Judge awards $23.5 million to undercover St. Louis officer beaten by colleagues during protest

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis judge on Monday awarded nearly $23.5 million to a former police officer who was beaten by colleagues while working undercover at a protest.

Luther Hall was seriously injured in the 2017 attack during one of several protests that followed the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a former St. Louis officer, on a murder charge stemming from the shooting death of a black man.

Hall previously settled a separate lawsuit with the city for $5 million. In 2022, he sued three former colleagues – Randy Hays, Dustin Boone and Christopher Myers – for their roles in the attack.

Hays never responded to the lawsuit despite being served time while in prison for civil rights violations, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. A judge entered a default judgment in Hall’s favor in February and heard testimony Monday explaining why Hall should receive damages.

Hall’s claims against Boone and Myers are still pending.

Hall, in court Monday, spoke of the severe physical and emotional damage that followed the beating. He suffered several herniated discs and a jaw injury that left him unable to eat. He developed gallstones with complications, requiring surgical interventions.

“Mr. Hall had to endure these brutal beatings and, while it was happening, he knew they were being administered by his colleagues who were sworn to serve and protect,” Circuit Judge Joseph Whyte said.

Hays was not present at the hearing. He was sentenced to more than four years in prison in 2021 and is in the custody of the St. Louis Residential Reentry Management Office, which oversees people who have been released from prison and are serving time at home or in homes of transition. He has one year to contest the judgment.

The attack took place on September 17, 2017, days after Stockley was acquitted in the fatal shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, 24, on December 20, 2011. Hall was returning to police headquarters when his colleagues in uniform ordered him to put on he raised his hands and got on the ground, then he beat him.

Hays, Boone, Myers and another officer, Bailey Colletta, were charged in 2018 for Hall’s injuries. A fifth officer, Steven Korte, was charged with civil rights and another count of lying to the FBI.

Boone was convicted of a civil rights charge and sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison. Meyers was placed on probation after pleading guilty to a single felony charge. Colletta was placed on probation for lying to the FBI and a grand jury about the attack. Korte was acquitted.

In addition to the settlement with Hall, the city of St. Louis last year paid nearly $5.2 million over allegations that police violated the rights of dozens of people by capturing them in a ‘kettle’ police and arresting them. Some reported being beaten, pepper sprayed and attacked with stun guns at various downtown protests after Stockley’s verdict.