In a damning new report by the Smoking Gun, a crucial witness in the grand jury deciding whether to indict former Ferguson, Mo. police officer Darren Wilson is revealed as having fabricated her eyewitness account of the altercation between Wilson and unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9. "Witness 40," identified as 45-year-old Sandra McElroy, has a documented history of racist remarks, criminal behavior, and mental illness.
McElroy's testimony has been latched on to by Wilson defenders because of how closely her report matched the embattled police officer's. But as the Smoking Gun points out, the timing of McElroy's interviews with authorities is suspicious: Both her statement to St. Louis police on Sept. 11 and another to Justice Department prosecutors on Oct. 22 immediately followed stories detailing Wilson's account of the day:
"I know what I seen," she apparently told skeptical investigators. "I know you don't believe me." Her story of how she wound up in Ferguson that day doesn't sound convincing, either:
When asked what she was doing in Ferguson?which is about 30 miles north of her home?McElroy explained that she was planning to "pop in" on a former high school classmate she had not seen in 26 years. Saddled with an incorrect address and no cell phone, McElroy claimed that she pulled over to smoke a cigarette and seek directions from a black man standing under a tree. In short order, the violent confrontation between Brown and Wilson purportedly played out in front of McElroy.
But when she testified before the grand jury charged with deciding whether to indict Wilson, her story changed:
McElroy, again under oath, explained to grand jurors that she was something of an amateur urban anthropologist. Every couple of weeks, McElroy testified, she likes to "go into all the African-American neighborhoods." During these weekend sojourns?apparently conducted when her ex has the kids?McElroy said she will "go in and have coffee and I will strike up a conversation with an African-American and I will try to talk to them because I'm trying to understand more."
McElroy also brought a highly-touted journal with alleged entries penned in the days surrounding Michael Brown's killing. The entry dated Aug. 9 starts, "Well Im gonna take my random drive to Florisant. Need to understand the Black race better so I stop calling Blacks hahahahahahas and Start calling them People."
Report: Darren Wilson's Key Witness Lied About Everything