forward when the officers fired 21 shots

^ Outright caught lying about a very similar case. plus caught out misusing a grand jury.

After the August 9, 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, McCulloch announced that rather than making a decision about whether to arrest Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson, he would bring the case before a grand jury, leaving to jurors the decision of what charges might be brought, if any. His spokesman acknowledged that it was unusual that the prosecutor was not asking the grand jury to endorse a specific charge. It was also unusual to present a case to a grand jury before the police investigation is over.

I mean, they didn't even have a police report (august 20th), let alone a completed investigation before he's trying to use the grand jury to rubber stamp getting the police off the charges. Considering his history, and the glaring issues with protocols not followed, you'd have to be deliberately obtuse to not know something's up in this case ...

Oh, btw he comes from a police family.

[Phmcw]

Wikipedia isn't a remotely reliable source, though, especially in cases like this. It quickly become a patchork of partisan articles.

[Reelya]

Well, you can check the citations and see if they support the allegations. Stuff with specific names and dates and case information doesn't tend to be easily falsified. The source for the allegations is the St Loius Post Dispatch. I'm lead to believe they are a major local paper.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/sign-petitions-seeking-special-prosecutor-in-michael-brown-shooting/article_d0cc6e7f-8b32-5153-8ab4-86ebdc4659ca.html

According to this he lied to the public in the 2000 case about the grand jury findings, to vindicate the police, and he also lied to the grand jury by withholding evidence that implicated police in wrongdoing.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nasheed cited McCulloch’s investigation into the actions of two undercover drug detectives who killed a suspect and his passenger in a car on the parking lot of the Jack in the Box restaurant in Berkeley in 2000.

Grand jury proceedings are secret. McCulloch, in telling the public what the grand jury had found, repeatedly insisted that “every witness” had testified that the two detectives fired to defend themselves after the suspect tried to run them over with his car.

The Post-Dispatch reviewed the previously secret grand jury tapes and found that McCulloch’s public statements were untrue.

Only three of the 13 detectives who testified said the suspect’s car had moved forward, in the direction of the two officers who shot him and his passenger. Two of those were the shooters themselves. The third was a detective who McCulloch later said he considered charging with perjury because his account was so at odds with the facts.

Contrary to McCulloch’s public statements, the grand jury tapes showed that four other detectives testified that they never saw the suspect’s car travel toward the officers.

McCulloch never brought independent evidence before the grand jury to sort out who was right.

Nor did he request the testimony of a nationally noted collision expert who investigated the case for the Justice Department. He determined that the suspect’s car had always been in reverse — added proof that it did not move toward the detectives.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Another controversial case involving McCulloch’s use of the grand jury was dubbed “Kinkogate.”

In 1997, McCulloch used a grand jury subpoena to identify a whistleblower who contacted the FBI and reported what he said was improper behavior by a member of then St. Louis County Executive George “Buzz” Westfall’s cabinet. The whistleblower was Russ Signorino, then an employee of the St. Louis County Economic Council. He sent an anonymous fax to the media from a Kinko’s store in Creve Coeur.

Without telling the grand jury what he was doing, McCulloch gave the subpoena to the St. Louis County police, who used it to obtain a video recording from Kinko’s showing who sent the fax. After he was identified, Signorino was forced to quit his county job.

McCulloch at first claimed that he had issued the grand jury subpoena because the fax contained a “threat.”

He later admitted that there never had been any threat and conceded that no crime was involved. He denied that he had abused the grand jury process to identity a whistleblower who was acting lawfully.

Just going "wikipedia is wrong because wikipedia" isn't a great argument. If you doubt the validity, prove it. Wikipedia sucks isn't a coherent argument. It's the one you fall back on when you can't disprove what's said.

[Phmcw]

I was investigating just that.

[Loud Whispers]

Just going "wikipedia is wrong because wikipedia" isn't a great argument. If you doubt the validity, prove it. Wikipedia sucks isn't a coherent argument. It's the one you fall back on when you can't disprove what's said.

Popping in to PTW and also say wikipedia a shit, especially with big media spectacles where people will almost certainly want their narrative to be pushed. For all the same reason that I wouldn't cite wikipedia as a source, and I would go so far as to even exclude all American news stations as reliable sources.

[Fniff]

Everyone's pushing something. After a certain point you would have to eliminate all news stations, papers, and websites.
Except IsleofBrintNews.com! All info you need about one specific small island off the coast of Scotland! 100% accurate!
In latest news, a fence door was open. Police constable Ian (You know, the only police constable on the Isle of Brint) suggests it may have been the wind, but does not rule out those youths hanging about by the community center.

[Owlbread]

The West Highland Free Press springs to mind. God that's biased.

[smirk]

I checked, and there is no IsleofBrintNews.com. I'm sorely disappointed, Fniff, and I believe you owe us all a thrilling tale of fence door hooliganism.

[Phmcw]

Anyway, I did found things about the whistleblower case, where he seems to have clearly abused his power.


ABout the Jack in the box case, that I found mentionned here.


They were exonerated by the FBI and I couldn't find the lie the newspaper is talking about. The prosecutor did came under fire for his weak prosecution of the case, though.

[TamerVirus]

For every miscarriage of justice that favors one side, chances are that there will be another miscarriage of justice that favors the other, just to even out the scale.

After Rodney King, the courts gave us OJ Simpson...

[Mictlantecuhtli]

After Rodney King, the courts gave us OJ Simpson...

OJ had a trial.

[Vilanat]

Does anyone thinks that Wilson didn't murder Brown but should have still went on trial?

[Bauglir]

I think it's possible that he didn't murder him, and that the whole scenario is the result of a police department fumbling an attempt to protect one of its own who didn't actually need it, out of sheer reflex due to the number of cases where bona fide examples of abuse have occurred. It's possible, and that's why I think it absolutely needed to go to trial. Because, as it stands, I will never have an opportunity to be convinced - the government's handling of this has, on all levels, reeked of thoughtless ass-covering, and the refusal to proceed with trial is just one more part of it.

[Twi]

I think it's possible that he didn't murder him, and that the whole scenario is the result of a police department fumbling an attempt to protect one of its own who didn't actually need it, out of sheer reflex due to the number of cases where bona fide examples of abuse have occurred. It's possible, and that's why I think it absolutely needed to go to trial. Because, as it stands, I will never have an opportunity to be convinced - the government's handling of this has, on all levels, reeked of thoughtless ass-covering, and the refusal to proceed with trial is just one more part of it.

Wot he gone done said.

+1, as it were.

[smirk]

I think it's possible that he didn't murder him, and that the whole scenario is the result of a police department fumbling an attempt to protect one of its own who didn't actually need it, out of sheer reflex due to the number of cases where bona fide examples of abuse have occurred. It's possible, and that's why I think it absolutely needed to go to trial. Because, as it stands, I will never have an opportunity to be convinced - the government's handling of this has, on all levels, reeked of thoughtless ass-covering, and the refusal to proceed with trial is just one more part of it.

Wot he gone done said.

Thirded and sealed. Improbable but possible; needed a proper trial.