State and federal investigations found no criminal wrongdoing on the part of former police Officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot the unarmed teenager on Aug. 9, 2014.
But Brown’s parents — in a wrongful-death lawsuit against the officer, the City of Ferguson and its former police chief — have asked for specifics on how law enforcement reached its decision to clear Wilson in the controversial shooting.
Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden’s suit, now 15 months old, has languished in federal court while attorneys quarrel over access to key evidence and witnesses.
Wilson, who is white, confronted Brown, a black teen, after a reported robbery at a convenience store. A scuffle broke out, and shots were fired before Wilson pursued Brown and shot him at least six times. The 18-year-old’s death, and the riots that followed, ignited a national debate on race and excessive force in policing and propelled the Black Lives Matter movement to prominence.
“Everybody’s life matters to someone,” McSpadden recently told Yahoo News’ Katie Couric during an interview with the mothers of two other high-profile shooting victims, Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin.
“But in this case our kids, our sons’ black lives matter,” Brown’s mother said. “Right now we need people to pay attention to that, and don’t try to dismiss what is going on right in front of your eyes.”
After a grand jury declined to indict Wilson, St. Louis prosecutors took the unprecedented move of making public thousands of pages from the investigation. Grand jury proceedings typically are secret, but officials released details of grand jury witnesses’ testimony, with names and some details edited out.
“We already know what was said, but we don’t know who said it,” Anthony Gray, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch earlier this year.
In the civil case, the Brown family said their suit couldn’t go forward without the complete investigative files. Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice and St. Louis County police and prosecutors argued that giving up the unredacted materials violated law enforcement privilege and might jeopardize the safety of witnesses, investigators and their families.
After reading through all witness statements, U.S. District Judge Richard Webber ruled in April that “the need for disclosure outweighs the need for continued secrecy. Continued secrecy in this case will result in gross injustice to the parties.”
“This case is not simply one to determine whether one party makes a monetary payment toward another,” Webber said during an April hearing. “It has a special significance in our community.”
In early June, the judge ordered authorities to turn over some of the withheld evidence, including statements made to investigators and the identity of grand jury witnesses — but only to limited participants in the civil suit and under a protective order. His ruling does not affect the secrecy of the names of the grand jurors.
The protective order allows access to only two lead attorneys on each side and restricts the handling and sharing of the information, which can’t be sent by email and must be kept under lock and key.
Last week, lawyers for Brown’s parents told the court that the materials — likely thousands of pages — still haven’t been turned over to the parties. They also asked Webber to expand the number of attorneys who can view the evidence, a request that drew the ire of St. Louis County attorneys.
“The more attorneys who have access to this highly confidential information, the greater the risk of leaks and hacking,” county attorneys wrote in motion filed on Monday, adding that “the risks of harm to witnesses and law enforcement personnel will be multiplied exponentially by having three additional attorneys from different law firms designated as lead attorneys.”
Webber has not responded to the new motions.
The trial, originally scheduled for October, is now expected to take place sometime in 2017.
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