Ex-St. Louis Police Officer Beaten by Then-Colleagues Is Awarded $23 Million

A former police officer who was beaten by other officers while working undercover during a protest against police violence in St. Louis in 2017 was awarded $23 million by a Missouri judge.

Luther Hall, the former officer, won the default judgment on Monday against one of his former colleagues after the defendant failed to respond to a lawsuit over the 2017 attack, court records showed.

“Mr. Hall had to endure this severe beating, and while that was happening, he knew it was being administered by his colleagues who were sworn to serve and protect,” Judge Joseph Whyte of the St. Louis Circuit Court said at the hearing, according to KSDK, a local news station.

Mr. Hall, who is Black, was attacked during a protest in September 2017 that was organized in response to the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white police officer who killed a 24-year-old Black man, Anthony Lamar Smith, after a high-speed chase in 2011. The officers accused in the beating are white.

The acquittal led to days of demonstrations in downtown St. Louis, during which police officers used tear gas and pepper balls against protesters who were lobbing bricks and bottles at them.

Mr. Hall was not immediately available for comment on Thursday. Earlier in the week, he told the television station KMOV that he and his partner were embedded among the protesters and were assigned to arrest anyone they saw inciting violence or damaging property.