An ex-St. Louis police officer who beat a Black undercover detective in a 2017 protest against racial injustice has been sentenced for one year and one hour in prison. This is far less than the victim and the prosecutors had hoped for.
After being convicted of a federal civil rights violation in June, Dustin Boone was sentenced to a U.S. District Court Monday. Boone, 37 years old, was among five white officers who were charged with the beating.
Boone received a sentence that was lower than what his lawyers had requested . Defense lawyers requested that U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber sentence Boone to 26-months, despite the fact that prosecutors wanted a 10-year sentence.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the sentence seemed to shock Hall, his family and his supporters. They walked out from the courtroom just before Webber had finished delivering the sentence. After the hearing, they declined to comment as did prosecutors.
In a statement made to Webber just before the sentence was announced Hall stated that he felt Webber’s sentencing for two other officers in the case was too mild, “leniency not shown to African American defendants”.
Boone’s lawyers argued that Boone did not take part in the initial on September 17, 2017, beating of Hall, and that they only held him down because other officers “acted as though” they were making an arrested. In a memo, they also stated that the St. Louis police Department encouraged and condoned violence, especially racial violence.
Prosecutors claimed that Hall believed the officers were participating in a demonstration after Jason Stockley ‘s acquittal. Jason Stockley was a white officer who is accused of fatally shooting a Black person following a chase. In their sentencing memo, the prosecution stated that Boone had a history in abusing suspects.
Officer Randy Hays was sentenced to more than four year imprisonment in July.Bailey Colletta was sentenced to probation after he lied to the FBI and a grand jury.
Officer Christopher Myers, Officer Steven Korte and Korte were cleared of the civil rights charge . Korte was also cleared of lying to FBI agents.
His lawyer said that Myers will plead guilty to a misdemeanor case of depriving rights for destroying Hall’s phone in January.
Hall was left permanently scarred in the attack and reached a $5million settlement with the police.
