How Darren Wilson Managed to Hide

He has yet to return to the home he abandoned 10 days after the shooting
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 27, 2014 4:30 PM CST
How Darren Wilson Managed to Hide
This undated photo released by the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's office on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, shows Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.   (AP Photo/St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office)

How did Darren Wilson manage to escape the public eye these last three-and-a-half months? With very intentional effort, his four lawyers tell the Washington Post and CNN. They recount the August day when Wilson, while mowing his lawn, learned that his address had leaked online. He had killed Michael Brown 10 days before. And so Wilson abandoned the lawn mid-mow; he hasn't been back to his home since. He first went to the home of a relative (one with a different last name), then stayed with one of his lawyers, Greg Kloeppel, for a week. He ultimately landed in what his lawyers term a "quote-unquote permanent location"; they won't say more than that. They also decided early on that Wilson shouldn't say anything at all.

As one of his lawyers, James Towey, puts it, George Zimmerman was "an idiot, Darren was not. Any criminal defense lawyer that has half a brain says, 'Shut up, don’t say a word.'" Wilson didn't go out in public very often, but when he did he employed what one lawyer describes as "certain [disguise] tricks" that he was aware of as a cop in order to be "unnoticeable." One repeat destination: movie theaters, which provided a comforting darkness. As for whether he'll return to his career as a cop, Towey says no way. "I think I expressed to him, 'Do you realize your first call [back on the job] will be to a blind alley where you’re executed?' He took a pause for a minute, thought about it and said, 'Oh.' That is the reality." (The Post also looked at Wilson's actions in the aftermath of the shooting, which one former police chief described as "very, very bad.")

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