CLAYTON, Mo. — A judge approved a request by prosecutors Monday to let a grand jury review a 2013 drug case in which an arresting officer was the suburban St. Louis police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown last month.
An attorney for Christopher Brooks alleges Ferguson officer Darren Wilson ‘‘roughed up’’ his client after he refused to hand over keys to a locked car parked in his grandmother’s driveway, where police say they found drug paraphernalia and several ounces of pot.
‘‘Wilson is compromised as a witness,’’ said defense attorney Nick Zotos, who opposed the request by Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch’s office to shift the drug case to a panel that meets behind closed doors.
It wasn’t clear whether Brooks made the allegation against Wilson before or after Brown was killed, and the prosecutor’s office provided no immediate comment.
A police union attorney who has spent decades representing members of law enforcement said he is representing Wilson, who is under a grand jury investigation over whether he used excessive force in the August shooting death of Brown.
James P. Towey, general counsel for the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police and a former general counsel for the St. Louis Police Officers Association, said Wilson may publicly discuss the case in the future.
He declined to provide details of the whereabouts of Wilson, who has gone into hiding since Brown’s death.
Wilson, 28, received a Ferguson City Council commendation for his role in Brooks’s arrest in February 2013. Zotos questioned whether the honor was merited. ‘‘We give trophies every day for just showing up,’’ he said after a hearing in St. Louis Circuit Court. ‘‘If you play on the team, you get a trophy.’’
Zotos wants the marijuana distribution charge against Brooks dismissed because he does not expect Wilson, who did not attend the preliminary hearing, to show up in court.
The same grand jury is reviewing evidence in the Aug. 9 death of Michael Brown to determine whether Wilson should face charges. The shooting led to violent protests, hundreds of arrests, the summoning of the Missouri National Guard, and international attention.
McCulloch has said he expects the grand jury to complete its work on the Brown shooting by early November, though its term has been extended until January.
The assistant prosecutor, who did not identify himself in court, did not indicate during Brooks’s hearing why the county wants to shift the case to the grand jury.
In an apparently unrelated case in Ferguson, police are searching for the person who shot another city officer Saturday about 9:10 p.m. while the officer checked a possible burglary, the St. Louis County Police Department said. He had left his vehicle to question a man. As he approached, the man began running and the officer pursued, the police said.
The man turned and fired a handgun at the officer, who was struck once in his left arm. The man fled into woods. Officials did not identify the officer.
The shooting occurred in a neighborhood off West Florissant Avenue, about 2 miles from where Brown was shot and killed.
Although Saturday’s shooting of the officer did not appear related to Brown’s death or the protests that have followed, it led to another tense night Sunday as protesters waited for information about the incident and helicopters circled.