Lawyer: Brown’s family may sue Wilson

Daryl Parks, the attorney representing the family of Michael Brown, says they may sue Darren Wilson, the former Ferguson police officer who shot and killed the black teenager in August.

{mosads}Parks suggested on “Fox News Sunday” that Brown’s family would pursue a legal settlement or, failing to reach one, file a lawsuit.

“Obviously they have the option of a civil lawsuit, one, [on] a civil rights basis against Officer Wilson, two, against the police department and the city of Ferguson if that time comes,” he said. “Those are not issues that we discuss publicly but I think we will certainly give the parties a chance to work that out.

“If and when we need to make it a public issue, we will,” he said.

He added Brown’s family, Wilson and the city of Ferguson may reach a settlement or square off in court. Wilson, who resigned from the Ferguson police force Saturday after receiving death threats, also faces possible federal charges from the Department of Justice that he violated Brown’s civil rights.

Wilson’s attorney, Neil Bruntager, said federal prosecutors face a high threshold for proving that Wilson violated Brown’s civil rights.

“You have to show that he intended to violate his civil rights,” he said. “That’s a pretty high bar. That’s going to going to be a difficult for them to [prove].”

Bruntager said Brown’s family would face a “difficult row to hoe” in suing the Ferguson police department but conceded that “every American has a right to seek redress in the courts.”