Dorian Johnson sues Ferguson and Darren Wilson

After the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., a quick, high-profile round of on-camera media interviews by Brown’s friend Dorian Johnson helped establish the public narrative that officer Darren Wilson had stopped Brown and Johnson for no better reason than walking in the street, and that a peaceable Brown had been gunned down while trying to surrender with his hands in the air. To put it mildly, several key elements in this account were not well supported by the investigations later conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice and others, and Johnson’s version of events was further put in shadow by the revelation that before the police stop he had accompanied Brown into a convenience store where Brown committed a strong-arm robbery of cigars later handed off to Johnson. At any event, Johnson has now filed a lawsuit against the town and against Wilson for being stopped and for the subsequent gunfire: Johnson wasn’t hit, but says he was endangered by the shots. [NBC News] Meanwhile, the chairman of the large law firm of Winston & Strawn will receive $1,300 an hour to represent Ferguson in the Justice Department probe. [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal]

3 Comments

  • Which is more foolish: someone who charges $1,300 per hour or an entity that will actually pay $1,300 per hour? I think the latter. Lawyers can only charge what someone else will pay. I would think that a mid-size firm in St. Louis would be able to adequately represent Ferguson for much, much less.

  • I believe if you are to sell all your morals to represent trash then you should get as much as you can. Also, you should realize taking this case makes you an enemy of the majority of Americans living in St. Louis. Its the first American City to be majority black. This is why its the focal point for black equality. Because the government should represent them more in that city based on democractic fundamentals, so atleast equal is demanded. And thank you Dorian for having the courage to stand up to injustice. I saw the video footage at the convenience store and the store owner trying to violate your civil rights by detaining you in the convenience store demands more investigation and an arrest of the store owner. So I would sue him as well. Please keep it going. Its means a lot. You are the next Rosa Parks. Sit where you want. Leave a store on your terms.

  • Who else from Ferguson is going to make up another reason to sue Wilson and the PD? Brown was a thug who robbed a store and attempted to grab the officer’s gun. The guy already is off the PD roster, what more do you fools want??

    All of this crap reminds me of the multiple attempts by the Italian court system to find Amanda Knox guilty of something in a court of law, even after she was cleared of all charges in a previous case.