FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2014 file photo, the parents of Michael Brown, Lesley McSpadden, left, and Michael Brown, Sr., right, sit for an interview with The Associated Press in Washington. Attorneys representing Ferguson, Mo., its former police chief and an ex-officer in a wrongful-death lawsuit by Brown's parents are pressing the latest quest for access to any of the late 18-year-old's juvenile records. Anthony Gray, a Brown family attorney, has said any brush by Brown with the juvenile court system is irrelevant to whether Brown's 2014 death resulted from excessive police force.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) (The Associated Press)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The city of Ferguson, Missouri, and other defendants in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the parents of Michael Brown are seeking access to any sealed juvenile records pertaining to the black teen whose 2014 fatal shooting by a white police officer set off large protests.
An attorney for Ferguson, the former police chief and ex-officer Darren Wilson filed the motion this month in St. Louis family court, saying they have a "legitimate interest" in reviewing documents about Brown's juvenile past.
A family court judge rejected a similar request that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and a California blogger made weeks after Brown's death.
A Brown family attorney calls the latest effort a "smear tactic."
Brown was unarmed when Wilson shot and killed him. A grand jury cleared Wilson, who resigned.
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