Seems to me that Kim Gardner is what we used to call...."A Ball Buster".

There was no new evidence. The defense attorney asked that exact question at a pretrial deposition. The "new evidence " was a ruse.

I can't tell you how disappointed I was at not being surprised at the two faces looking at me from the linked article.

Watching what's unfolding in StL. Be careful, Kevin. Hope you, and your brother and sister officers come out of this mess alright

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
The findings and verdict document is here:

https://bloximages.newyork1.vi...9bbe0a450230.pdf.pdf

30 pages, but a fast read. The judge made a very reasonable call . The prosecutors appear several times to spin the "facts" in a biased and incorrect manner.

The news stories are very biased against the officer and quite a bit different than the evidence.

The judge does keep referring to the police "revolvers", but that is a small point in the overall context

I read much of the verdict and was struck at how fair and straightforward it appeared. I also noted how different it was from the news accounts.

This sounds like another Baltimore, where someone with an agenda is going after LEOs. The city has lost over 1/3 of it's prosecutors since a new supervisor was hired. I wonder now if many LEOs will retire or go somewhere else to avoid malicious prosecution by the city they are sworn to protect.
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I now realize that it is the State of Missouri that prosecuted Stockley.

They vandalized the mayers house... so tear gas being deployed

quote:

Originally posted by c1steve:
....


I read much of the verdict and was struck at how fair and straightforward it appeared. I also noted how different it was from the news accounts.

This sounds like another Baltimore, where someone with an agenda is going after LEOs. The city has lost over 1/3 of it's prosecutors since a new supervisor was hired. I wonder now if many LEOs will retire or go somewhere else to avoid malicious prosecution by the city they are sworn to protect.
-------------
I now realize that it is the State of Missouri that prosecuted Stockley.

The Circuit Attorney who preceded the one who recently took office is the one who decided to prosecute Stockley. Although the incident occurred in 2011 and investigations during that timeframe, which included input from DOJ investigators, did not result in any charges being filed against Stockley, the previous Circuit Attorney decided to file the murder first and armed criminal action charges against Stockley shortly before she left office. She cryptically cited "new evidence" as the reason but no new evidence appears to have been presented.

Since the current Circuit Attorney took office earlier this year, there has been a steady stream of prosecutors leaving for one reason or another as you noted. Given some of the questionable appointments made by the current Circuit Attorney along with the very anti-police statement she released shortly after the verdict, I would not be surprised to see even more city police either retire or seek employment elsewhere. There is also a newly elected mayor who has felt the need to make many questionable statements which leave little doubt that she is no friend of law enforcement either.

Murder and armed criminal action are both state charges but the Office of the Circuit Attorney for the City of St. Louis filed those charges and prosecuted the case.

quote:

I now realize that it is the State of Missouri that prosecuted Stockley.

State criminal charge, but prosecuted by City of St. Louis prosecuting attorney's office.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

I now realize that it is the State of Missouri that prosecuted Stockley.

State criminal charge, but prosecuted by City of St. Louis prosecuting attorney's office.

To clarify chellim1's comment, the City of St. Louis is its own county. not like Chicago is part of Cook County. The Circuit Attorney is the same as the county prosecutor everywhere else. It was the State of Missouri vs. Officer Stockley, but the "county prosecutor" equivalent in St. Louis made the call. The City of St. Louis also has their own attorneys and municipal court, those are City Counselors. Sometimes an Assistant Attorney General steps in to try a case or help try a case for a county prosecutor, but not in this case.

The circuit attorney that brought the charges based on "new evidence" has a history of misconduct.

"Our research found six instances of misconduct identified in court decisions between 2010 and 2015, ranging from hiding evidence from the defense to inappropriate behavior aimed at illegally influencing a jury.[45]

In 2013, the Missouri Court of Appeals chastised Joyce personally for making highly inappropriate statements on Twitter about a defendant in a rape trial, saying that the behavior threatened to “taint the jury and result in reversal of the verdict.”[46] The court was “especially troubled by Joyce’s timing because broadcasting such statements immediately before and during trial greatly magnifies the risk that a jury will be tainted by undue extrajudicial influences.” The court did not find, however, that “the jury was aware of or influenced by Joyce’s Twitter comments.” The court explained: “Nevertheless, even if the prosecutor’s public Twitter comments were improper, ‘the test is the fairness of the trial, not the culpability of the prosecutor.’”[47]

Joyce expressed no regret about her behavior, remaining “unrepentant and even buoyed by the court of appeals’ ruling.”[48] The Missouri Public Defender’s office, however, called her behavior “prosecutorial misconduct,” and the chief public defender for the City of St. Louis, Mary Fox, said that “[i]f the behavior is not going to stop, then perhaps the next step is a bar complaint.”[49]

In three other cases involving Joyce’s office, misconduct was found as a result of courtroom tactics: State v. Brown, 337 S.W.3d 12 (Mo. 2011) (where the prosecution “bypass[ed] normal evidentiary limitations by first showing the revolver to the jury in closing argument to rebut [the defendant’s] self-defense argument”); State v. Duncan, 397 S.W.3d 541 (Mo. Ct. App. 2013) (where the prosecution improperly impeached the defendant by mischaracterizing prior testimony); and State v. Perry, 447 S.W.3d 749 (Mo. Ct. App. 2014) (where the prosecution “went a bit too far in terms of suggesting special knowledge or commenting on a fact not in evidence, both of which are improper”)."

http://fairpunishment.org/new-...cutorial-misconduct/

That explains a great deal of what went on.

Stay safe out there, the animals are doing what they do best.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...-guilty-killing.html

Stay Safe!!!!!

Maybe is is wishful thinking on my part and while no peace for Kevin and his folks at the moment as they are in the thick of it but I hope these sorts of "protests" go a bit differently and don't have such a domino effect as we saw with Furgeson since we no longer have an administration that encourages such behavior and the local governments will be much more heavy handed in their response if they do occur.

Kevin stay safe

U2 cancels St. Louis concert

U2 canceled its concert in St. Louis on Saturday night, citing police concerns there would not be enough security in the wake of the Jason Stockley verdict and protests.

"We have been informed by the St. Louis Police Department that they are not in a position to provide the standard protection for our audience as would be expected for an event of this size. We have also been informed that local crowd security personnel would not be at full capacity," the band said in a statement.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/l...04-cffa69ee5821.html

I would think that Bonohead would lust after doing a show under such circumstances given all the anti American comments and songs he has spouted in the past.

I think Bono like to hide behind security while making said comments instead of possibly getting mugged for being a douche.

quote:

The Circuit Attorney who preceded the one who recently took office is the one who decided to prosecute Stockley. Although the incident occurred in 2011 and investigations during that timeframe, which included input from DOJ investigators, did not result in any charges being filed against Stockley, the previous Circuit Attorney decided to file the murder first and armed criminal action charges against Stockley shortly before she left office. She cryptically cited "new evidence" as the reason but no new evidence appears to have been presented.

Jennifer Joyce was a law school class mate of mine. I like her personally. Having said that, it is extremely odd that this case was filed by her on her way out the door after sitting on it for 5 years. I don't really know why, but my guess is that she didn't think she had enough evidence to take it to trial but the protesters were calling for murder charges in 2016 so it became a political problem for the mayor.

All these protests have done is made me no longer care about inner cities and the people who live there.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

The Circuit Attorney who preceded the one who recently took office is the one who decided to prosecute Stockley. Although the incident occurred in 2011 and investigations during that timeframe, which included input from DOJ investigators, did not result in any charges being filed against Stockley, the previous Circuit Attorney decided to file the murder first and armed criminal action charges against Stockley shortly before she left office. She cryptically cited "new evidence" as the reason but no new evidence appears to have been presented.

Jennifer Joyce was a law school class mate of mine. I like her personally. Having said that, it is extremely odd that this case was filed by her on her way out the door after sitting on it for 5 years. I don't really know why, but my guess is that she didn't think she had enough evidence to take it to trial but the protesters were calling for murder charges in 2016 so it became a political problem for the mayor.

That's very interesting, especially if your guess is correct. If we ever cross paths, remind me to relate an experience I had which involved the polar opposite situation; i.e., refusal to present a case before a grand jury despite having admissions, etc. and refusing to comment on the reasons for the refusal or to even discuss what steps could possibly be taken to alter that position. This involved a family member who was the victim of several heinous and violent crimes against a person which could, and in my admittedly biased view, should have resulted in numerous felony charges against several defendants.

That situation has forever changed my views regarding the criminal justice system which I had believed in all my life and which I had staunchly defended during the time I worked within that system.

Stickman428, my sentiments exactally! These people go 'nuts' when the evidence is against them and they go after the big bucks. Noticed that Browns father was there after he and mom split a big payoff. Neither of them raised Brown, his grandmother did but they grabbed the loot.