Trial over aldermanic president’s 2017 tear gassing gets underway today

The City of St. Louis continues to pay for its heavy-handed response to anti-police protests in 2017—with the last major lawsuit over that response going to trial today. The city has paid out at least $11 million over its actions in just three days in September 2017, with another settlement just last week.

In September 2017, multiple days of unrest followed St. Louis officer Jason Stockley being found not guilty of murder in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith six years before. Protesters lobbed projectiles at police and broke storefront windows. But the police pepper sprayed dozens of peaceful protesters as well as other people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, rounding up more than 100 in a mass arrest. Both a well-known preacher and a Post-Dispatch reporter were pepper sprayed and roughed up. An undercover cop was beaten by officers as well. 

The city took a major step last week in settling a lawsuit brought by Alderman Rasheen Aldridge and three others who were pepper sprayed during the protests. The amount of the settlement has not been made public, although paperwork filed Friday indicates the settlement will be finalized in the next 45 days, and then it generally becomes public record. 

Another lawsuit stemming from the same protests is going to trial this week. Aldermanic President Megan Green claims in her suit that on the night of September 15, 2017, she was one of hundreds of people protesting in the Central West End when police began “indiscriminately firing tear gas.” She sought refuge in the Central Reform Congregation synagogue on Kingshighway. An hour and a half later, as she made her way to her car, she again saw police fire tear gas “at random people,” including her, on the street. She says she was hit with tear gas near Lindell, and the ill effects lingered for months.

Green alleges assault and battery and that, in addition to the dozen officers who are named defendants, then-interim Police Chief Defendant Lawrence O’Toole holds “vicarious liability” for the conduct of his officers. Green is seeking monetary damages in the case, but says every dime awarded will go to the city’s tornado relief efforts.

Jury selection kicked off Monday, with opening arguments expected Tuesday afternoon. The jury selection phase featured the standard questions put to potential jurors about biases towards or against police officers. But they also asked about potential biases vis a vis Green. (One potential juror said she had worked on two of Green’s campaigns and would have difficulty being unbiased.) 

In brief remarks to the media during yesterday’s lunch break, Green and her attorney, Javad Khazaeli, said that she is bringing this suit because the city’s police force has not begun implementing new policies they said they would follow after as part of a consent decree that followed widespread protests after the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown. 

Both Khazaeli and Green say that changes need to be made to the city’s unlawful assembly ordinance, which they say is too broad and has been found unconstitutional in federal court.  

“You can just basically call anything an unlawful assembly,” says Khazaeli. This, to Khazaeli and Green’s minds, essentially lets police short circuit freedom of speech and assembly protections by being able to declare any gathering unlawful. 

Green says she’s asked the City Counselor’s office to implement changes to the ordinance, as has been done in other cities, but the legal arm of the city has refused. 

“That’s why she’s doing it,” says Khazaeli of the lawsuit. “If they’re not willing to listen to federal courts, if they’re not listening to their own rules, eventually they’re going to have to listen to jurors.”

Depending on how the trial shakes out, Green’s suit may or may not add to the city’s growing tab stemming from police actions in September 2017. The lion’s share of the $11 million that the city has paid out thus far comes from two settlements, one paid to an undercover Black officer beaten by his own colleagues and another to several dozen people who were rounded up in mass “kettling” arrests and pepper sprayed. 

In February 2021, the city settled with former police officer Luther Hall for around $5 million. Hall was working undercover on the night of September 17, 2017 when he was beaten badly by fellow officers who failed to recognize him as one of their own.

The “kettling” settlement, finalized two years later, stemmed from a class-action lawsuit brought by 84 people who, on the same night Hall was beaten, were at Washington Avenue and North Tucker when the police gave them an order to disperse. However, the protesters (as well as a few people just in the wrong place at the wrong time) were prevented from doing so by a wall police on every side, leaving no way to egress. It was settled for about $5 million in January 2023. 

There have been at least five other Stockley-related lawsuits, many with multiple plaintiffs, that have settled for smaller sums ranging from $60,000 to $235,000.

“There have been hundreds of protests in St Louis,” says Khazaeli. “The only time that citizens get their asses kicked is when they’re protesting the cops. You can protest Donald Trump. You can protest Roe v. Wade, fine. But the moment you say something bad about the cops, then there’s hell to pay.”

Back in April 2018, when many of the Stockley-related lawsuits were just starting to work their way through the court, then-City Counselor Julian Bush was asked about the anticipated costs to the city’s coffers. “People have brought claims, but these people were only kept in custody a day,” he said. “We are not anticipating large payouts.”