Cop who crashed into gay bar threatened bystander in shocking new video

The latest video to emerge of the interaction between a St. Louis, Missouri, gay bar owner and the police officers who crashed their vehicle into his establishment last month sheds new light on how the officers handled the situation.

Javad Khazaeli, the lawyer for Bar: PM co-owners James Pence and Chad Morris, suggested that one of the officers quickly escalated the situation by going “to rage level 10,” leading to the arrest of one of his clients.  

Related:

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

And the police department keeps changing its explanation of why the crash occurred.

The footage, recorded by a bystander and posted to X by Khazaeli, shows the scene immediately after the officers plowed their SUV into the front of the bar on the night of December 17. In the clip, Pence identifies himself as the owner of the bar. Officer Ramelle Wallace then asks him for his ID, which Pence refuses to hand over, insisting he has done nothing wrong.

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“Everybody has the right to ask an officer what they’re doing,” Khazaeli told local NBC affiliate KSDK. “An officer only has the right to demand an ID if a person is driving a car or if the [officer] has probable cause to think that the person committed a crime.”

Wallace then seems to dismiss Pence, telling him to “Have a good night.” According to Khazaeli, this implies that Wallace was refusing to investigate unless he was shown an ID.

A clearly frustrated Pence continues to insist that he does not have to show ID, at which point Wallace accuses Pence of yelling at him and causing a “disturbance.” Wallace and another officer then cuff Pence.

The person recording the video asks why Pence has been cuffed. “He’s creating a disturbance,” Wallace says, approaching the person recording and insisting that by “yelling” at him Pence was causing a “disturbance.”

When the bystander asks for Wallace’s badge number, he refuses to provide it. “Keep interfering, you’ll be in handcuffs too, clown,” Wallace threatens.

“Officers don’t get to arrest you for yelling at them,” Khazaeli told KSDK. In an X post, he cited two Supreme Court cases establishing that it is legal to yell at and even curse at police officers, as well as one establishing the right to record interactions with police.

Let's break this down. Off. Ramelle Wallace pulls out cuffs within TWENTY TWO SECONDS of talking to James. And James was breaking no laws. The Supreme Court ruled in Cohen v. California (1971) and Lewis v. New Orleans (1974) that you can yell at cops & even tell them to fuck off

— Javad Khazaeli (@javadesq) January 18, 2024

Wallace then threatens someone for recording him. Now I'm just a civil rights lawyer, but someone should tell Wallace that cops can be recorded. At least the US Supreme Court thinks so. https://t.co/UfxywDfRq3

— Javad Khazaeli (@javadesq) January 18, 2024

On X, Khazaeli said that he also has video of Pence’s husband and Bar:PM co-owner Morris arriving on the scene minutes later. “In the video we have and will release during any criminal trial, James’s husband Chad arrives about 6 minutes later, asks why James is in cuffs. The officers decide to take James down a dark gangway out of sight. Chad follows and is then beaten, arrested, and charged,” Khazaeli claims.

As previously reported, Morris was arrested and initially charged with felony assault on an officer and misdemeanor resisting arrest. The charges were later reduced to misdemeanors. When speaking to reporters after being released from custody, Morris reportedly had what appeared to be a black eye.

In another X post, Khazaeli noted that Wallace is currently facing a lawsuit stemming from a similar incident in September 2019. In that case, Wallace allegedly arrested a bystander who was present at a separate arrest for “disturbing the peace,” breaking several of the bystander’s bones in the process.

He currently has a lawsuit filed against him for doing the exact same thing on the same street. In that case he is accused of illegally arresting a person and breaking his leg bc of a "peace disturbance" = questioning why he was arresting someone. pic.twitter.com/OM5lSTi2xi

— Javad Khazaeli (@javadesq) January 18, 2024

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) has called on the St. Louis Police Department to release the officers’ body camera footage, which they have so far refused to do.