LAWYERS CRITICIZE MCCULLOCH FOR CALLING SLAIN MEN "BUMS"

At his press conference in Clayton last week, Prosecuting Attorney Robert
P. McCulloch described the two men whom police fatally shot on a fast-food
parking lot as "bums" who destroyed lives in the community by drug dealing.

Elected by St. Louis County voters when the first George Bush was in the
White House, McCulloch has developed a persona over the past 11 years as a
tough-talking, hard-line prosecutor.

But even some of those who have come to expect law-and-order rhetoric from
McCulloch were taken aback by his remarks about the deaths of Earl Murray
and Ronald Beasley during an attempted drug arrest outside a Jack in the
Box restaurant in June of last year.

Beasley was a passenger in a car driven by Murray, a drug suspect. Instead
of surrendering, Murray backed his car into a U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration vehicle. With the engine of Murray's car whining and tires
spinning, DEA agent Keith Kierzkowski and Dellwood police Detective Robert
Piekutowski fired 21 shots into the car -- killing Murray and Beasley. The
officers said later that they feared for their lives.

From the beginning, police said the shooting of the two black men was
justifiable; so, too, did McCulloch, who presented the case to a county
grand jury. The 12 jurors saw security video and heard testimony from 40
witnesses before voting last year not to charge the officers.

After a yearlong investigation, federal authorities concluded there was not
enough evidence to charge the officers with violating the civil rights of
the dead men. But U.S. Attorney Ray Gruender did say he found some aspects
of the case "troubling."

Although the Justice Department investigation found that Murray's car was
never moving forward toward the officers, federal authorities said they
could not "prove beyond a reasonable doubt, as we must in order to
prosecute, that the officers were not in fear that Mr. Murray's car was
about to hit them when they fired."

At his own press conference Wednesday, McCulloch defended the drug team's
actions and criticized Murray and Beasley. "These guys were bums," he said.

In an interview Friday, McCulloch stood by his remarks about the dead men
and then expanded on them.

"The print media and self-anointed activists have been portraying the two
gentlemen as folk heroes and have been vilifying the police," he said. "I
think it is important for the public to know that these two and others like
them for years have spread destruction in the community dealing crack
cocaine and heroin. The entire tragedy could have been avoided if Murray
had surrendered."

Murray was in the process of making a cocaine sale and had two prior drug
convictions. Beasley had heroin in his system. "It's no great leap that
they were dealing cocaine and heroin," McCulloch said.

Shawn Goulet, who runs the public defender's office in the county, said
McCulloch's comments were out of line.

"What I found generally objectionable was the reference to bums. That
statement was over the top," Goulet said. "A grand jury had returned a
decision not to indict, and that should have stood on its own."

McCulloch is the son, brother, nephew and cousin of St. Louis police
officers, and his mother worked for 20 years as a clerk in the city's
homicide division.

McCulloch's father, Paul, was a police officer in the city. The son was 12
when the father answered a call from an officer requesting help at a
housing complex. Bullets started flying, and the father died in a shootout.
One shooter was wounded, and the other was convicted of murder.

McCulloch also wanted to be a cop. But he lost his right leg to cancer when
he was a senior in high school. Years later, he says, he became the next
best thing: county prosecutor.

Like McCulloch, defense attorney Pat Conroy comes from a family with a long
history in law enforcement, and he says of the police shooting: "I'm sure
it was an honest-to-God mistake, and they were doing their duty as they saw it.

"I don't think demeaning the dead serves any purpose," said Conroy,
alluding to McCulloch's comments. "There was no need to throw fuel on the
fire."

Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Bob Wilkins defended McCulloch.

"I don't think he should be criticized for having that attitude," Wilkins
said. McCulloch "is a true professional and a career prosecutor, and he
speaks from the heart."

Wilkins said he could have made a similar comment if he had been in
McCulloch's position.

"These are two guys who are sitting in the middle of a drug transaction in
the middle of a fast-food restaurant parking lot with two police officers,"
Wilkins said. "Even the passenger, who may not have been involved in the
transaction, must have known what was going on."

The comments by the prosecutor were "typical Bob McCulloch," said St. Louis
lawyer Nick Zotos.

Zotos said the prosecutor's remarks were offensive to African-Americans.
"He is indifferent to the black community."

Dan Diemer was a prosecutor for nine years before he and McCulloch parted
ways and Diemer considered running against his former boss two years ago.

Diemer, now a defense lawyer, is skeptical of McCulloch's claims of
impartiality. Diemer said McCulloch tipped his hand when he called Murray
and Beasley "bums."

"He didn't want to indict the cops," Diemer said. "He wanted to clear the
cops. You can present a case to win or present a case to lose before the
grand jury."

McCulloch has said repeatedly that his office presented all the evidence
investigators had gathered to the grand jurors and it was their decision to
decide if probable cause existed to indict the officers.

"There is absolutely no question a thorough and complete investigation was
conducted at this level, and I presume at the federal level," he said.