A federal grand jury in St. Louis indicted four St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers on November 29 for their conduct in the arrest and assault of Luther Hall, a black St. Louis police officer who was working undercover at a September 17, 2017 protest, when city police beat, maced and arrested more than 100 people while chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets!”
The protest occurred two days after former St. Louis Police Officer Jason Stockley was acquitted of a first-degree murder charge relating to the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith.
The indictment charges officers Dustin Boone, 35, Bailey Colletta, 25, Randy Hays, 31, and Christopher Myers, 27, with various felonies, including deprivation of constitutional rights, conspiracy to obstruct justice, destruction of evidence, and obstruction of justice.
The four officers have been placed on administrative leave without pay.
“Law enforcement officers have an important duty to protect the members of the communities they serve and to enforce the law,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband in a statement. “The Justice Department will continue to investigate and prosecute matters involving allegations of federal criminal civil rights violations.”
According to the indictment, the police department activated its protest-response unit, the Civil Disobedience Team, detailing more than 200 officers after Stockley was acquitted. These officers are “tasked with controlling the crowd as needed and arresting those individuals for whom there was probable cause to believe that they had committed crimes.” Boone, Colletta, Hays, and Myers were all assigned to the team during the September 17 protest, which has become known as the night of the mass “kettling” arrests, when police encircled a crowd of protestors and bystanders and attempted to arrest everyone in the group.
Luther Hall, a 22-year veteran city officer, was working the protest in an undercover capacity in order to record and document criminal activity “so that other city officers could lawfully arrest individuals who were committing crimes,” the indictment states.
Boone, Hays, and Myers are charged with willfully violating Hall’s constitutional rights when they used “unreasonable force” on Hall, actions that resulted in bodily injury and included the use of a dangerous weapon – shod feet and a riot baton. The indictment specifically alleges that Boone, Hays and Myers threw Hall to the ground and “then kicked and struck him while he was compliant and not posing a physical threat to anyone.”
Boone, Hays and Myers are also charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice for allegedly “conspiring and agreeing to engage in misleading conduct toward witnesses to prevent information about their criminal conduct from reaching federal authorities,” the indictment states.
Myers is charged with destruction of evidence for allegedly “knowingly destroying and mutilating” Hall’s cell phone “with the intent to impede, obstruct, and influence the investigation into the arrest and assault” of Hall, the indictment states.
Colletta is charged with allegedly “corruptly attempting to obstruct, influence, and impede federal grand jury proceedings by engaging in a series of misleading assertions and false statements when she testified before the grand jury,” the indictment states.
The charge of violating Hall’s constitutional rights carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The other three charges each carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison. All four counts carry a maximum fine of $250,000.
An indictment is merely an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
The case is being investigated by the St. Louis Division of the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Reginald Harris of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Special Litigation Counsel Fara Gold, and Trial Attorney Emily Savner of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Criminal Section.
The indictment lists more than a dozen messages sent between Boone, Myers and Hays where they boast about beating protestors on that night and at other protests.
“It’s going to be fun beating the hell out of these ‘expletive’ once the sun goes down and nobody can tell us apart!!” wrote Boone, who also wrote a majority of the messages.
U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen stated that the police department’s leaders recognized the importance of the investigation.
“These are serious charges and the vigorous enforcement of civil rights is essential to maintaining public trust in law enforcement,” Jensen said.
In a statement, St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden said that the department solicited the assistance of the FBI after allegations surfaced that an undercover officer was assaulted by other officers during the protest.
“I am deeply disappointed in the alleged actions of these individual officers,” Hayden said. “However, it is in no way reflective of the hard work and dedication exhibited by the men and women of our department who serve the community on a daily basis with integrity and honor.”
Hayden said city officers must be held to the highest standard of professionalism.
“I expect them to abide by the very same laws they are sworn to uphold, as they have an ethical obligation to the citizens of this community,” Hayden said. “I want to ensure the community that this department will continue to be open, honest, and transparent in our commitment to make the City of St. Louis a safer place for all to live, work, and visit.”
ACLU: ‘an important step’
Following the protest, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Missouri filed a lawsuit against the City of St. Louis, arguing that the police department’s treatment of protestors was not justified. The suit aims to mandate permanent changes in police policy regarding civil rights.
“Today’s indictment is an important step in addressing the culture that has allowed the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to consistently behave in an unconstitutional manner,” stated Tony Rothert, legal director at ACLU of Missouri.
“While these officers have been indicted for illegally abusing an undercover officer they mistook for a protestor, there has still been no real accountability for the individuals officers who engaged in the same behavior toward protestors. St. Louis officials must address this rampant lawlessness by its police.”
In October 2017, several people testified at a federal hearing about police conduct during the September 17, 2017 protest. Iris and Alex Nelson, a recently married couple, testified that they had left their apartment on Washington Avenue that night to see what was going on after noticing the increased police presence.
Iris said that as she and her husband walked around the neighborhood, they stuck to the sidewalks and crossed the streets legally, but as they tried to return to their building, they found their path blocked and then realized they were closed in on all sides.
Alex, who is a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, said he realized quickly from his training what was happening. The two got down on the ground to avoiding seeming like they were resisting arrest. Iris testified that she did not see anyone defying police orders.
Nevertheless, both were pepper sprayed while on the ground; Alex was sprayed several times while his eyes were open, blinding him for several hours. He said he was then dragged across the ground and zip-tied as tightly as possible. He testified that he was hit in the head with an implement he couldn’t see and that a police officer said, “Do you like that, cocksucker? We’ll see you again tomorrow night.”
Alex said he knows from his military training that his treatment was improper. In his testimony, he said, “It’s reminiscent of counterterrorism tactics.”
The city and police department are facing more than a dozen lawsuits regarding use of force and retaliation, stemming from city police officers’ action while policing Stockley protests. Then-interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole, now an assistant chief, was in charge of the department on September 17, 2017, at which time he boasted that his officers “owned the night.”
