Posted on Dec 21, 2023
St. Louis police accounts of Bar:PM owner assaulting officers refuted by video, lawyer says
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A south St. Louis bar owner has been released from the St. Louis City Justice Center after a Monday morning incident in which a St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officer crashed a car into the bar.
Bar:PM co-owner Chad Morris was initially charged with third-degree felony assault and resisting arrest, claiming Morris struck an officer after the crash. The charges were later reduced to a misdemeanor.
A police report following the incident said the officer driving the car realized he was driving too close to a parked car when he lost control of the vehicle and then crashed into the popular Carondelet gay bar. Additional officers arrived at the scene and claimed Morris pushed an officer before being arrested.
But video footage from a bystander contradicts the initial charges, Morris’ lawyer Javad Khazaeli said.
Khazaeli shared portions of the video, which shows officers asking Morris’s husband, James Pence, for identification. When Pence questioned why, officers handcuffed him. The video also showed an officer confronting the bystander who questioned why arrests were being made. The officer said, “he’s not going to yell at me” and “he’s causing a disturbance.”
Morris yelled at several officers, and the video shows police following Morris down an alley. When they leave the alley, Morris is dragged out in handcuffs and thrown into the back of a police van, but the shared footage didn’t show Morris striking an officer.
Bar:PM co-owner Chad Morris was initially charged with third-degree felony assault and resisting arrest, claiming Morris struck an officer after the crash. The charges were later reduced to a misdemeanor.
A police report following the incident said the officer driving the car realized he was driving too close to a parked car when he lost control of the vehicle and then crashed into the popular Carondelet gay bar. Additional officers arrived at the scene and claimed Morris pushed an officer before being arrested.
But video footage from a bystander contradicts the initial charges, Morris’ lawyer Javad Khazaeli said.
Khazaeli shared portions of the video, which shows officers asking Morris’s husband, James Pence, for identification. When Pence questioned why, officers handcuffed him. The video also showed an officer confronting the bystander who questioned why arrests were being made. The officer said, “he’s not going to yell at me” and “he’s causing a disturbance.”
Morris yelled at several officers, and the video shows police following Morris down an alley. When they leave the alley, Morris is dragged out in handcuffs and thrown into the back of a police van, but the shared footage didn’t show Morris striking an officer.
St. Louis police accounts of Bar:PM owner assaulting officers refuted by video, lawyer says
Posted from stlpr.org
St. Louis
Police
Law Enforcement
LGBTQ+
Driving
Posted 4 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."But Khazaeli, Morris’s lawyer, claims his client struck no one. Rather, he was beaten by an officer wearing a beanie hat.
Morris was charged with one count of third-degree assault and one count of resisting and interfering with an arrest. On Tuesday, he was released from jail, and the assault charge was downgraded from a felony to a misdemeanor.
Christine Bertelson, a spokesperson for the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office, confirmed to The Washington Post that the assault charge had been downgraded after prosecutors reviewed evidence in the case. But she did not say what that evidence was and declined to comment further.
Khazaeli says his client intends to dispute even the misdemeanor charge and raised the possibility of filing a civil lawsuit against the police department.
“Our goal is to have all of these charges dismissed because there’s no basis for them, and then to decide what kind of claims my clients have against these officers and to hold the officers accountable, because this just can’t stand,” Khazaeli told NBC News. “You can’t have police officers terrorizing people because they’re victims of a crime. And when they asked what happened, to be treated this way.”
Khazaeli later posted to X that the officer who beat Morris decided that the driver of the patrol car was not impaired, and therefore was not forced to take a breathalyzer to determine if he was intoxicated. He also said there was no dash cam footage from the car and that police won’t release the body camera footage.
Khazaeli posted additional video footage to X that he claims shows the police car running a red light just seconds before the collision."
..."But Khazaeli, Morris’s lawyer, claims his client struck no one. Rather, he was beaten by an officer wearing a beanie hat.
Morris was charged with one count of third-degree assault and one count of resisting and interfering with an arrest. On Tuesday, he was released from jail, and the assault charge was downgraded from a felony to a misdemeanor.
Christine Bertelson, a spokesperson for the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office, confirmed to The Washington Post that the assault charge had been downgraded after prosecutors reviewed evidence in the case. But she did not say what that evidence was and declined to comment further.
Khazaeli says his client intends to dispute even the misdemeanor charge and raised the possibility of filing a civil lawsuit against the police department.
“Our goal is to have all of these charges dismissed because there’s no basis for them, and then to decide what kind of claims my clients have against these officers and to hold the officers accountable, because this just can’t stand,” Khazaeli told NBC News. “You can’t have police officers terrorizing people because they’re victims of a crime. And when they asked what happened, to be treated this way.”
Khazaeli later posted to X that the officer who beat Morris decided that the driver of the patrol car was not impaired, and therefore was not forced to take a breathalyzer to determine if he was intoxicated. He also said there was no dash cam footage from the car and that police won’t release the body camera footage.
Khazaeli posted additional video footage to X that he claims shows the police car running a red light just seconds before the collision."
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