A police officer crashes his patrol car into a popular gay bar in St. Louis, Missouri early Monday morning – eventually leading to the arrest of one of its co-owners after he confronted police about the accident.
Chad Morris, 37, is accused of pushing an officer following the accident at Bar: PM, which he owns with his husband, James Pence.
Morris was arrested and charged with felony assault, but prosecutors later reduced the charges to misdemeanor assault and resisting arrest.
He was released from jail on his own recognizance on Tuesday, after which he advocate Javad Khazaeli posted on X to dispute the allegations against his client.
Khazaeli, known for taking on cases of police misconduct, even released footage of the crash.
“You all heard about the police car crashing into Bar: PM Sunday night. And they arrested the owner for daring to question him,” Khazaeli wrote on X. “Well, here’s the video.”
The accompanying 15-second clip shows a patrol car speeding down a dim road without a siren and approaching a vehicle parked on the shoulder.
A police vehicle crashed into a popular gay bar in St. Louis, Missouri early Monday morning.
In an apparent attempt to avoid hitting the vehicle — which apparently wasn’t the patrol car in danger — the officer quickly swerved to the left and crashed into the establishment.
Morris and Pence live in an apartment above the bar, and Pence said he was in bed Sunday night when he heard a “loud boom” around 12:30 a.m., he told KSDK.
“I jumped out thinking it was a vehicle accident, and then I looked over, and it was a St. Louis city police department vehicle in front of our building.”
Metropolitan Police Department St. Louis alleges an officer drove too close to a parked car and overcorrected before losing control of the vehicle, according to an incident report obtained by NBC News.
What happened next is unclear, with the St. Louis and the bar owner offer different accounts.
Metropolitan Police Department St. Louis alleges an officer drove too close to a parked car and overcorrected before losing control of the vehicle.
Police said an “offender” came outside and “started yelling obscenities,” the incident report said.
Later, when other officers arrived on the scene and “tried to defuse the situation,” the unidentified “offender” pushed one of the officers.
Officer John Pierce also allegedly wrote Morris “struck me hard in the chest with an open hand, causing me to temporarily lose my balance,” the Riverfront Times reported.
He went on to claim that Morris tried to escape after he was arrested “through the gate and tried to attack me with the gate.”
But Khazaeli and Pence have disputed their version of the incident, with their lawyers claiming to have surveillance video from the scene showing Pence approaching the scene of the crash and an officer asking him if he was the owner.
When Pence replied that he had, the officer asked to see his ID, Khazaeli alleged, and when he questioned the order, police placed him in handcuffs.
Bar: PM co-owner Chad Morris, 37, was arrested on assault charges.
“I was told I had to ID or shut up,” Pence told KSDK.
The video – which Khazaeli said he did not release publicly because he planned to use it in Morris’s defense, but was shown to several local channels – also reportedly captured someone filming the situation and asking police what crime had been committed.
An unidentified officer simply replied, “disruption,” according to the Riverfront Times, which said it had watched part of the clip.
The officer then walked up to the person recording the incident and reportedly said, “He’s not going to yell at me, that’s causing a disturbance.”
Khazaeli also claimed one of the police officers told Pence, “You’re under arrest because you yelled at me” and referred to Pence’s questioning of his orders as a “public nuisance.”
Khazaeli’s defense attorney claimed the video showed the officer saying, “You’re under arrest because you’re yelling at me.”
Not long after, Khazaeli claimed, Morris arrived at the scene and asked why her husband was handcuffed.
Upset by the situation, Morris allegedly began using obscenities while officers are accused of calling him and the crowd “clowns.”
Morris tried to get out of the hallway, but was chased by police and beaten in the hallway off camera, according to Khazaeli.
When Morris reappeared in the audience footage he was in handcuffs and had several bruises and a black eye, according to St. Louis Today.
“The police are clearly intruders here,” Khazaeli claimed at a press conference on Tuesday.
James Pence claims he was handcuffed when he questioned an officer’s order to show his ID.
“They lost control of the vehicle. And immediately, the video shows the police officers being aggressive with everyone in the area to cover up what they were doing,” he claimed, saying in the bystander video, Morris cannot be seen pushing Officer Pierce.
He said police put Pence in handcuffs because he “had the audacity to ask why they crashed into his building.”
“They illegally handcuffed Mr. Pence,” Khazaeli continued. “They falsely claim that speaking out loud is against the law. And they used that as a predicate to arrest Mr. Morris.”
He went on to tell NBC News: “Our goal is to have all these charges dismissed because there is no basis for them, and then to decide what kind of claims my clients have against these officers and to hold the officers accountable, because this just can’t stand.
It is unclear if any of the officers involved in the incident faced any discipline.
It is unclear if any of the officers involved in the incident faced any discipline. The Post has contacted the St. Louis Police Department. Louis for comment.
Meanwhile, St Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones confirmed the incident was under investigation.
“Bar: PM has provided members of the LGBTQIA+ community a place to gather and shelter from a society that continues to marginalize their existence, and incidents like this can break the already fragile trust with law enforcement,” he said. said in a statement.
“This incident is under investigation and officers will be held accountable for any and all misconduct committed while on duty.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
