Websites raising money for Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson temporarily stopped accepting donations Sunday while the sites' administrators await clarification on whether the money can be used to cover the officer's legal expenses, according to organizers.
The administrator of the first page, dubbed "Support Officer Darren Wilson," is a teenager who raised more than $200,000 to help cover legal and medical bills as well as the cost of safely relocating Wilson and his family, according to a press release issued today by The Shield of Hope, a nonprofit arm of the Fraternal Order of Police.
However, shortly after the woman launched the page via the fundraising website GoFundMe, she began receiving threats in response to her actions. Her family then reached out to the Fraternal Order of Police to take over fundraising efforts, said Jeff Roorda, a board member for the nonprofit.
Roorda said GoFundMe does not allow the administration of one of their webpages to be transferred from one party to another, so Shield of Hope launched its own GoFundMe site and the woman who initiated the first webpage agreed to transfer the money to their new page.
But all of that came to a halt when questions as to whether charitable donations can be used to cover legal expenses arose, so the pages both stopped accepting donations as organizers await answers from the Missouri Attorney General's Office and the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police, Roorda said.
"There is nothing sinister going on," he said. "We just may have to make it a legal fund rather than a charitable fund, but it all depends on what the tax folks have to say."
The Shield of Hope page also has raised about $200,000, Roorda said.
Roorda said he could not speak for the woman who launched the first website as to why she felt compelled to create the site. Roorda said she coincidentally shares Wilson's last name but is not related to him. She has not returned a phone call seeking comment.
Roorda said the Shield of Hope agreed to get involved because legal representation is a benefit of membership and, "A case like this could bankrupt the FOP."
"Whether we think he's guilty or innocent and people try to make decisions before the evidence is out there, he deserves legal defense just like any other criminal or civil defendant," Roorda said.
Shield of Hope is a nonprofit that the Fraternal Order of Police launched in 2012 to support officers from about 100 suburban St. Louis police departments. The Ferguson Police Department is among those member agencies.
The Shield of Hope issued the following statement: "We have a duty to any of our members to make sure that they have the best possible legal defense when they are accused of wrong-doing. The events in Ferguson are unprecedented events and not what the Shield of Hope was established for. Up until the events in Ferguson, funds raised went to pay for scholarships and to pay expenses for families of injured or fallen police officers."
Roorda is also a state representative from Barnhardt. A Democrat, he's running for the vacant 22nd District Senate seat in November. He faces Rep. Paul Wieland, R-Imperial, for the seat.
?Christine Byers is a crime reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow her on Twitter.
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