Walter Scott deblurredThis is interesting and deserves being back on the radar.  In South Carolina the prosecution of Officer Michael Slager (Walter Scott Shooting) continues.

In a remarkable similarity to the fraudulent prosecutorial investigation of State Attorney Angela Corey in the ’12/’13 Zimmerman case, in South Carolina another rogue and racially inspired prosecution appears to be heading down a similar path adverse to Officer Slager.

Despite defense requesting “preservation of evidence”, and despite a judges order affirming the presentation, the State of South Carolina prosecutorial team shipped the Taser out of state without trying to protect DNA evidence:

[…]  Court documents filed this week show that SLED shipped Slager’s Taser to Taser International in Arizona for examination — the day after a judge ordered all evidence be preserved for Savage’s independent group of investigators to survey.

During a phone conversation with the solicitor’s office, SLED, and Taser on Dec. 2, representatives of Taser International said that there was no microscopic study of the Taser while it was in the company’s possession, nor did they know of the court’s order to preserve evidence.

During the company’s examination, the forensics team in Arizona also did not make any attempts to preserve DNA or fingerprints.

“We have never handled the devices in such a way to make any attempts to preserve any fingerprints or DNA evidence,” attorney Mike Brave said during the phone call. “Therefore, the device was obviously handled to receive it, unpackage it, test it, repackage it, et cetera, with no thought of preserving or keeping any track or testing for any fingerprint or DNA. (more)

Of course this is an essential element to a specific point we have covered before.  Walter Scott struggling with officer Slager for several minutes, and then using the taser against Slager.  According to earlier reports, Slagers’ shirt showed evidence of taser marks.

Walter Scott - taser lead

To complicate matters an investigator named Almon Brown within the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) was fired after he revealed on Facebook that investigators were up to some sketchy business and the state prosecution’s case against Slager was seriously “flawed”.

In another similarity to the Zimmerman case, investigator Almon Brown appears to have been given the dispatch, for the same reason, as Ben Kruidbos was in 2013.

In the Zimmerman case Angela Corey’s office fired their Chief Information Officer because Kruidbos exposed their scheme to hide exculpatory evidence which supported Zimmerman’s defense.  It sounds like Almon Brown represented the same risk in South Carolina.

walter scott tazer

walter scott - slager - uniform debrief

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