Officer who crashed SUV into gay bar wasn’t tested for intoxication

A police officer who crashed his SUV into a Missouri LGBTQ+ bar — leading to the arrest of the bar’s co-owner —wasn’t tested for intoxication at the time of the incident, a St. Louis police official has revealed. Surveillance video shows the vehicle running a red light before the crash, which contradicts the police department’s evolving explanations for what caused the crash.

Now the state’s governor has called for the department to release the arresting officers’ bodycam footage of the incident. The bar co-owner says that police gave him a back eye, and his lawyer wants all criminal charges against him dropped.

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St. Louis Metropolitan Police Lieutenant Colonel Renee Kriesmann told reporters that the department didn’t test the officer who crashed for alcohol or drug use because there was no “reasonable suspicion” that the officer was intoxicated, The Riverfront Times reported.

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Kriesmann said that the driver was “distracted while attempting to change his in-car radio” when the crash occurred. However, officers have repeatedly changed their explanations for what happened. At the time of the incident, the bar’s co-owner, James Pence, said the officer who crashed claimed to have swerved his 2020 Chevrolet Tahoe into the bar to avoid hitting a dog on the street.

However, an official incident report from the police department stated that the officer “believed he was traveling too close to a parked car” and overcorrected, crashing into the bar, KTVI reported.

Javad Khazaeli, the lawyer for Bar:PM co-owner Chad Morris, posted surveillance video on X (formerly Twitter) showing that neither a dog nor a parked car were anywhere close to colliding with the police vehicle. He also posted a video showing the police vehicle running a red light shortly before the crash.

Morris said that an arresting officer beat him. Morris emerged from jail on Tuesday with a black eye, bruises, and scratches on his face, The Riverfront Times reported. Prosecutors have downgraded his assault charge to a misdemeanor, but his lawyer said they must drop the charges altogether.

Khazaeli wrote via X: “Same officer who beat my client decide that driver had no impairment and didn’t need breathalyzer. No dash cam on car. Won’t release body cam. No investigation of crash. No crash scene photos. If I crashed into a building, while speeding, after midnight, after running a stop light, there is no way that I could have a co-worker decide that I should not get a breathalyzer.”

Khazaeli showed VICE News footage of the arrest, which contradicts police claims that Morris shoved an officer back after the crash. Shortly before his arrest, Morris screams, “This motherf**ker in the black beanie punched me in the f**king face,” referring to the non-driving officer who arrested him.

The arresting officer tells Pence to “stop yelling” after the crash, saying that he’s “causing a disturbance” and warns the person filming to “keep interfering [and] you’ll be in handcuffs too, clown.” It is legal to record police as long as it doesn’t obstruct law enforcement, according to state law. The video also captured someone asking the officers “who was sucking whose d**k” before the crash occurred.

The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office initially charged Morris with felony counts of third-degree assault of a special victim, but the charges were downgraded to misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree assault and resisting arrest. Khazaeli wants all the charges against Morris to be dropped.

The arresting officer accused of assaulting Morris was accused of breaking a man’s bones in 2019 after a man told him “F**k the police.” Such verbal harassment doesn’t legally allow police to assault arrestees.

Gov. Mike Parson (R) has called on the department to release the officers’ body camera footage. “If you’ve got body cam footage, I don’t know why you wouldn’t release it,” Parson said. “In the old days, it will help you as much as it will ever hurt you… Be transparent and get it over with.”