Following the announcement earlier this week that the cases against Selma Police Department (SPD) officers Toriano Neely, Jeffrey Hardy and Kendall Thomas were being dropped due to a shoddy grand jury process, SPD Chief Spencer Collier spoke out, taking aim at allegations made by the officers’ attorney, Julian McPhillips.

“Julian McPhillips’ claims are asinine,” Collier said, taking exception with a claim made by McPhillips Thursday that Collier made face future legal action as a result of the officers’ dismissal. “The Chief of Police does not have the authority to impanel a grand jury, Anyone with a basic understanding of the criminal justice system knows that.”

Collier noted that the SPD was not involved with the investigation, aside from cooperating with requests and subpoenas from the Alabama Attorney General’s office.

Similarly, Collier took exception with McPhillips’ assertion that Selma Mayor Darrio Melton may be implicated in possible wrongdoing in relation to the officers’ indictment.

“Mayor Melton was never aware of a grand jury investigation pursuant to Alabama Grand Jury Secrecy Laws,” Collier said. “It is my understanding that the case was dismissed on a technicality and not the merits of the investigation.”

According to Collier, McPhillips’ assertion that the indictments were related to the officers “creating fraudulent documents” is “absolutely incorrect,” though the assertion McPhillips made during Thursday’s press conference is that the officers came under fire for giving incorrect information and allegedly attempting to convince other SPD officers to not cooperate with an ongoing investigation.

“A basic timeline of the Dallas County Grand Jury which, I remind you, actually charged the three officers, and the investigation of the officers involvement in creating a fraudulent document, played absolutely no role in the Selma Police Department’s assistance in the Grand Jury investigation,” Collier said. “McPhillips has the multiple investigations against the officers confused. The investigation into the fraudulent documents occurred nearly a year after the start of the Dallas County Grand Jury and it was investigated by an outside law enforcement agency other than the Attorney General’s office.”