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Hawley announces results of independent investigation into Stockley case, finding one instance of wrongdoing by AG’s Office

Jefferson City, Mo.  – The results are in, and the investigation into alleged wrongdoings by the Attorney General’s Office under former Attorney General Chris Koster in the 2012 civil lawsuit regarding the death of Anthony Lamar Smith have been confirmed to some extent.

In a statement issued by Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley on Tuesday, the attorney general addressed the findings of the independent investigation, led by Hal Goldsmith, an attorney with Bryan Cave, LLC, who was appointed by Hawley to serve as the independent, outside counsel in the matter.

“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,” Hawley’s statement reads. “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.”

The report says that there does not seem to be any evidence supporting the claim that either the Attorney General’s Office or the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department had possession or even knowledge of the civilian-recorded video of the Dec. 20, 2011 events prior to the publishing of the video by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2016, and as such, could not have withheld that evidence.

But in the matter of laboratory evidence, the report says that “it does appear that the AGO was aware of and failed to turn over that information to the Plaintiff prior to the June 20, 2013 Mediation and settlement.”

You can read the full report below:

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