Prosecutor in Charge of Michael Brown Investigation Running for Re-Election Unopposed, Has History of Controversy Since Taking Office in 1991

Robert McCulloch, the
prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, who
lambasted Gov. Jay Nixon (D-Mo.) for relieving the Ferguson
Police Department of duty during ongoing protests after a violent
night last Wednesday, has been in office since 1991 and has
“faced
controversy for decades,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
noted in an article reviewing his career. Early on he faced the
responsibility of deciding whether to prosecute two undercover cops
who shot and killed two men during an investigation. The
Post-Dispatch reports:

The officers said the suspects, who had prior felony convictions
for drug and assault offenses, tried to escape arrest and then
drove toward the officers.

A subsequent federal investigation showed that the men were
unarmed and that their car had not moved forward when the officers
fired 21 shots and killed the suspects, Earl Murray and Ronald
Beasley. The probe, however, also concluded that because the
officers feared for their safety, the shootings were justified.

McCulloch didn’t prosecute the officers. He specifically drew
the ire of defense lawyers and protesters, who had been
holding demonstrations and threatened to block Highway 40, when he
said of Murray and Beasley, “These guys were bums.”

McCulloch defended his comments, complaining the public and
media were trying to “vilify” the cops, who shot and killed two
alleged drug dealers and appeared to lie about the circumstances.
Because they were drug dealers, McCulloch insinuated, they deserved
to die.

That shooting happened in 1991 in St. Louis but it’s a familiar
pattern for some of the shootings authorities rule justified around
the country to this day. As forensics and video technology improve,
it becomes harder for fabricated stories to hold up to muster.
Nevertheless, cops continue to be almost universally cleared of
wrong-doing in fatal shootings.

Most infamously McCulloch wanted to prosecute Axl Rose for a
riot at a Guns’n’Roses show in Riverport. The
Post-Dispatch’s whole article is
worth a read here. McCullough, a Democrat, is running unopposed
in November. The county executive and other county officers are
also up for re-election in November; it’ll be interesting to see
how many of them are re-elected, and how many else might be running
unopposed in the heavily Democrat St. Louis County.