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Stockley Protestors Receive Justice — Nearly Six Years Later | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

August 8, 2023

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THEO WELLING Police downtown on September 17, 2017, the night of the protest.

Anthony Jones remembers clearly the moment a St. Louis police officer arrested him at the 2017 Stockley protests in downtown St. Louis. Before the young officer put Jones in the back of a police van, Jones paused, and told him: “One day, you’re gonna look back and realize you’re on the wrong side of history.”

Multiple successful lawsuits filed on behalf of protestors like Jones would later prove him right – at least from a legal standpoint. In all, mass arrests and police brutality during one night of protests sparked by the acquittal of ex-cop Jason Stockley have cost the city of St. Louis more than $10 million.

The city previously paid $5 million to former Detective Luther Hall, a Black officer who said he was beaten by white officers while working undercover during the Stockley protests. And in January, the city agreed to pay $4.9 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by 84 plaintiffs who said officers’ heavy-handed response violated their civil rights.

Plaintiffs of the class-action suit were downtown on the night of September 17, 2017, to protest Stockley’s acquittal for the death of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith. Protestors claimed they were dragged on the ground by officers, beaten, excessively maced, even if they were bystanders, and “kettled,” meaning officers surrounded them from all sides and arrested all those who were trapped.

Nearly six years later, the protestors are receiving their payouts. They lined up outside the office of law firm Khazaeli Wyrsch on Friday to receive their checks.

For Jones, the $28,000 he received will help him start his own business and take care of his grandmother. He says he never expected to receive so much money, and like most of those at the Khazaeli Wyrsch office, news of the settlement came as a surprise.

“The lawyers bailed us out [of jail],” Jones says of the night of his arrest. “And I remember signing something when I was leaving, but I didn’t expect anything to come of it,” Jones says.

Protestors will get paid based on the severity of their injuries or what they endured that night, according to attorney Javad Khazaeli. Payments will range from $28,000 to more than $150,000.

It’s one of the biggest payouts to protestors in U.S. history, Khazaeli says. In July, a historic settlement in New York brought $13 million to 1,380 protestors, who each received about $10,000 each — several thousand less than what the average Stockley protester will get.

“For a lot of these people, it was like winning the lottery,”Khazaeli tells the RFT. “They didn’t believe it at first.”

Khazaeli’s firm had to search as far as Spain for the protesters eligible for settlement checks. One man, who was unhoused when he lived in St. Louis, was found doing well in Florida. Another person was a roadie for U2.

For Nick Puleo, what he’ll receive as a result of the suit is a “life changing amount of money.” Puleo says he was arrested as a result of the police’s kettling. He recently finished graduate school, and student loans are looming.

“It’s come at the exact point in my life that I needed it to,” Puleo says. “I still can’t believe it.”

While his clients are happy with the result of the suit, Khazaeli says justice hasn’t quite yet been served.

“None of the officers that beat up our clients, pepper-sprayed our clients, falsely arrested our clients, have ever been held accountable,” Khazaeli says. “Some of them have been promoted since then. We’ve held the police as accountable as possible. Unfortunately, the city has more tools that they’ve chosen not to use.”

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

12 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

12 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

12 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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