Ferguson witnesses ‘clearly' lied to St. Louis grand jury, prosecutor says
Robert McCulloch, in his first public remarks since announcing there would be no indictment in the shooting death of Michael Brown, says people lied under oath. He won’t pursue perjury charges.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, December 20, 2014, 12:41 PM
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Some witnesses "clearly " lied to the St. Louis grand jury investigating the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., prosecutor Robert McCulloch said in an interview.
"There were people who came in and yes, absolutely lied under oath. Some lied to the FBI, even though they're not under oath, that's another potential offense, a federal offense," McCulloch said Friday, in a discussion with KTRSradio in St. Louis.
Nonetheless, he said he will not seek perjury charges. "Some were clearly not telling the truth, no question about it," McCulloch said. But he wanted all sides to have their say, he added.
In his first public statements since announcing on Nov. 24 that the white police officer who killed the unarmed African-American teen would not be indicted, McCulloch said he has kept quiet because he didn't want "to fire things up."
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Even though it was apparent that some witnesses were not telling the truth, McCulloch said he allowed them to testify because he wanted jurors to hear all accounts of how Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson shot to death 18-year-old Brown.
"I thought it was much more important to present the entire picture and say listen, this is what this witness says he saw, even though there was a building between where the witness says he was and where the events occurred, so they couldn't have seen that," McCulloch told the station.
The credibility of two people who testified, identified only as Witness 40 and Witness 41, has already been questioned after transcripts of their testimonies and other details were released publicly.
Witness 40 admitted to investigators she was bi-polar and racist and had sought donations for Wilson. She came forward five weeks after the Aug. 9 shooting and claimed she had driven to Ferguson "so I stop calling Blacks N------ and Start calling them People," she wrote in a journal that she showed the grand jury.
Witness 41, it was revealed this week, told prosecutors -- after she testified -- that she had recorded the entire shooting incident on her cell phone. But she had dropped her phone in a toilet, she said, and then threw it away.
"Just like any jury, they can believe all, part or nothing of any witness testimony," McCulloch said.
His handling of the case has been criticized from the beginning. On Thursday, Democratic State Rep. Karla May said McCulloch should be investigated for prosecutorial misconduct.
"My job is to not get an indictment, my job is to seek the truth and seek justice and do what is right," McCulloch said in the interview.