SAINT LOUIS — A St. Louis
police officer has been charged with a felony count of “harassment motivated by
discrimination to frighten or disturb another person” stemming from an incident
last month in which he allegedly harassed and intimidated an LGBT couple.
Jeffrey Michael Leveque, 45, is
accused of accosting Meg Hensley and her transgender male partner Kendan
Elliott, over the display of a gay pride rainbow flag that mimics the U.S.
stars and stripes from their front porch.
According to the couple,
Leveque and another man in a pickup truck stopped and blocked the couple’s car
as they were leaving for work on Dec. 11, 2013.
Court documents stated that
Leveque opened his car door and, from a few feet away, began yelling at the
couple using anti-LGBT slurs. Later that day, Hensley discovered someone had
posted a photo of their flag with foul, anti-gay comments on the “Rant and
Rave” comment section of the St. Louis Craigslist, reported KTVI-TV.
“It wasn’t just anger there was
a lot of name calling and bashing and even threats. It was very scary,” Elliott
said at the time of the incident. Hensley agreed, adding: “On their post on
Craigslist it said we make them sick to see us every day. That makes me think
they live in my neighborhood.”
In the arrest warrant, St.
Louis police said Leveque put Elliot “in reasonable apprehension of offensive
physical contact or harm” and that Leveque was “knowingly motivated by the
sexual orientation” (gender identity) of Elliot.
Leveque is a former St. Louis
police officer who served from November 2001 to April 2004, according to the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and resigned while under investigation by Internal
Affairs for an unspecified allegation.
Leveque has had other
encounters with law enforcement: he was placed on five years’ probation in
September after being convicted of receiving stolen property, and in 2007 he
was placed on probation for third-degree assault.
He faces up to four years in
prison and a $5,000 fine if convicted on the most recent charges.
