Judge mulls request for names of Ferguson grand jury witnesses

ST. LOUIS -- A federal judge is considering whether to release the names of witnesses who testified during the grand-jury proceedings in a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer's shooting death of Michael Brown.

Attorneys on both sides of the wrongful-death lawsuit by Brown's parents are seeking the identities and pressed for it during a hearing last week; witnesses were promised their names would remain secret.

An attorney for St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch's office, which oversaw the 2014 grand-jury proceedings and promised the witnesses anonymity, opposed the request, saying most witnesses agreed to talk only in exchange for confidentiality.

The grand jury's November 2014 decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for shooting Brown rekindled sometimes-violent protests that followed Brown's death three months earlier.

Grand-jury proceedings typically are secret. But McCulloch, when he publicly announced Wilson would not be indicted, released details of grand-jury witnesses' testimony without releasing their names.

Kathi Alizadeh, the prosecutor primarily responsible for providing evidence to that grand jury, said in an affidavit she had promised to protect the names of witnesses who were brought in to testify via "secret routes."

Most witnesses and grand jurors "expressed fears of retribution and/or retaliation because of the public furor and virulent public sentiment" involving the investigation, she wrote.

Lawyers for Brown's family and the lawsuit's defendants -- Wilson, the city of Ferguson and its former police chief, Thomas Jackson -- want un-redacted copies of the testimony.

"We already know what was said, but we don't know who said it," said Anthony Gray, a lawyer for Brown's parents, Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden.

Robert Plunkert, one of the defense lawyers, said while the law bars the release of information about grand-jury proceedings, it does not bar the release of other information, including details about witnesses.