If you still think the decision of the Michael Brown grand jury was fair or just, you really owe it

[KingCharlemagne]

to yourself to read the FBI witness statement, grand jury testimony and purported 'journal entry' of Witness #40 -- or maybe I should say "so-called Witness #40" -- in volume 15 of the transcript (starting at page 84 with the FBI statement and proceeding to the GJ testimony about 100 pages further on). Supposedly Witness #40 made a 'wrong turn' and ended up on Canfield just in time to see the events go down pretty much exactly as Wilson described them. Only problem is that the FBI got Witness #40 to admit he had lied, made racist statements and gone online to 'refresh' his memories of what he claimed he had witnessed. Oh yeah, and there was no way he could have gotten on to Canfield the way he claimed, probably because MapQuest didn't show that the road he claimed he used was physically blocked to vehicular traffic.

http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1370504-grand-jury-volume-15.html

As you read it, remember that this testimony and journal were submitted to the Grand Jury as having some sort of official imprimatur, as having standing as evidence and eyewitness testimony. You cannot make this stuff up. I've referred to this Grand Jury as a 'kangaroo court' before and reading this utter tripe validates my initial assessment and amplifies it.

Here's how the journal entry, purportedly written on August 9 (the day Michael Brown was killed) but only brought to the attention of the Grand Jury the day the witness testified, begins:

Well I’m gonna take my random drive to Florissant. Need to understand the Black race better so I stop calling Blacks Niggers and start calling them People. Like dad always said you cant fear or hate an entire race cause of what one man did 40 yrs ago.

DA McCulloch and his staff of little Eichmanns allowed this obvious hoax to be submitted to the Grand Jury as evidence and eyewitness testimony. They allowed what they knew or should have known to be perjured testimony to be given to the GJ. So I want to know why the U.S. Dept. of Justice hasn't already indicted McCulloch and his staff for conspiracy to obstruct justice and for conspiracy to violate Michael Brown's civil rights.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Who thinks that? Everything about this investigation and presentation stinks.

They make shit up all the time to suit their objectives and agenda.

When they aren't destroying or tampering with evidence, they create it.

[KingCharlemagne]

2. Yes, but in this case, a fraud was knowingly perpetrated upon the court, thereby

besmirching Justice herself. The perjury was committed by Witness #40 but enabled and abetted by the DA and his minions.

I've had several arguments with people here who still maintain that the GJ proceedings delivered justice of some fashion.

Witness #40 takes the cake in the fraud department, imo.

[NYC_SKP]

3. What are the odds that any agency will investigate this?

Unless the US Justice Department gets involved, it's like it never happened.

Locals are looking hard, instead, at taking down Brown's stepfather.

[marym625]

6. The ABA, NBA and

Many legal scholars are looking at it. Whether or not they'll find enough to bring charges or discipline these "prosecutors" remains to be seen.

We need to look at previous no true bill for cops but they're sealed, I believe

[KingCharlemagne]

9. The FBI warned this witness before he or she began giving their statement that it was

a crime to give a false or misleading statement to a federal agent (on p. 88, ll. 17-21). It's so obvious this whole account (including the supposed written journal entry) is a blatant fabrication that I hope the U.S. Dept of Justice is looking into indicting Witness #40 for perjury. (Personally, I think this witness is profoundly mentally ill, but that's for a judge and mental health professionals appointed by the court to determine.) To think that this account made its way into the official record considered by the Grand Jury, that's the part that sticks in my craw in a major way.

[robinlynne]

56. oh there was plenty of fraud.

[morningfog]

31. There are plenty here defending it.

[marym625]

4. There is much bullshit

It's a wonder there hasn't been a bigger explosion. So many now believe that there was no way Michael Brown was shot while running. The forensics show that one of the wounds in his arm could have come from either the front or back. But let's forget that. McCulloch allowed testimony he knew was false but only interrogated those that supported Dorian Johnson's testimony.

Just too much.

[KingCharlemagne]

8. Witness #40 should have never reached the grand jury's ears. My God, was anyone who

claimed to be there allowed to testify without any attempt at discerning whether he or she was telling the truth? This 'witnesses' account is simply too much. The fact that this witness became a part of the official record suffices to discredit the entire proceeding, imo, and makes more pressing the call for a Special Prosecutor to be appointed and McCulloch forced to recuse himself.

[marym625]

10. yep.

Many of those witnesses they knew were lying but they only played prosecutor to help Darren Wilson

21 years and never once was an officer charged. Not once.

[Nye Bevan]

5. Witnesses such as this one who lied (it was a woman by the way) should be charged with perjury.

I hope that the fact that this testimony was discredited was conveyed to the grand jurors before they started deliberating.

[KingCharlemagne]

7. I've seen conflicting reports about the gender of the witness. The handwriting of the

journal sure 'looks' to be written by a female hand.

The FBI agents questioning this witness exhibited so much skepticism that I'm simply amazed that it was presented to the GJ and think McCulloch, Alizadeh and Whirley should be keel-hauled before the Missouri Bar at a minimum to have their licenses to practice law examined. Absolutely intolerable.

[morningfog]

32. Yet again you show how little you understand

the grand jury. Nothing was conveyed with respect to any witness credibility. That is not how grand juries work. In your eagerness to defend this result and your glee in no indictment, you ignore the reality.

[Nye Bevan]

35. Sorry, but you are mistaken. Check out the grand jury docs, volume 15, starting on page 87.

The FBI interview where that witness testimony was picked apart was conveyed in full to the grand jury.

[KingCharlemagne]

43. I think you both are 'correct,' insofar as the FBI witness statement was presented to

the GJ (with the FBI agents' skepticism as part of the presentaiton), but without any commentary from the ADAs presenting it.

Please understand that my objection isn't to the ravings of Witness #40 so much as it is to the fact that this supposed eyewitness testimony was allowed to be presented to the GJ as though it had anything to do with reality. Granted the FBI agents' skepticism was also presented to the grand jurors but, really? Witness #40 doesn't even begin to pass the smell test. I'm really ashamed now for the people of St. Louis. Egads!

[noiretextatique]

39. that includes Darren Wilson eom

[Recursion]

12. Welcome to DU

[Terra Alta]

13. and how would you like your pizza?

[lovemydog]

17. LOL, that didn't take long.

At least I got to reply to a racist pig before he was removed, rofl.

[KingCharlemagne]

15. I doubt you will be here very long, but for the record, Brown was not a 'criminal'

at that point, since he had not been tried, much less convicted, of anything.

You probably are personal friends with Witness #40, I'm guessing.

[lovemydog]

18. Witness # 40. Good nickname for racist trolls.

[KingCharlemagne]

20. Good one. It can become our code word henceforth. - nt

[lovemydog]

16. That's some seriously racist bullshit.

'Thug.' 'Animals.'

Michael Brown was a human being.

Black lives matter.

Fuck off.

[lovemydog]

14. Really sick, the lengths people will go to deny justice.

Sick & shameful.

I believe Wilson should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Appoint a special prosecutor. Someone really tough, who doesn't defer to the trappings of authority.

[cstanleytech]

21. "Appoint a special prosecutor." I wouldnt oppose that as long as the goal is only

to make sure justice is truly done one way or the other even if that means the special prosecutor was to find that there is a lack of evidence that proves Wilson did anything illegal.

[KingCharlemagne]

23. The point is to have a prosecutor not beholden to local law enforcement. Presumably,

that Special Prosecutor, whoever he or she might be, would review the evidence and, upon finding the evidence warranting it, putting the question to a new Grand Jury. I also think the SP should have scope to investigate whether there might have been or be an on-going conspiracy to obstruct justice on the part of Ferguson Chief Jackson, DA McCulloch, and other possible co-conspirators. Although the Feds could also pursue that line.

[cstanleytech]

25. I disagree slightly there.

If you want a SP to investigate the DA I dont mind but I dont think it should be the same one that might go after Wilson partly because if you want an investigation done right its my opinion that the person doing the investigating shouldnt be distracted by trying to investigate two different people.

[KingCharlemagne]

37. I take your point, but would note that such a concern never stopped Archibald Cox (Watergate) nor

Lawrence Walsh (Iran-Contra). Each SP was able to investigate and prosecute multiple targets simultaneously without doing grievous damage to the matter(s) at hand.

I guess the larger point I was trying to make is that the scope of the inquiry should no longer be limited strictly to Wilson's actions on Canfield Dr. on August 9 but should now expand to encompass misprision of felony, obstruction of justice and like matters having very little to do with Wilson per se.

[mountain grammy]

19. I also want the US Dept of Justice to indict McCulloch and his staff

for conspiracy to obstruct justice and for conspiracy to violate Michael Brown's civil rights. When that happens, I will finally believe America is serious about addressing the death and destruction brought about by racism in this country.

I'm sick that there probably will not be justice in this case, as in so many others, past, present and future.

[KingCharlemagne]

22. Yeah, as scummy a fellow as I think this killer cop Wilson was and is, he pales before

McCulloch, Belmar and that whole County crew. They are real pieces of work.

[BrotherIvan]

27. 100% Agree with both of you

The murder is so horrible, and the cover up is sickening. I wish there was something that could be done.

[BrotherIvan]

29. My thoughts exactly

[DMay]

24. And the plot thickens!

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/article-claims-proof-ofc-wilson-had-to-shoot-366419523884

[KingCharlemagne]

26. Posting links without explication is somewhat bad form. This links to a piece about

a different witness (#10) and the Washington Post's seeming embrace of #10's statements, in complete ignorance of Lawrence O'Donnell's previous dismantling of same.

Witness #10 is the one that McCulloch cited when announcing the no-true-bill as the witness who saw Brown run at a 'full charge' at Wilson. But, as I say, there are problems galore with his testimony, not least is how he changes his story to suit the needs of verisimilitude. In its original telling he's 100 yards away but that is subsequently reduced to 50-75 yards. McCulloch chastised those witnesses who said Brown had his hands up for 'changing their stories' but, strangely, found nothing amiss with Witness #10 changing his story.

[Nye Bevan]

36. Would you be able to judge accurately whether a distance was 100 yards, 75 yards or 50 yards

without any frame of reference? I don't think I would be able to.

[IdaBriggs]

46. Wow! "It is only possible to prove Michael Brown should have died if you are willing to lie!"

Thank you for sharing that link!

And welcome to DU!

[BrotherIvan]

28. Thank you so much for getting the information out there

There are many on DU who are making judgements based on what they see in the MSM and are not reading the actual transcripts. You are doing a great job in this and other threads to try to inform people of what happened in the grand jury. It's important that we all know.

[KingCharlemagne]

33. This may be the first time im my life that I've spent time with actual court

transcripts myself, rather than reading others' take(s) on them. I would recommend it to everyone with the time; doing so helps renders the events and people in question more concrete and makes the crime all the more real. (Dorian Johnson's testimony in Volume 4 is the cats' paw for this edge-of-your-seat narrative.)

[BrotherIvan]

40. I have read Johnson's testimony and find it to be the only story which matches

the forensic evidence. Wilson's is a complete fabrication.

[KingCharlemagne]

42. But Witness #40 backs Wilson's version to

the hilt, see?

[BrotherIvan]

44. I have not read it, but the ADA was absolutely shameless in getting Wilson off

From what i have read, it wasn't subtle one bit. They shouldn't get away with it. And he shouldn't be able to get away with murder.

[logosoco]

30. I don't have time this morning to read this part of the transcript.

I am slowly making my way through it all! But I have some questions before i start reading it later...

This part, witness #40, are they saying in the diary that they were driving into Florissant/Ferguson to deal with personal issues they have with black people, like a "therapy" sort of thing? And they just happened to make a wrong turn and then they just happened to witness the whole shooting and they just happened to see it the way the cops story goes?

WTF?

I have beaten some odds in my life, but I can't believe this series of events at ALL! But they consider this a reliable witness?

This is just getting crazier everyday! There is no way this is getting swept under the rug. I think some people wish it would just go away, the GJ has spoken now shut up. If we do that there is no justice system anymore.

[KingCharlemagne]

34. Trust me, the testimony of Witness #40 should be left for such a time as you have the

personal emotional space to be absolutely, positively enraged beyond measure. Not so much at what this clearly mentally ill person avers, but at the fact that the DA's office saw fit to give it any kind of standing whatsoever before the Grand Jury.

My understanding is that the journal entry -- aptly characterized by you, btw -- expresses a different motive than the one the witness expressed in her statement to the FBI and GJ wherein she has some 'friend' who lives in the vicinity of Canfield whom she is going to visit. The journal - as you note- reads like some purple prose 'voyage of racial discovery' and, racial epithets and casual condescension of wanting to see blacks as 'people' aside, contains enough verbal cues within it as to render a perjury trial and conviction a virtual slam dunk for whichever legal authority chose to pursue it. (Again, I think this 'witness' is a megalomaniacal narcissistic specimen in dire need of mental health treatment, but that would be for a judge and doctors to ascertain for sure.)

[logosoco]

54. Okay, I have read this volumn, and it is more than troubling.

The witness admits that she has memory problems, for one. I do too, and my stock answer to many people is "I don't know".
That aside...
She talks about seeing a gold bracelet fall off when Johnson hit the side mirror. I don't think anyone else mentions this happening. I thought Johnson was to Brown's right, how could he hit the mirror? Then she says he bent over to pick it up? Did any other witness see this? I have only read about 4-5 and don't recall that.

Also, she states that Brown was in the SUV up to his navel. I know he was a big guy, but is that possible? And, again, no other witness account includes this. She has Brown in the SUV up to his navel and "moving his arm up and down" on the cop.

I am short and I have never studied physics, so I am not seeing as to how her "recollection" is even possible?

Aside from my belief in justice within our system, this case is really bringing out the Perry Mason in me!

[KingCharlemagne]

55. Re: the Johnson gold bracelet. She admitted to the FBI that she did some post-hoc

searching on the internet, supposedly in the interests of confirming to her satisfiaction that the gold bracelet she saw fall off his arm was the one she remembered seeing.

Not only does she admit she has memory problems, at one point, the FBI agent questioning her gets her to admit she perjured herself in previous testimony! I'll be blunt: it's a jaw-dropping moment.

I don't Witness #40 was anywhere near Canfield on August 9. This would explain why she testified that she took a route with her car that MapQuest shows as open but that actually was blocked by barricades to vehicular traffic on August 9. (She back-tracked when the FBI confronted her with this discrepancy and retreated to a Ronald Reagan "I don't remember" fall back position.) The whole story smacks of having been thought up AFTER THE FACT

[librechik]

38. I know, and I've been smacking down Facebook Klowns who cite it as evidence of Wilson's innocence

stupid! The whole thing was a farce.

[KingCharlemagne]

41. Anyone silly enough to cite Witness #40 to support justifiable homicide should be

forced to read Witness #40's testimony out loud to his or her peers. It won't survive more than about 5 minutes of this before it becomes readily apparent that the testimony was entirely a fabrication.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

45. Do store clerks in MO ask for ID on tobacco purchases like they do in other states? Is THAT what

the confrontation was about in the store and NOT Brown stealing them?

Would that make sense as to why the owner didnt report it?

Did the clerk ask for ID and Brown didnt have any and that is why they argued?


As to the witnesses, this is real simple folks.

There is a video of two men watching the shooting, reacting to what they are seeing as it happens, any idiot can look at that video and figure out what happened when you add it to the many eye witnesses who say Brown was shot while surrendering or falling forward.

[IdaBriggs]

47. Didn't you read the store keeper's testimony to the Grand Jury?

No?

BECAUSE THERE WASN'T ANY.

Sigh.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

48. Exactly, wonder why.

[SweetieD]

49. I said from the very beginning that I assumed it was an ID issue.

You can see Mike throw money at the clerk.

At some point I think the clerk asked for ID but maybe after he rung him up which was improper. Maybe it made Mike angry or frustrated and he just threw money and grabbed the cigars anyway and left and said screw you I'm not showing ID.

In my opinion it would explain why the store never called the police or became involved in this matter because they didn't want an investigation that might cause them to lose their tobacco license.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

50. If you can see him throw money then that is almost certainly what it was

But look at what we are doing, we are forced to discuss details like did he or didnt he steal $10 worth of cigars because if he did then probably it is ok to have killed him.

You and I are not doing that but this is an example of how the conversation is "framed" whenever the victim is AfAm or gay or if it is a rape a woman, etc.

If you fall into any one of several categories, as a victim, you will instantly be the focus and not the criminal.

[KingCharlemagne]

51. What I've often wondered is, given that Mike Brown had lived with his grandmother

there for some time, he was known to some of the staff at the Ferguson Market but maybe not all of them. While Dorian Johnson's testimony in Volume 4 suggests that Johnson perceived Mike to have stolen the cigarillos without paying for them, Johnson also reports that Mike Brown laughed off Johnson's concerns, suggesting to me the possibility that Brown had some sort of payment arrangment with Ferguson Market of which Johnson was perhaps unaware. I mean, for all I know, Johnson and his family ran a 'tab' there and settled up monthly or whatever.

In short, just because a 'theft' was reported to 9-11 by some anonymous customer does not mean necessarily that a theft or robbery actually occurred. (This might explain why the store's owner and staff were reportedly 'mystified' when police came there afterwards for the surveillance videos.) The evidence of those video tapes is ambiguous as all hell and functions as a Rorshach Test, allowing one to project onto it whatever preconceived notions one came to the video with.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

52. There may have been little time for Mike to explain to Dorian what the story was

as he had bullet holes in his head moments later.

Walking down the street without a care in the world, sort of, and a cop starts yelling at him, slams it in reverse and practically runs him over and we all know what happened next.

[KingCharlemagne]

53. That is about as concise an explanation as I've read thus far (and I think on the whole

pretty accurate). I try not to let myself imagine those final moments too much, as it just makes me cry and demobilizes me.

[Enrique]

57. good call

i hope i this thread can still be kicked because it's pretty amazing that you got this one so right at the time.