Black Cop Beaten By White Cops Awarded More Than $23 Million In Damages
from the police-on-police-violence dept
Cops will apparently beat their own, especially if they’re bigoted cops and willing to beat the next black person they see. St. Louis police officer was working undercover during protests following the acquittal of Officer Jason Stockley, who had been charged with murder for the killing of a black St. Louis resident, Anthony Lamar Smith.
Officer Hall was just doing his police work when he happened upon five members of the PD’s “Civil Disobedience Team.” Civil disobedience was apparently their directive, not their purview. Four of the officers threw Hall to the ground and beat him severely. All four officers were ultimately indicted and put on trial for the beating of their fellow officer.
One of those officers, Dustin Boone, made an appearance here at Techdirt back in 2021. During his criminal trial, his lawyer objected to the prosecution’s introduction of his racist text messages as evidence of his intent to do harm to Officer Hall… or at least anyone else who looked like him. They’re quite the read.
It’s already a state of emergency! There are r niggers running wild all across the city and even if/when we catch them….. they don’t get in any trouble because there are plate lips running the CAO!
That was sent to a group text that included several other St. Louis police officers. This one was sent to a group text including the names “Kayla, Kelsea, Mom, Ashley Marie, Dad:”
What city r we in?
These fuckin niggers r the same as St. Louis niggers.
The good news is most of the cops involved ended up serving time for this beating.
Boone was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after being convicted by a jury of a single civil rights charge. [Christopher] Myers was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to a single felony charge, and [Bailey] Colletta got probation for lying to the FBI and a grand jury about the attack. [Steven] Korte was acquitted of the charges against him.
The former officer being hit with a $23 million settlement is Randy Hays, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years and four months in prison. Hall’s lawsuit was served to Hays while he was still incarcerated, but Hays failed to respond to it.
So, the judgment here is a default judgment. And while Hays may have had plenty of time to respond to it, thanks to having nowhere else to go until his time was served, he probably didn’t have a lot of available cash to hire a lawyer to fight the lawsuit. Plus, he had already pleaded guilty and admitted to taking part in the beating, so there weren’t a whole lot of options available to defend himself with.
Hays will have a year to challenge this default judgment. He probably won’t. While it may look like justice, it’s incredibly unlikely Hays has anywhere near $23 million in assets. And with an actual federal felony on his record, his employment options will be limited. (I mean, at least outside of law enforcement.)
Hall still has a pending lawsuit against Meyers and Boone. And he’s already secured a settlement from the city for $5 million, so at least he’s getting something out of this beyond two titanium plates in his neck, the removal of his gall bladder, a fused vertebrae, and a deep distrust of law enforcement. That’s how his 22-year career as a cop ended: as the victim of a beating delivered by some members of the “Thin Blue Line” who suddenly decided a black man they didn’t immediately recognize must be on the wrong side of the line.
Filed Under: civil suit, police, police brutality, st. louis
Comments on “Black Cop Beaten By White Cops Awarded More Than $23 Million In Damages”
inb4 the racist trolls are gonna show up
There is an alternative, regarding Hays. Sometimes the mail to prisoners is not delivered, or not delivered in a timely fashion. Can’t say that’s what happened here, but it has happened on occasion in the past.
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Law mail is always delivered. most of the time, especially in something like this, it wouldn’t even be mail. the process server dropped the paperwork off at the front desk of the jail and it was handed to him. I can almost guarantee the judgement was too.
Re: Re: augh, no edit button
the thing is, if this is document created in the same state or city, they know where he is, they would have just been sent over. Only his own lawyer or out of state stuff would get mailed to an inmate.
Re: Re: always delivered. most of the time
If something happens most of the time then it doesn’t always happen. We say “all of the time” if it always happens.
How to plausibly deny your own racism if you’re white 101: Don’t use the N-word.
Apparently Dustin Boone got an F in that course…
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Some can’t help saying the quiet part out loud when they are seriously committed, or when they think their wingnut white ethnostate will be tunning up any day now.
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Or when they believe that they are surrounded by like-minded individuals who won’t have a problem with that sort of speech, and given the penalties they faced(or more specifically the lack thereof) they weren’t wrong in that assumption.
Only 5 million from the Department? Seems kinda low.
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From the city.
Guaranteed that nothing happened to the departmental budget outside of the annual increase.
Really the Brotherhood of hoods should be held fiscally responsible for the actions of their members.
Now if this happened to a bedsheets fetish officer by non white non officers there would have been life in prison if not unlifeing while being restrained.
That sound you hear is the hamster wheel filling in as davec’s brain squeaks, coming unhinged, and grinding to a halt from the cognitive dissonance.
The news isn’t that good. Boone (the racist text guy) was sentenced to a year and a day. That’s 9 years less than prosecutors were asking for and 14 months less than Boone’s own lawyers were asking for.
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Apparently, the judge knows to keep certain thoughts from being spoken…
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Just more anti-police h@te speech from this depr@ved blogger who craves an@rchy and rejects l@w & order.
But of course no mention of the four brave & heroic law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty yesterday and the four who were wounded. Surprise (not).
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just more useless trolls like you who just exist to be annoying
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The more people respond to tales of police brutality, corruption and/or bigotry with claims that such reporting/comments are anti-police the more enshrined the idea that brutality, corruption and/or bigotry are core pillars of the profession becomes in the minds of the public, so well done in giving law enforcement a bigger backhand to the face than articles like this ever could.
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I realize that advanced concepts like “pertinent to the story at hand” are far, FAR beyond your severely limited intelligence, but trust me: the rest of us are capable of recognizing that all you want to do is suck rancid copcock down your greedy submissive throat and you really don’t need to keep convincing us.
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The only thing pertinent about this story is that it satisfies the author’s lusty anti-police bias.
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Why do you believe…
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I believe that if this author is going to cover law enforcement, he shouldn’t limit his coverage to cherry-picked examples of incidents where law enforcement may not have met the best standards of performance we expect from our paramilitary civil servants.
Although I’ve personally attacked you in profoundly offensive and abusive terms, I’d hope that even someone with your affliction, Stone, could admit that the author only covers police in a negative light and never reports on their heroism or extraordinary sacrifices.
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Perhaps we shall get you a cute little doll for you to hold on to when the world intrudes into your delusions.
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There’s nothing delusional about noting that this author has never written positively about the heroism and extraordinary sacrifices made by our noble police.
Re: Re: Re:3
I don’t expect a white guy to write positively about a black guy.
I don’t expect a homophobe to write positively about a drag queen.
I don’t expect a man to write an honest and personal review about what it’s like to use the ladies’ room.
It’s nobody else’s business to write content specifically to cater to your tastes. You’re more than welcome to find that content elsewhere.
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You clearly know only a minority of white guys.
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Pretty sure it was your depraved boys who embraced anarchy and rejected law and order. That’s why they’re now convicted criminals.
Perhaps if assault rifles weren’t so easy to get hold of it would’ve turned out much better for them. Is that the sort of mention you wanted?
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Hello officer. Nothing better to do with your time?
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Boone’s got to get some shots in before he goes off to serve his slap on the wrist.
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But of course no mention of the four brave & heroic law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty yesterday and the four who were wounded.
If you want to bring them up, fine.
But as a counterpoint to your shitpost, let’s not forget the 2nd Amendment right of the shooter that shot/wounded the cops. We can’t forget the sanctity of the 2nd Amendment just because some cop might get killed.
Equal coverage across the board, fuckstick. Just like you want…
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As a convicted felon with a long, violent criminal history, the now-dead cop killer had no 2nd Amendment right to possess the firearm he used to kill those brave and noble law enforcement officers.
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As a convicted felon with a long, violent criminal history, the now-dead cop killer had no 2nd Amendment right to possess the firearm he used to kill those brave and noble law enforcement officers.
What difference does that make? Shouldn’t we hear the shooter’s side of the story, so that both sides get equal time?
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Let us know when you manage to interview someone beyond the grave.
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Sup Jhon Smith.
How’s Daddy Bezos treating your latest data harvesting scam?
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This would work better if he hadn’t also written about cops being shot by right wing anarchists, and how instead of blaming the right wing extremists people blamed antifa.
'They hospitalized a cop, but he's a black guy and they're white so...'
The injuries:
And he’s already secured a settlement from the city for $5 million, so at least he’s getting something out of this beyond two titanium plates in his neck, the removal of his gall bladder, a fused vertebrae, and a deep distrust of law enforcement.
The verdict:
Boone was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after being convicted by a jury of a single civil rights charge. [Christopher] Myers was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to a single felony charge, and [Bailey] Colletta got probation for lying to the FBI and a grand jury about the attack. [Steven] Korte was acquitted of the charges against him.
Now imagine what sort of charges would have been on the table if anyone but a quartet of bigots with badges had done that sort of damage to a police officer, and for extra points imagine if the officer in question had been white.
Yeah, I’m thinking that the cops who had their wrists slapped were very much not the only bigots in the courtroom during that trial.
In a nation where they will destroy an entire home pursing what they believe to be pot & try to throw the targets in jail for 200 years, it is so nice to see that same system can ignore the racists trying to murder people for the crime of being a different color & give them a tiny slap on the ass.
The ONLY safe way to use a racial slur is if you happen to be of the group being insulted by it, and even then it makes you look like an ignorant asshat. That said, if we keep putting taboos on our language, we may eventually run out of words that are “safe” to use. Ultimately, the words of another are only offensive if we take offense at them.
Just one honkie’s opinion.
And if the cop who was beat up had been an ordinary citizen, would the taxpayer have been made to pay him any compensation at all?
I haven’t heard this story before. You don’t speak for me.