One of the only pictures of officer Darren Wilson, the cop currently under investigation for having fatally shot teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, depicts Wilson walking toward the back of a room after receiving a commendation for "extraordinary effort in the line of duty."
The case for which he won that award has been stalled, because Wilson did not appear to testify at a Monday hearing that would determine whether there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial.
Wilson arrested Christopher A. Brooks, 29, and another man named Erik Johnson in Brooks' driveway in February of last year on suspicion of packaging marijuana inside his PT Cruiser. Talk about bleak.
According to police accounts, Wilson was able to subdue the two men who were resisting arrest, without the use of any sort of force. The police eventually found marijuana in the vehicle, and subsequently arrested Brooks on "suspicion of possession of a controlled substance, intent to distribute, resisting arrest, possession of drug paraphernalia, failure to comply, and third-degree assault on a law-enforcement officer." Currently, Brooks faces only one felony charge.
Although the hearing has been rescheduled for Oct. 27, Brooks' lawyer, Nick Zotos, said he has been told that Wilson would not show up for any cases this year, making the rescheduled session just as pointless.
Most interesting, perhaps, is the "general consensus" in the Ferguson legal community about Wilson's fate. The L.A. Times' Matt Pearce reports:
Brooks' attorney, Zotos, said he preferred to keep his comments about the case "close to the vest," but said he was uncertain what the prosecution was doing by redirecting the case to a grand jury -- perhaps buying more time for Wilson.
“The consensus here is that [Wilson is] not going to be indicted, at least those who think they’re the smart money," Zotos said of the Michael Brown shooting investigation. And if Wilson isn't indicted when the Brown grand jury returns its findings -- possibly in November -- Zotos speculated that Wilson might once again be willing to show up and testify about the February 2013 arrest that earned him an award.
But in a nod to widespread calls from community members for Wilson's own arrest, Zotos seemed certain about at least one thing: "It’s very unlikely he’s going to be a police officer in Ferguson again."
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