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http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...icer-hands-up-testimony-michael-brown-lawsuit
Ferguson officer who gave 'hands up' testimony central to Brown family suit
A disgraced Ferguson police sergeant, who testified that the officer who killed Michael Brown originally said the unarmed 18-year-old had his hands up, will be central to a lawsuit brought by Brown’s parents against the city, attorneys said on Thursday.
William Mudd, a veteran officer who lost his job last month over racist emails, will be called on to recount what Darren Wilson told him when Mudd arrived on the scene as supervisor after Wilson shot Brown dead on 9 August, prompting months of protests.
“His initial statements to his supervisor, describing what happened that day, were sufficient to indict him,” Anthony Gray, an attorney for Brown’s family, alleged at a press conference on Thursday announcing a wrongful death case against the city, Wilson and the former police chief Thomas Jackson.
The Browns’ legal team said they would present forensic evidence in a new light that was damning to Wilson. Benjamin Crump, the lead attorney, promised “physical evidence, objective evidence, versus the narrative the shooter of Michael Brown Jr said took place”.
But they also intend to contrast Wilson’s later accounts of the shooting with Mudd’s testimony to a state grand jury, which in November declined to indict Wilson on criminal charges, leading to a night of renewed protests, riots and arson attacks.
Mudd told the grand jury on 16 September Wilson had told him that after fleeing a struggle at Wilson’s patrol car, Brown “stopped and raised his arms” before charging back towards the officer, who shot him repeatedly.
The struggle followed Wilson stopping Brown and a friend, Dorian Johnson, for jaywalking in a residential side-street. Claims from several witnesses that Brown surrendered before being shot became the slogan of the protest movement born in the days after his death.
“The ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ anthem wasn’t started by Dorian Johnson,” Gray said on Thursday. “It was started by officer Darren Wilson, who described this scenario to his own sergeant hot off the heels of gunning down Mike Brown.”
Wilson later denied Brown had raised his hands or surrendered, instead stating Brown bowed his head and charged relentlessly at the officer in an effort to attack him. He also said Brown reached for his waistband with his right hand, causing the officer to fear he had a weapon. Gray said on Thursday that with the help of forensic evidence they would show this was “a lie”. He said:
“It never happened. The physical evidence don’t back that up.”
The attorneys cited physical evidence from the wounds to Brown’s hands and shell casings from shots fired by Wilson in addition to those that struck the 18-year-old as examples of forensic material they intended to use. “We expect to put on evidence that you’ve never heard about before, never seen,” said Gray.
“We do not believe, based on the forensic evidence and the narrative given, that Michael Brown should have been killed,” said Crump. Amid witness accounts describing Brown as the aggressor, and recanted testimony from some young people who falsely claimed to have witnessed the shooting, the “hands up” version of the incident was effectively dismissed by the grand jury and federal civil rights investigators.
Gray said the legal team would also pour scorn on Wilson’s testimony to the grand jury, in which he recounted feeling “like a five-year-old holding on to Hulk Hogan” during the struggle with Brown, who was the same height as the officer and about 80 pounds heavier.
In their lawsuit, Brown’s parents alleged Wilson described their son as “subhuman or animal-like” when he told grand jurors Brown “looked like a demon”, made a “grunting noise” and seemed to have super powers that saw him grow stronger as he was shot.
Michael Brown Sr and Leslie McSpadden alleged Wilson’s choice of words reflected a “pervasive racial animus and the racially biased mentality” of the Ferguson police department, which was heavily criticised for its treatment of the city’s majority African American population in a Department of Justice report last month.
Their inquiry also unearthed a series of racist emails exchanged by police and city officials. Mudd, 64, was found to have forwarded an email in November 2008 that suggested Barack Obama “would not be president for very long because ‘what black man holds a steady job for four years?’” He and police captain Rick Henke resigned over the report.
Accusing the police department of fostering a “cesspool of racism”, Crump said on Thursday they would also demonstrate that “a culture existed that forecast something like this would happen in Ferguson, Missouri”.
Brown’s parents are seeking punitive damages, more than $75,000 in compensation, a court order for Ferguson to abandon racially biased police practices and a monitor to oversee the retraining of all city police officers. Jackson and the city are accused of sharing responsibility for Brown’s wrongful death by hiring Wilson, training him and keeping him in work.
Asked whether an attempt had been made to settle the lawsuit out of court, Gray said “some efforts have been made to try to have a conversation”. Crump suggested newly elected members of Ferguson’s city council could be more open to a settlement.
Jeff Small, a spokesman for Ferguson, said in an email: “Because this involves pending litigation, the City of Ferguson is not able to comment at this time.” An attorney for Wilson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mudd and Jackson could not be reached for comment.
