ST. LOUIS – The owners of Bar:PM stood by their attorney Friday as he announced two lawsuits.
One of the suits names the City of St. Louis and two police officers involved in a December crash into Bar:PM and the events that followed.
The other lawsuit involves an accusation that an officer involved in the December crash assaulted a detainee at the St. Louis Justice Center.
Attorney Javad Khazaeli alleges that the same officer has a history of abusing citizens.
The first lawsuit accuses the officer of illegally detaining and assaulting bar co-owner Chad Morris. Morris and his husband, James Pence, were in disbelief when police crashed into their bar in December.
“There’s no Breathalyzer given there,” Khazaeli said. “Instead, they immediately move to cover up what they did wrong by making the victims the bad guys here.”
Morris was originally charged with a felony, accused of assault and resisting arrest. The charges have been reduced to a misdemeanor.
Khazaeli said the officer involved in the arrest of Morris has been accused of previous misconduct. One case involved a man accusing the officer of handcuffing him and slamming him to the ground. Another complaint came from a neighbor of the officer, according to Khazaeli.
“She claimed that he choked her, threw her against the trunk of a car, and put a gun to her stomach,” he said.
The second lawsuit, filed Friday by Khazaeli, alleges the same officer assaulted a man detained at the St. Louis Justice Center.
“I’m just shocked that it took this event to find out how many other events this officer has been involved in,” Pence said. “The city has done nothing to prevent it or take him off the streets.”
Pence believes prosecutors failed to examine the officer’s credibility before weighing his version of events in December.
“There is a proven track record of his behavior over many years,” he said.
“We are very confident that when a jury looks at this information, they’ll understand who the bad guys were and they’ll hold them accountable,” Khazaeli said.
A spokesperson for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said the department does not comment on pending litigation. There were also no comments from the City of St. Louis or the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office.