St. Louis Police Accused Of Falsely Charging Gay Bar Owner With Assault After Police SUV Crashes Into Bar

The Riverfront Times reports:

A south St. Louis bar owner is now facing charges stemming from an incident that began when police crashed an SUV through the front wall of his business. The incident happened in the city’s Carondelet neighborhood around 12:30 a.m. today, when a police SUV traveling northbound on South Broadway swerved across multiple lanes of traffic and into Bar:PM just as the LGBTQ bar was closing up.

The police probable cause statement associated with the charges against Bar:PM co-owner Chad Morris alleges that Morris began to “scream obscenities” in the wake of the collision. The officer writes that Morris “struck me hard in the chest with an open hand, causing me to temporarily lose my balance.” Bar:PM’s other co-owner, James Pence, said that it was the police who came at bar staff aggressively.

Read the full article. In a follow-up to their initial story, the Riverfront Times reports that an attorney for Morris says there are multiple videos that contradict the claims of the St. Louis police and that “at no time” do the videos show Morris striking the officer. As you can see below, the conflicting accounts are getting big attention in local media.

Breaking: St. Louis Police have now filed felony assault charges against a Bar:PM co-owner. The incident began when police crashed their SUV into the LGBTQ bar in the early hours this morning https://t.co/gMtRUXVyLM

— Riverfront Times (@RiverfrontTimes) December 18, 2023

Bystander video contradicts the St. Louis Police account of what happened yesterday at Bar:PM, says attorney Javad Khazaeli. “They falsely claim that speaking loudly is against the law. And they use that as a predicate to arrest Mr. Morris.” https://t.co/5ub0d7AZZl

— Sarah Fenske (@sarahfenske) December 19, 2023

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