A judge awarded more than $23 million Monday to a former St. Louis police officer who was beaten by fellow officers while working undercover during protests in 2017 after one of the defendants did not respond to a lawsuit.
Luther Hall sued three of his former colleagues — Randy Hays, Dustin Boone and Christopher Myers — in 2022 over their actions five years earlier during public protests over the acquittal of former St. Louis police Officer Jason Stockley on a murder charge. Hall had previously settled a separate lawsuit with the city for $5 million, the Post-Dispatch reports.
The judgment is against Hays who never responded to the lawsuit after being served with the document in prison, where he was incarcerated on a civil rights violation. Hall’s claims against Boone and Myers are still pending.
A judge issued a default judgment in Hall’s favor in February. At a hearing Monday, Hall testified about why he should receive damages.
Hall talked about the severe physical and emotional damages that followed the beating — the multiple herniated discs and an injury to his jaw that left him unable to eat. He developed gallstones that caused complications, requiring surgeries. He continues to go to therapy and a pain management doctor.
Hays was not at the hearing. He was sentenced to more than four years in prison in 2021 and is in the custody of the St. Louis Residential Reentry Management Office, which supervises people who have been released from prison and are serving time on home confinement or in halfway houses. He has one year to contest the judgment, the Associated Press reports.
