Imagine my surprise when a volunteer I've worked with this year tipped me off to what appeared to be a longtime St. Louis resident, Susan Nichols, claiming on Twitter to be talking with a member of the grand jury in the Darren Wilson case:
Not only is it illegal for a member of the grand jury to be sharing details of the case with friends, such a breach could cause an entirely new grand jury to be formed. After someone tweeted the woman that she should delete her tweet for her own security, she did. But not before that screenshot was taken.
With a little digging, I was able to see that she did indeed live in St. Louis and had been tweeting from there for the past three years. But within a few hours, her entire Twitter account was deleted.
After I shared the screenshot we took of her tweet, the
Washington Post soon announced that
an investigation was being launched to determine the validity of the claim:
The St. Louis County prosecutor’s office is investigating an accusation of misconduct on the grand jury that is hearing the case against the Ferguson police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown.
Ed Magee, the spokesman for county prosecutor Robert McCulloch, said they received the information from a “Twitter user” Wednesday morning.
“We are looking into the matter,” he said.
As the do their own internal investigation, I'll continue to look into it as well. If you have any information on this potential leak or any information regarding this case, don't hesitate to let me know.