Ex-St Louis officer's conviction points up revolving door for disgraced police
Source: The Guardian
Ex-St Louis officer’s conviction points up revolving door for disgraced police
Ellis Brown III, who was found guilty of beating a restrained and prostrate suspect, had been forced out of a neighbouring force
Chris McGreal
Wed 16 Jun 2021 07.00 BST
A former St Louis police officer with a track record of violence, including the killing of a mentally disturbed Black man that was condemned as amounting to an execution, has been convicted of beating a suspect as he lay restrained and prostrate on the ground.
Ellis Brown III was found guilty by a federal jury last week after an internal police inquiry cleared him over a car chase in 2019 which ended with the then detective severely kicking Steven Kolb after he surrendered.
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But the circumstances of the 25-year-old’s death were in many ways even more controversial. While Michael Brown was wrestling with a police officer before he was shot, critics said Powell was clearly mentally disturbed when Ellis Brown and his colleague opened fire just seconds after arriving on the scene.
The former detective left the St Louis police several years later after he was caught lying about a car pursuit that resulted in a crash.
But Ellis Brown’s history, including other allegations of violence and of fabricating evidence, has raised questions about the ease with which police officers with bad records are able to move between departments after he swiftly found a job with the city of St Ann, a St Louis suburb. There Brown rose to be head of detectives until his arrest for assaulting Kolb.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/16/st-louis-police-officer-conviction-ellis-brown
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