ST. LOUIS — Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys have laid out two very different profiles of Dustin Boone: a racist cop with racist roots borne out in text messages, or a vulnerable man who fell into a racist police culture.
Those views are drawn from court records filed in recent days ahead of a sentencing hearing Monday before Senior District Judge E. Richard Webber.
Boone is one of five white officers who were federally indicted for their role in the assault of a Black detective who was working undercover as a protester in 2017. He's no longer with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
Federal prosecutors are seeking the maximum 10-year sentence for depriving that detective, Luther Hall, of his civil rights.
A jury convicted Boone in June. It was the second time Boone went to trial. In March, a different jury hung following a two-week trial for him and two other officers accused of the attack.
In a 62-page sentencing memo filed Nov. 15, Boone’s attorneys, Justin Kuehn and Stephen Williams, ask Webber to sentence Boone to 26 months in prison and called a 10-year sentence “disproportionately high.”
“This prosecution against Dustin Boone takes snapshots of his life and paints him as a racist, uncaring thug. He’s none of those things,” according to the memo.
The attorneys call Boone a “doting husband and incredible father” and cite letters from friends, relatives and former colleagues as proof.
Federal prosecutors fired back, dumping the contents of racist text messages shared between Boone and his family members into the court filings for the judge and all to see and insisted Boone be sentenced to 10 years in prison for his actions.
“In his sentencing memorandum, defendant blames everyone else for the assault of Detective Luther Hall,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Costantin wrote. “He takes minimal responsibility for his actions.”
Most of the texts are unsuitable for publication.
‘Sacrificial lamb’
Boone’s attorneys wrote about how their client did not participate in the attack that left Hall with permanent injuries that required several surgeries, but rather held Hall down thinking other officers were making a lawful arrest.
“He put the government to the test and lost,” they wrote in the recent court filings.
But, Boone’s attorneys argue he was convicted as an accomplice.
“This is not a case that warrants a 10-year sentence or anything close to it,” they wrote.
The attorneys also characterized the police department as a place, “where being cavalier about violence, particularly racial violence, was far too prevalent.”
“Mr. Hall fell prey to a police culture of excessive force that permeated his own department,” Boone’s attorneys wrote. “The chaos and potential dangers associated with days of civil unrest acted as an accelerant.”
The attorneys continued: “Several officers who did not partake in the assault, nevertheless stood present and watched. It speaks volumes about how firmly embedded force became in the department’s code that multiple officers would kick, punch and club a man in full view of fellow law enforcement colleagues, a few of whom were supervisors. No one did a thing to intervene and stop the assault.”
At one point in the filing, Boone’s attorneys accuse Hall of exemplifying the department’s culture.
“Even the victim in this case sent a tasteless text to his friend about shooting Black people in the face for a bounty,” they wrote.
They noted Boone “joined an ongoing civil rights deprivation well after it started.”
“The kicking, punching and baton slugging all started without Mr. Boone’s help. It surely would have continued without his help. Mr. Boone played a dispensable role. This is not a ‘You hold him, so I can hit him,’ type of situation.”
The attorneys wrote their client shouldn’t serve as a “sacrificial lamb” and “shoulder the entire burden for every police officer present on the corner of 14th and Olive that fateful night. He should not answer for a misguided departmental ethos that existed long before December 2015, when Mr. Boone joined the force.”
The attorneys also gave a nod to the longstanding issue of police brutality.
“There is a societal call for justice and this case will deliver some,” they wrote. “There is no justice in a 10-year sentence for Dustin Boone, however. Not based on the facts of this case. Not based on Dustin Boone’s comparative role. The attack on Luther Hall should not have happened and Mr. Boone is not blameless. However, many officers share responsibility for what occurred. Most of those who are culpable will escape jail altogether, while a few will have their wrists slapped. Just because so many other culpable police officers involved in this event will go uncharged and/or under-punished is no reason to give Mr. Boone an excessively harsh sentence.”
Boone's attorneys acknowledged text messages prosecutors used during the trial, which showed how Boone bragged about being violent with prisoners and used the “n word.”
The attorneys characterize them as “braggadocious puffing,” and noted he never had an excessive force complaint lodged against him.
“Nothing about Mr. Boone’s environment pardons these obnoxious texts,” they wrote. “The court is asked to realize, however, that Mr. Boone is not just a rotten apple hanging from an otherwise healthy tree…
Attorneys suggested that if other text conversations were searched, similar material would be found through the whole department.
“Dustin Boone’s texts put the spotlight on the darkest corners of his personality. Thus far, this Honorable Court only knows the worst parts of Dustin Boone. There is much more to this man.”
The attorneys describe how Boone has frequently offered his skills as an electrician to friends or colleagues in need without charging them, along with Habitat for Humanity.
The attorneys then cite a letter written by a Black woman married to a police officer, in which she calls Boone and his wife “family,” how their children are “best friends.”
“I know that Dustin loves me, my husband and my kids as family,” she wrote. “No texts using racist words changes that.”
The woman’s husband wrote, “I can tell you that those texts are not an accurate representation of the character Dustin demonstrated as a police officer who faithfully served many people of color in north St. Louis.”
Another retired veteran of the police department wrote, “By no means is Dustin Boone a racist. I know Dustin was not brought up that way.”
Boone’s attorneys also explored how the other four officers who were indicted for their roles in the assault faired.
Randy Hays pleaded guilty and admitted to striking Hall and was sentenced to 52 months in prison.
Bailey Colletta pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about what she knew about the attack, but did not get prison time.
Christopher Myers has agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge rather than face a third trial to determine whether he intentionally broke Hall’s cellphone to conceal evidence of the assault.
And Steven Korte was acquitted.
“Usually, unlawful police activity is handled internally or in the civil arena,” Boone’s attorneys wrote. “In cases like this one, when a police officer faces not censure or suspension or even termination, but instead faces prosecution and incarceration. Alarm bells sound.”
Explosive texts
In a four-page response to Boone’s sentencing memo, federal prosecutors slam Boone for his summary about the police department’s racist culture.
“This assertion slanders the 1,300 police officers who responsibly serve the St. Louis community,” they wrote.
They include four text messages in which Boone wrote about assaulting other arrestees in his custody during his career.
“Defendant’s participation in the assault of Detective Hall was not an anomaly in his time as a police officer; it was consistent with his abusive behavior before and after the assault,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors then point out how in letters from his family members, they insist the racist texts don’t reflect the “real Dustin.”
“The sad truth is that many of defendant’s abusive and racist texts were sent to his family members and they shared his sentiments,” prosecutors wrote.
Boone’s stepfather, Anthony Boone, a former St. Louis officer himself, wrote: “The zoo keepers cut off the supply of bananas and they are PISSED,” in a group text to family members following the acquittal of former Officer Jason Stockley. Black Lives Matter protesters took to the streets following the acquittal.
Two days into the protests, Anthony Boone texted: “I'm sure the primate house will be the first to get broken into—free all their cousins and [expletive]."
Prosecutors also argue Boone should get a higher sentence than the 54 months Hays, who pleaded guilty, received because Hays accepted responsibility for his actions and Boone has not.
Sentencing is scheduled for Monday afternoon.