ST. LOUIS (AP) — Lawyers for a former St. Louis police officer convicted of helping other officers beat a Black undercover detective plan to ask a judge to sentence him to 26 months in prison.
Prosecutors are seeking a 10-year sentence for Dustin Boone, who is scheduled to be sentenced next week for his role in the Sept. 17, 2017, beating of Detective Luther Hall during a protest.
In memo filed Monday, Boone’s attorneys argue that he did not participate in the initial beating of Hall and held him down only because other officers were “acting as though” they were making an arrest, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Boone was convicted in June of a federal civil rights violation related to Hall’s beating.
Prosecutors have said the officers mistakenly believed that Hall, a Black man, was participating in a protest after the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white officer accused of fatally shooting a Black man following a high-speed chase.
Boone’s attorneys, Justin Kuehn and Stephen Williams, also said in the memo that the St. Louis police department condoned and encouraged violence, particularly racial violence.
The police department and the police officers union declined to comment on the filing to the Post-Dispatch.
In a sentencing memo filed last week, prosecutors said Boone should receive the 10-year sentence recommended under federal guidelines. They contend Boone used his assignment to the department’s Civil Disobedience Team as an opportunity to beat protesters and that he had a history of abusing suspects.
Officer Christopher Myers and Officer Steven Korte were acquitted of the civil rights charge, and Korte was also acquitted of lying to the FBI.
Myers will plead guilty in January to a misdemeanor charge of deprivation of rights for destroying Hall’s phone, his lawyer has said.
Officer Randy Hays was sentenced in July to more than four years in prison after pleading guilty in 2019 to using unreasonable and excessive force in the beating. Bailey Colletta received probation for lying to the FBI and a grand jury about the beating.
Hall, who was permanently injured in the attack, reached a $5 million settlement with the police department.
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