St. Louis prosecutors have turned over their first batch of evidence in their case against the co-owner of an LGBTQ bar charged with assault last month after a police SUV smashed into his business. That evidence, however, doesn't include any video, body cam or otherwise.
On December 18, a St. Louis Metropolitan Police SUV crashed into Bar:PM on South Broadway in the Carondelet neighborhood, an incident that made national news when police then arrested the bar's co-owner Chad Morris and charged him with felony assault. (Prosecutors in the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office swifly downgraded the charge to a misdemeanor.)
In the month since, the public has seen surveillance video taken by a nearby business showing the police cruiser run a red light moments before the crash as well as bystander video showing the immediate aftermath of the crash. The latter video showed an officer not initially involved in the incident arriving on the scene and handcuffing the bar's other co-owner, James Pence, in less than half a minute.
However, none of the video released thus far shows Morris shoving a police officer, which a probable cause statement says is the basis for the charge against him. Nor does it show whatever happened to give Morris the black eye and bruises that could be seen when he left jail the following day.
It's reasonable to think body camera footage might show one or both of those things, but it hasn't seen the light of day.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Tracy was asked numerous questions about the unreleased body cam footage at a press conference earlier this month, with reporters pointing out that Tracy said during his first days on the job in 2023 that transparency would be a priority of his department. Tracy has maintained he cannot release the video to the general public, citing the ongoing prosecution against Morris.
Bowing to public pressure, the police showed portions of the footage to members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen as well as Mayor Tishaura Jones’ LGBTQIA advisory committee.
Morris' attorney Javad Khazaeli previously told the RFT that footage was "edited and out of context."
On Friday, prosecutors working Morris' case turned over their first batch of discovery to Khazaeli. Included in that discovery were two police reports, a four-page booking sheet and another page document. But, alas, no body cam video.
The RFT reached out to the Circuit Attorney's Office on Friday inquiring about the lack of video evidence in this round of discovery. We also asked if the police had turned the video over to the prosecutor's office. We have not heard back.
Morris ' next day in court is February 2.
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