Ferguson defendants sue, seek teen’s juvenile records

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The city of Ferguson and other defendants in a wrongful-death lawsuit by Michael Brown’s parents are seeking access to any juvenile records of the black 18-year-old who was fatally shot by a white police officer in 2014 — a request once rejected by a judge after a newspaper and blog sought such documents.

The motion, filed this month, seeks St. Louis County family court records concerning outcomes of any Brown-related juvenile cases “or records of any alleged delinquent acts committed by or pertaining to” him. The motion argues that any such information “is reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence” in the lawsuit against the St. Louis suburb, former Police Chief Thomas Jackson and Ferguson officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed the unarmed Brown during an August 2014 confrontation.

Brown’s parents “have no standing to assert any privilege with respect to the requested information,” and at the time of Brown’s death “the interest in safeguarding the confidentiality of any juvenile court records became less compelling,” according to the motion, scheduled for a hearing Thursday. The filing, first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, claims a “legitimate interest” in the records without elaborating.

Anthony Gray, an attorney for Brown’s family, said that even if Brown had a brush with the juvenile court system — including for such low-level offenses as truancy — those details are irrelevant to whether his death resulted from excessive force.

“This is just a smear tactic, a smear campaign,” Gray said. Wilson’s “decision to use deadly force has to be predicated on what he knew at the time (of his confrontation with Brown) and the circumstances he was facing,” not anything about his past.

“It is my full anticipation (searchers of Brown’s juvenile past) will find nothing of any significance or relevance,” Gray added.

Police have said Brown had no adult criminal record. Juvenile records are confidential in Missouri, but being charged with certain violent crimes removes those privacy protections.

In September 2014, a month after Brown’s death, another St. Louis County Family Court judge denied without offering an explanation a request by the Post-Dispatch and California blog GotNews.com to release any Brown juvenile records.