PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In 2019, Nickerson adamantly denied in a The St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview that he falsified evidence or documents and maintained his belief that Lamar is guilty. On Tuesday, several leaders asserted there is concrete evidence of his alleged wrongdoing in the case (mainly evidence fabrication) and called for Barton to terminate him and for St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to investigate the alleged wrongdoing........Gray was joined Tuesday by members of the Missouri Faith Leadership Council, the Missionary Baptist State Convention of Missouri and the Social Justice Commission of the Progressive Missionary State Baptist Convention. “It was then-Detective Nickerson who fabricated a case against [Johnson] and was responsible for his incarceration,” said Rev. Linden Bowie. “It blows our minds that such a person can still be employed by St. Louis County police. I just wanted to be here to inform that community that this is no knee-jerk reaction, we have been seeking some actions surrounding this for quite a while.”
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GIST: "The Ethical Society of Police (ESOP) is demanding that St. Louis County Police Chief Mary Barton terminate civilian employee Joseph Nickerson for his role in the Lamar Johnson case.
Nickerson works in the county police recruitment department doing background investigations, but he was the principal St. Louis city homicide detective in Johnson’s case in 1994. In his current role, activists say he’s been given the power to impact the employment of others based on his testament to their suitability to be police officers — something they don’t believe he is fit to do given his prior behavior.
“If Sgt. Nickerson were a Black officer who was guilty of doing the very same thing we know he did, there is no doubt in our minds that he would be terminated and probably charged right now.' - Rev. Darryl Gray
Johnson, 47, has been incarcerated since 1995, serving a life sentence without parole for first degree murder for killing Marcus Boyd in 1994 in St. Louis. Since then, two witness recantations led St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to file a motion for a new trial for Johnson in 2019, who has now spent 26 years in jail.
In March, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that state law does not give prosecutors authority to seek a new trial so many years after the case was adjudicated.
Johnson, who is Black, remains in prison.
In 2019, Nickerson adamantly denied in a The St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview that he falsified evidence or documents and maintained his belief that Lamar is guilty.
On Tuesday, several leaders asserted there is concrete evidence of his alleged wrongdoing in the case (mainly evidence fabrication) and called for Barton to terminate him and for St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to investigate the alleged wrongdoing.
“If Sgt. Nickerson were a Black officer who was guilty of doing the very same thing that we know he did, there is no doubt in our minds that he would be terminated and probably charged right now,” Rev. Darryl Gray said.
Gray was joined Tuesday by members of the Missouri Faith Leadership Council, the Missionary Baptist State Convention of Missouri and the Social Justice Commission of the Progressive Missionary State Baptist Convention.
“It was then-Detective Nickerson who fabricated a case against [Johnson] and was responsible for his incarceration,” said Rev. Linden Bowie. “It blows our minds that such a person can still be employed by St. Louis County police. I just wanted to be here to inform that community that this is no knee-jerk reaction, we have been seeking some actions surrounding this for quite a while.”
Bowie, who is president of the Missouri Faith Leadership Council and the Missionary Baptist State Convention of Missouri, said the group of activists have talked to Gov. Mike Parson, Barton, Bell and St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, among other leaders.
They’re worried there might be other people wrongly incarcerated in cases Nickerson investigated.
“And so, we are simply asking that those who are empowered — from our county executive, our governor, our state's attorney, the police chief — would do their jobs so that this community can know that we do have a fair and equitable policing system,” Bowie said, noting later that he believed Barton “passed the ball off” in their conversations.
Both Barton and Bell declined interview requests, instead issuing written statements through their respective media representatives.
"These are serious allegations, and we will review them carefully,” Bell wrote. “We encourage anyone who is aware of illegal conduct by this detective to contact our independent Conviction and Incident Review Unit."
“The assignment of department employees, whether full-time or intermittent, is a personnel matter,” Barton wrote. “Employees will continue to serve in their roles until/unless they are transferred to meet the needs of the department or facts emerge that would inhibit their ability to serve in such a capacity. If faced with the latter, the department would appropriately address the matter without delay.”
Bowie said their goal is to first resolve these issues behind closed doors, which they did through multiple meetings with state and local leaders, but felt it was time to bring the issue to the public.
“It appears to be a political amnesia that they all of a sudden have no memory of the facts, we’re calling out now from the community to reign in on getting Joseph Nickerson — who is an intermittent part-time employee who can be removed today if the powers at be would put the action in,” said Philip Duvall, chairman of the Social Justice Commission of the Progressive Missionary State Baptist Convention.
Duvall said the group’s next action is to file a more formal complaint with a review agency and contact the FBI’s civil rights department to see if there are any constitutional considerations in why Nickerson should remain employed.
William E. Dailey Jr., ESOP’s general counsel, said in addition to terminating Nickerson, they want to see Parson pardon Johnson — particularly because Johnson’s innocence is not in question.
“We want consistency in terms of how we address these situations and so now the question becomes — and everyone can watch and ask the same question, as well — about those who are in power to correct it so that the system can heal itself— are they doing what we all think ought to be done? And if not, then the final piece of the system, the most powerful piece of the system, is the people.”
Gardner and Page did not immediately respond to a request for comment."
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