A persistent case in Ferguson raises doubts about reform

FERGUSON, Mo. — When the Justice Department issued a scathing report that detailed routine civil rights violations by the police and courts here after an officer fatally shot Michael Brown in 2014, one anecdote generated particular outrage.

A black man was sitting in his car in a Ferguson park when a police officer drew his gun on him. The officer searched the man’s car without permission and wrote him more than half a dozen tickets, including for lacking a vehicle inspection sticker and not wearing a seat belt, even though the car was parked.

The episode, which occurred in 2012, helped spur the city to agree to criminal justice reform, and, along with the Brown case, prompted a federal consent decree with the Justice Department in 2016.

But five years after the arrest, Ferguson continues to prosecute the man, Fred Watson, even as it struggles to repair its image as a city that has been unfair, and at times hostile, toward African-Americans.

Watson is due in court today for the start of a criminal trial for nine minor charges stemming from the episode.

Criminal justice officials in Ferguson would not discuss why the prosecution of Watson had moved forward, despite what appear to be numerous problems with the case.

City officials, however, say Ferguson is well on its way to change, particularly in its municipal court system, which came under harsh criticism by the Justice Department.

The city said that since August 2014, it had dismissed 39,000 municipal court cases, forgiven $1.8 million in fines, and enrolled 1,381 people in community service projects instead of requiring them to pay fines.

De’Carlon Seewood, who was named city manager, and Lee Clayton Goodman, who became the city’s prosecutor, are part of the new generation of Ferguson leaders brought in to overhaul the criminal justice system and to meet the provisions of the consent decree. Both are AfricanAmerican and have lived in the area for much of their lives.