Prosecutor wants photos of Michael Brown's body restricted
Source: Associated Press
Jim Suhr, Associated Press
Updated 3:51 pm, Wednesday, August 24, 2016
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Attorneys for the police force and prosecutor that oversaw the investigation of Michael Brown's 2014 death in Ferguson asked a federal judge to consider blocking the release of "grisly" photographs of the black 18-year-old's body to his family's attorneys, worried they could prompt violence if leaked.
The St. Louis County counselor's office filed that request Tuesday with a federal judge presiding over the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Brown's parents. U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber had earlier on Tuesday rejected a separate request by Brown's mother to broaden who can see sensitive grand jury details related to her son's death.
An attorney for the county's prosecutor and police department said the photographs of Brown dead on the street, during his autopsy and in the morgue could rekindle the violence that accompanied protests of Brown's death.
"These particular grisly images evoke a visceral reaction which may provoke unbridled violence," Linda Wasserman wrote in that motion, which asked Webber to first privately vet the photographs. "The disturbing impact of the photographic images could cause the simmering cauldron of emotions associated with this matter to quickly reach the boiling point."
Read more:
http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Judge-declines-to-widen-access-to-Ferguson-grand-9181852.php