A St. Louis police officer pleaded guilty Friday to lying to both the FBI and a federal grand jury about the beating arrest of an undercover officer at the hands of his peers in 2017.
Bailey Colletta admitted she lied when telling an FBI agent in June 2018 that she didn’t know Detective Luther Hall and didn’t come into contact with him on the night of his arrest Sept. 17, 2017, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Colletta, 26, also lied to grand jurors when she said Hall was “brought to the ground very gently” in a “textbook arrest,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Reginald Harris said in court.
Colletta, along with her then-boyfriend Randy Hays, Dustin Boone and Christopher Myers were accused in an arrest that ended with Hall, a 22-year veteran cop, thrown on the ground, kicked and hit with a police baton, the Post-Dispatch reported.
All four cops were indicted in federal court Thursday after being suspended without pay, according to KMOV.
The news outlet reported that Boone, Hays and Myers were charged with using unreasonable force and conspiring to obstruct justice. Myers was accused of destroying Hall’s phone, and Colletta was charged with attempting to obstruct the grand jury, which is what she pleaded guilty to, according to KMOV.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner told the news station her office has been forced to dismiss 91 cases involving the officers.
In the case regarding Hall, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry asked Colletta after the prosecutor summarized the plea:
“Ms. Colletta, is everything he just recited true?”
“Yes, ma’am,'” she replied, according to the Post-Dispatch.
On the night in question, Colletta and the other officers were working a protest after former St. Louis cop Jason Stockley was acquitted in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith, a 24-year-old Black man, the newspaper reported.
Hall was working undercover to investigate protest activity when Colletta and other officers tackled Hall as he was obeying orders to get on his knees, Harris said.
Hall has said in court documents describing the incident that he was beaten “like Rodney King” after he fled from officers who were using pepper spray, pepper balls and bean bag rounds on protesters at the time.
Hall, who hasn’t returned to work, said he suffered a lip and jaw injury that made it hard to eat and multiple herniated discs, according to the Post-Dispatch.
Colletta faces at least 30-37 months in prison for the charge of making false statements, and prosecutors told the Post-Dispatch she should face 46-57 months because she was not a “minor participant” in the crime.
Her sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 13, the Post-Dispatch reported.
The other three officers charged in the case have pleaded not guilty and are set to go to trial on Dec. 2.
