Ferguson decides on change in prosecutor
White incumbent’s role in Brown case seen as pivotal.
Robert McCulloch assured the city of Ferguson, repeatedly and occasionally in all caps, that he was “fair and impartial in every matter” concerning the criminal case of the police officer who killed Michael Brown.
But his critics had doubts. They said the white St. Louis County, Missouri, prosecutor’s family was, after all, full of police officers, including a father who died at the hands of a black suspect when McCulloch was 12.
And long before Brown was fatally shot in 2014 —igniting months of protests and fueling a nationwide discussion about whether police are more likely to use deadly force against black people — McCulloch said he agreed with a grand jury’s decision to not indict officers who killed two unarmed black men.
Elected leaders, activists, the NAACP and the county executive all said McCulloch’s choice was a simple one: Step down and let a special prosecutor lead the case. McCulloch refused.
“If there was a flash point, I’d say it was the refusal to recuse himself, because there was just this high level of outrage,” Montague Simmons told The Washington Post on Wednesday. Simmons heads the Organization for Black Struggle, an organization that seeks to erase political, economic and criminal justice disparities.
“We knew then that if we wanted something different to happen, we would need someone different.”
On Tuesday, primary voters in St. Louis County, Missouri, ousted McCulloch, who had been the top law enforcement official in the county for nearly three decades, surprising political observers who thought the veteran prosecutor would defeat a relatively inexperienced newcomer.
Wesley Bell, a black Ferguson city council member who ran on reforming the prosecutor’s office, defeated McCulloch with nearly 57 percent of the vote, a margin of more than 24,000 ballots, according to the board of elections.
No Republicans were on the ballot, all but guaranteeing that Bell will be the next prosecutor in St. Louis County, where 23 percent of residents identify as black.
The last time McCulloch was on the ballot was in November 2014, when he ran unopposed and garnered 95 percent of the votes cast.
Weeks later, he announced that a grand jury would not indict Officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s killing.
Tuesday’s primary was the first time he had faced voters since that fateful announcement.
Many saw his attempt to hold on to his office as a referendum on what happened in Ferguson. His harshest critics accused the prosecutor of skewing the investigation in favor of Wilson, as The Washington Post’s Mark Berman reported.
“Obviously Ferguson defined this election,” St. Louis University political science professor Ken Warren told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Warren had predicted a victory for McCulloch based on his long tenure and experience running a prosecutor’s office. “Bell made his name through Ferguson, and [McCulloch] tarnished his name through his handling of Ferguson,” Warren said.
Bell, 43, an attorney who has also served as a judge and prosecutor, alluded to Ferguson’s spotlight in an Election Day posting on his campaign’s Facebook page: “The world is watching. Let’s show them what DEMOCRACY looks like.”
He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
His campaign platform included a pledge to “fundamentally change the culture” of the prosecutor’s office, including appointing special prosecutors to review allegations of police misconduct.