Undercover officer beat up

Four St. Louis cops charged for attacking colleague

Three St. Louis police officers were charged Thursday with beating up an apparent protester who turned out to be an undercover detective on their team, the authorities said.

The officers were accused of attacking their own colleague during a September 2017 protest in response to the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white police officer who killed a 24-year-old black man, Anthony Lamar Smith, after a high-speed chase. According to the federal grand jury indictment, the officers threw the detective to the ground, hitting and kicking him while using a riot baton.

Prosecutors obtained an indictment against a fourth officer on charges she conspired to help the three cover up the beating.

The three officers accused of participating in the beating were charged with violating the constitutional rights of the detective, who the indictment identified only with the initials L.H. The indictment, submitted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Missouri, said the officers used unreasonable force on the detective while he was not posing any threat.

The indictment includes messages sent among the officers during the days before and after the acquittal in which they express excitement about the possibility of using force against protesters.

“A lot of cops gettin hurt, but it’s still a blast beating people that deserve it,” read a message included in the indictment. It was dated Sept. 17, the night that prosecutors say the beating occurred.

The three officers were also charged with obstructing justice by engaging in “misleading conduct toward witnesses,” the indictment said.

The fourth officer, who was accused of impeding the investigation, was in a romantic relationship with one of the officers involved at the time of the protests, according to the indictment.