Charges Allege Lies About Collision, Speed In Police Shooting Probe
By: Ken Curtis
Updated: November 28, 2012
Indictments show two women lied to a grand jury hearing evidence into a police officer involved shooting. Minnie Vickers Pearce, 55, and Nancy Young, 58, were arrested on Perjury First Degree charges. Pearce is also accused of Disclosure of Testimony by a Witness.
The two women testified to the grand jury which is looking into the death of 22-year old Christopher Thomas. He was shot in June by a Dothan police officer following a pursuit which ended in a shopping center parking lot. After Thomas was shot, the SUV he was driving crossed Montgomery Highway, ramming into a sign business injuring one person inside.
The indictment states that Young and Pearce lied when they told members of the panel Thomas' car was rammed by the cruiser they claim had no emergency lights flashing. The indictment also shows the women claimed the vehicles involved were traveling at a low rate of speed.
The other charge alleges Pearce disclosed information, names, or both from grand jury testimony. The charge, rarely used, is a misdemeanor while the Perjury charges are felonies under Alabama law.
"This is ridiculous," said Pastor Kenneth Glasgow who has acted as an adviser and spokesperson for the Thomas' family. "These women went before the grand jury and told the truth and this is what happens."
Katherine Thomas, Christopher's mother, has maintained since the shooting that police killed her son needlessly.
A third person, Shirley Threats, was also arrested last week in regard to an unrelated charge. She claims it involves a case "many" years old and that she was taken into custody only for the purpose of forcing her appearance before the grand jury. Threats said she notarized statements from witnesses to the Thomas shooting that did not personally appear before the panel.
