Ex-officer Luther Hall Granted $23.5 Million After Brutal Beating by Fellow Policemen

ST. LOUIS (AP) – On Monday, a St. Louis judge awarded nearly $23.5 million to a former police officer who was attacked by colleagues while working undercover during a demonstration.

Luther Hall was seriously injured in the 2017 attack during one of several rallies following the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a former St. Louis police, on a murder charge stemming from a Black man’s shooting death.

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

Hays never answered to the case, despite the fact that it was served while he was in prison for a civil rights violation, according to the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch. In February, a judge granted a default judgment in Hall’s favor and heard testimony on Monday to determine why Hall should be awarded damages.

Hall’s allegations against Boone and Myers are still unresolved.

Hall spoke in court on Monday about the serious physical and emotional injuries caused by the beating. He sustained three herniated discs and a jaw injury that rendered him unable to eat. He got gallstones, which led to complications and the need for surgery.

“Mr. Hall had to endure this severe beating and while that was happening, he knew it was being administered by his colleagues who were sworn to serve and protect,” Joseph Whyte, a circuit judge, said.

Hays did not attend the hearing. He was sentenced to more than four years in jail in 2021 and is now in the care 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 halfway houses. He has one year to challenge the judgment.

The attack occurred on September 17, 2017, just days after Stockley was acquitted of the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith on December 20, 2011. Hall was headed back toward police headquarters when his uniformed colleagues told him to raise his hands and get on the ground, then beat him.

Hays, Boone, Myers, and another officer, Bailey Colletta, were indicted in 2018 for Hall’s injuries. Steven Korte, a fifth officer, was indicted on a civil rights offense as well as lying to the FBI.

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

In addition to the Hall settlement, the city of St. Louis paid roughly $5.2 million last year in response to charges that police violated the rights of scores of people by trapping them in a police “kettle” and arresting them. Some claim they were beaten, pepper-sprayed, and targeted with stun guns during downtown protests following the Stockley decision.