ST. LOUIS - Attorney General Josh Hawley announced results of the independent investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in the Jason Stockley case by the state's attorneys.
On Sept. 25, Hawley announced his office would retain an independent counsel to investigate allegations of withholding evidence by the state.
According to a statement released by General Attorney Josh Hawley on Tuesday, state's attorneys were aware of DNA evidence in this case, but it was not disclosed in a timely matter.
Anthony Lamar Smith was killed in 2011 by former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley.
The Board of Police Commissioners settled a wrongful death suit with Smith's family for $900,000 in 2013. That same year, Stockley left the department.
The family's attorney, Al Watkins, said if he had that evidence during the wrongful death suit- showing Jason Stockley's DNA on the gun involved in this case Smith's family likely would've gotten a lot more than the roughly $900,000 they eventually settled for.
The AG's investigation found that in 2012 and 2013, despite an order from a federal judge and several attempts by Watkins, the state attorney's did not hand over laboratory and firearms reports.
Those reports and that key DNA evidence were, however, used in Stockley's recent criminal.
The investigation report released Tuesday does not make clear why the evidence was never handed over.
Watkins said it's a miscarriage of justice.
"That's a piece of evidence and if it's your case, if it's your family i guarantee you'd want that. if you're on a jury and you're listening to this, the value of the case just went up. not just a little bit. a lot. and it's not up to some assistant attorney general to decide what evidence is going to be released and what evidence is not going to be released. not their choice. their duty is to disclose it and they didn't. and that hurts all of us," said Watkins.
Watkins said he's planning on taking the case back to court and will be asking a judge that penalties, perhaps even criminal charges be brought against attorneys for the state and counselors office that worked on this case.
Watkins also said he's going to request permission from the federal court to subpoena the attorney general's office, and put people under oath to try and find out exactly how and why the DNA evidence was never handed over.
This all happened under the previous attorney general Chris Koster. We reached out to him. We did not hear back.
In 2016, Stockley was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Stockley opted for a bench trial, which was overseen by veteran Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson and lasted from Aug. 1 through Aug. 9, 2017. On Sept. 15, 2017, Judge Wilson announced his decision, finding Stockley not guilty on both counts.
Statement from Attorney General Josh Hawley:
“The independent investigator hired by the Attorney General’s Office has concluded there was a clear discovery violation on behalf of the City of St. Louis in the civil lawsuit with the family of Anthony Lamar Smith. Attorney-client privilege and duties of client confidentiality prevent us from releasing the full report without signed waivers from the Board of Police Commissioners and Jason Stockley. We have requested such waivers from the Board of Police Commissioners and Officer Stockley to allow public access to the full report, but as of today, we have not received such waivers.
With this in mind, we are releasing today an edited version of the detailed report that Mr. Goldsmith prepared for the Attorney General’s Office. To avoid any breach of privilege or confidentiality, this report includes only information obtained from publicly available sources and from counsel for the Smith family. This report recounts Mr. Goldsmith’s conclusion that both the Koster Administration and the Board were aware of DNA evidence in the case, but this evidence was not timely disclosed in discovery.”
On Sept. 18, the attorney for the family of Smith sent a letter to the Attorney General’s Office alleging withholding of evidence by the City of St. Louis and state officials.
Read the full document here: