Jury finds former St. Ann Police Officer responsible of civil rights violation | USAO-EDMO

ST. LOUIS – A jury found Ellis C. Brown, III, 32, of High Ridge, Missouri, guilty of legal disfranchisement on one issue after a three-day jury trial. The US District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig led the process.

Evidence during the trial, which ended Thursday, proved that Brown used inappropriate force in an encounter with a victim. In his capacity as a St. Ann police officer, Brown repeatedly kicked the victim who was lying in a US bank parking lot on the corner of Natural Bridge and Kingshighway in the city of St. Louis. The April 2019 incident was videotaped and followed a long high-speed chase in which Brown and other St. Ann Police Department officers chased the victim through rush hour traffic for more than twenty minutes, and sometimes speeds in excess of 115 mph achieved. Two St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers intervened to stop Brown’s attack.

“Ellis Brown has shamelessly abused the trust our community and his colleagues place in him,” said US Attorney Sayler Fleming. “I hope Brown’s conviction serves as a deterrent to others in law enforcement who may contemplate an abuse of their power.”

“Ellis Brown has exceeded his authority and used excessive force to obtain the arrest of an already compliant subject,” said Richard Quinn, a special agent in charge of the St. Louis FBI. “In doing so he not only violated the law, but also his oath as a law enforcement officer.”

The case was investigated by the Federal Criminal Police Office. U.S. Assistant Attorney Derek Wiseman handled the case.

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