Last week, I published a diary regarding The St. Louis Post Dispatch's announcement that it would be investigating Michael Brown for the killing of Michael Brown—by "seeking the release of any juvenile court records it (St. Louis County Family Court) may have relating to Michael Brown". Here is the full statement.
In response to a number of inquiries today, I wanted to confirm that the Post-Dispatch filed a petition last week with the St. Louis County Family Court seeking the release of any juvenile court records it may have relating to Michael Brown.
The court filing is just one avenue of many in our continuing commitment to cover a significant news story for our community.
We have taken this action as a professional news organization, independently and not in conjunction with any other organization, as we seek to report facts and not rely on innuendo or speculation. Joining the
Joining the
Post Dispatch in their
continuing commitment to cover a significant news story for their community attempt to unseal any potential records, which would have nothing to do with whether or not Darren Wilson's killing of the unarmed Brown was justified, is wingnut Charles
C. Johnson, who should not be confused with Charles Johnson of little green footballs. In Johnson's petition to the court, he claimed state and federal law enforcement officials told him Michael Brown had been charged with second degree murder.
(see here, bottom of page 5)
The lying-racist-wingnut's smear campaign hit a wall, yesterday.
The Post-Dispatch
... disclosures during and after the hearing on Tuesday put to rest claims by blogger Charles C. Johnson and others that Brown was facing a murder charge at the time he was shot to death.
... Michael Brown was never found delinquent of the juvenile equivalents of Missouri’s most serious felony charges and was not facing any at the time he died, a court official said Wednesday.
Upon learning this particular lie further exposed Charles C. for the con artist he truly is, Johnson turned fellow charlatan Jim Hoft,
The Dumbest Man on the Internet, who screamed,
MORE>>>> John Burns, the attorney for Charles Johnson at Got News, told The Gateway Pundit after the hearing this morning at the St. Louis County courthouse that Brown was never convicted of a serious felony but may have been charged with a serious felony before his death. The Post Dispatch may be inaccurate in their report today.
and then confirmed the attorney's opinion from an unimpeachable source with this
UPDATE!!!
UPDATE: Charles Johnson, who sued for the release of the records, told The Gateway Pundit that the Post-Dispatch article is inaccurate.
SO THERE!!
This morning, the lying-racist-wingnut that is Charles C. Johnson told his deranged followers he wasn't giving up. He is now going after alleged criminal records of Michael's stepfather, because, that's the way racists roll.
Today's research targets: Louis Head's rap sheet. He's #MichaelBrown's step father...
Times story below
Also last week, six hours after the Dispatch story came out, in fact, The Riverfront Times (TRFT) issued a similar but slightly modified statement of their own.
Riverfront Times Seeks Juvenile Records for Officer Darren Wilson
In response to a number of inquiries today, the Riverfront Times confirms that it is seeking the juvenile records of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, the man who shot and killed Michael Brown.
After the Post-Dispatch announced Friday that it is seeking the juvenile records for Brown, many people on Twitter asked that the same scrutiny be placed upon Wilson, who is currently under investigation for the shooting death of the unarmed 18-year-old man.
This is just one avenue of many in our continuing commitment to cover a significant news story for our community.
We have taken this action as a professional news organization, independently and not in conjunction with any other organization, as we seek to report facts and not rely on innuendo or speculation.
At last check,
TRFT said the process is still ongoing.
note:
While researching this release on Sunday, I found two twitter users associated with St.Louis media questioning the validity of TRFT piece, claiming it was snark. However, those claims were made without any evidence or explanation backing them up. Following up this morning, I see the TRFT announcement was also posted on their Facebook page at approximately 10 am Monday morning, with the headline While the The St. Louis Post-Dispatch & STLtoday.com dives into the juvenile records for #MichaelBrown, we'll be doing this...
For those reasons, I am accepting the TRFT story at face value. I'll update the diary if turns out to be a cheap hoax.