ST. LOUIS — A former St. Louis police officer was sentenced to one year of probation after pleading guilty for his role in the beating of an undercover detective posing as a protester in 2017.
Christopher Myers vacated a plea deal at the end of February in which he would have pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and faced no jail time or fines for his role in the assault of St. Louis Detective Luther Hall. Last week, he said he would again plead guilty, and on Tuesday he entered the plea and was sentenced.
Hall was working undercover as a protester in 2017 to document property damage and other crimes in downtown St. Louis when multiple police officers moved in to arrest him for violating an order to disperse.
Hall required surgeries to correct injuries to his neck and back, stitches to repair a hole in his lip that he suffered during his arrest.
Myers was accused of trying to destroy Hall’s cellphone to conceal evidence of the assault.
Two federal juries hung on whether he intentionally destroyed the phone knowing it would be used in an investigation.
A third trial date had been set for May, but on Thursday, Myers agreed to plead guilty to the misdemeanor as originally planned. That hearing has been set for March 15 before United States District Judge John Ross.
His attorney, Scott Rosenblum, could not be reached for comment.
In both trials, Rosenblum argued that his client threw the cellphone after seeing blood on it and that it was impossible for Myers to know an investigation would commence because none of the other officers believed any policies were violated during the arrest.
The judge overseeing the case, E. Richard Webber, recused himself from the third trial but did not say why in public filings.
Four other officers were also implicated in the assault, which Hall testified left him with permanent injuries. He testified during both trials against his former fellow officers, telling the court he had to have surgery to repair injuries to his spine, and a jaw injury left him unable to eat. That caused drastic weight loss.
One of the former officers, Randy Hays, has already pleaded guilty to violating Hall's civil rights. Webber sentenced Hays to 52 months in prison.
Former officer Bailey Colletta was sentenced to three years of probation for lying to the FBI about what she saw on the night of the assault.
A jury hung in March on whether former officer Dustin Boone violated Hall's civil rights, but a second jury convicted him. He was sentenced to a year in prison. Federal prosecutors were seeking the maximum 10-year sentence for depriving detective Hall of his civil rights.
