Dustin Boone, 37, was sentenced in U.S. District Court after being convicted in June of attacking Luther Hall. Boone was one of the five white officers charged in the September 17, 2017, beating, although Boone’s attorneys argued that he did not participate in the initial beating. Boone’s attorney said he held Hall down only because other officers were “acting as though” they were making an arrest.
Boone’s sentence was even less than requested by his own lawyers, who asked U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber to give him 26 months. Prosecutors had sought a 10-year sentence.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the sentence appeared to stun Hall along with his relatives and his supporters, who walked out of the courtroom before Webber finished announcing the sentence. They declined to comment after the hearing.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
Prosecutors said the officers mistakenly believed that Hall was participating in a protest after the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white officer accused of fatally shooting a Black man following a chase. Prosecutors, in their sentencing memo, said Boone had a history of abusing suspects.
Boone’s attorney also said in a memo that the St. Louis police department condoned and encouraged violence, particularly racial violence.
Officer Randy Hays was sentenced in July to more than four years in prison after pleading guilty in 2019 to using unreasonable and excessive force in the beating. Bailey Colletta received probation for lying to the FBI and a grand jury.
Officer Christopher Myers and Officer Steven Korte were acquitted of the civil rights charge, and Korte was also acquitted of lying to the FBI.
Myers will plead guilty in January to a misdemeanor charge of deprivation of rights for destroying Hall’s phone, his lawyer has said.
Hall, who was permanently injured in the attack, reached a $5 million settlement with the police department.
