Joel Currier
ST. LOUIS • A Velda City police
officer was so enraged that he had been questioned about an arrest that he
kicked, punched and used a riot baton to beat two teens and an adult during a
2008 encounter, federal prosecutors said Monday during opening statements in
the former officer’s criminal trial.
But Tony Muhlenkamp, one of
Stan Stanback’s lawyers, said that Stanback was threatened by a group of
people, called for help and then almost single-handedly arrested the three amid
a struggle.
The trial, in U.S. District
Court here, will come down to the testimony of other officers, those Stanback
is accused of beating and bystanders, as well as surveillance videos that captured
the first interaction with Stanback and an exchange in a holding room at the
station.
The encounter began as Stanback
was leaving work just before 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2008.
Julia Gegenheimer, of the
Justice Department’s civil rights division in Washington, said Stanback
encountered three teenage boys and a man on the parking lot of the Velda City
Police Department.
The four were crossing the lot
on their way to a friend’s home, and chatted briefly with Stanback.
Stanback got angry when one of
the four asked why he had arrested their friend earlier in the day, and the
group left, she said.
Stanback called for help, then
went inside the station and returned with a riot baton, which is not normally
carried by officers and is only issued to officers for crowd control,
Gegenheimer said.
Officers from Velda City and
elsewhere soon arrived and located the group outside a nearby apartment
building.
One teen was handcuffed and the
others were either sitting or lying on the ground when Stanback arrived. He hit
one seated youth multiple times, swinging the riot baton like a baseball bat,
Gegenheimer said. Then he began beating the adult, who was lying on the ground.
After a supervisor wrestled it away, Stanback began punching and kicking the
man before moving on to a handcuffed teen. He was finally pulled away by other
officers, she said.
Prosecutors say that Stanback’s
victims were not charged and were released that same night. All went to the
hospital for treatment of bruises, scrapes and swelling.
Muhlenkamp said that Stanback
would testify, and tell jurors that he was threatened by a large group who
refused his commands to back away and submit to arrest, leaving only when
sirens from approaching police cars could be heard.
He said that Stanback would
also say that he was the first to arrive at the group’s new location and only
used force as he had been trained, to force them to comply. After the attack,
Stanback was fired. He went on to work for the Beverly Hills Police Department.
He was also arrested and charged
by complaint in St. Louis County Circuit Court with three misdemeanor counts of
assault, but a paperwork error spiked the trial and too much time had passed to
re-file charges.
Stanback was indicted on
federal charges involving the use of excessive force in September 2013.
