As veteran Missouri Highway Patrol Sergeant Randy Henry
prepares to retire on December 1, he is free to entertain, and express,
subversive thoughts about accountability that are increasingly
unwelcome in the profession to which he devoted decades of his life.
“We killed Brandon Ellingson,” Henry bluntly told the Lake Expo newspaper, following that unadorned declaration with a question few of his comrades could countenance: “Why are we investigating ourselves?”
Alone among his MHP comrades, Henry has the character to take responsibility for his role in the May 31, 2013 in-custody death of Ellingson, a 20-year-old who drowned in the Lake of the Ozarks after being arrested by Trooper Anthony Piercy on suspicion of Boating While Intoxicated.
Piercy, who as arresting officer had both moral and legal responsibility for Ellingson’s safety, incorrectly placed a life jacket on his prisoner and then drove his patrol boat away from the scene at a high rate of speed. Ellingson was thrown from the craft when it struck a sizeable wake.
Following the familiar full-court press to prevent officer accountability, the jury in a Coroner’s Inquest ruled Ellingson’s death to be accidental. It was subsequently revealed that Amanda Grellner, the prosecutor who declined to file charges against Piercy, had received a personal favor from the MHP three years earlier when the department declined to charge her then-18-year-old son with DUI.
Piercy, who was unqualified for marine enforcement operations, had been hurried through the program as part of a personnel re-deployment in anticipation of the 2013 Lake Race. Henry expressed concerns about the rushed process to qualify Piercy and other troopers for lake duty, to the point he faced potential sanctions for insubordination. Eventually, he yielded to pressure and wrote a letter of approval for Piercy, albeit with what the Lake Expo newspaper describes as “ambiguous wording, fearing that some day the letter might be used against him.”
“I knew something was gonna happen,” Henry lamented to Lake Expo.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/we-killed-brandon-ellingson-investigating-ourselves/#xzHaz6D80vOl673J.99
“We killed Brandon Ellingson,” Henry bluntly told the Lake Expo newspaper, following that unadorned declaration with a question few of his comrades could countenance: “Why are we investigating ourselves?”
Alone among his MHP comrades, Henry has the character to take responsibility for his role in the May 31, 2013 in-custody death of Ellingson, a 20-year-old who drowned in the Lake of the Ozarks after being arrested by Trooper Anthony Piercy on suspicion of Boating While Intoxicated.
Piercy, who as arresting officer had both moral and legal responsibility for Ellingson’s safety, incorrectly placed a life jacket on his prisoner and then drove his patrol boat away from the scene at a high rate of speed. Ellingson was thrown from the craft when it struck a sizeable wake.
Following the familiar full-court press to prevent officer accountability, the jury in a Coroner’s Inquest ruled Ellingson’s death to be accidental. It was subsequently revealed that Amanda Grellner, the prosecutor who declined to file charges against Piercy, had received a personal favor from the MHP three years earlier when the department declined to charge her then-18-year-old son with DUI.
Piercy, who was unqualified for marine enforcement operations, had been hurried through the program as part of a personnel re-deployment in anticipation of the 2013 Lake Race. Henry expressed concerns about the rushed process to qualify Piercy and other troopers for lake duty, to the point he faced potential sanctions for insubordination. Eventually, he yielded to pressure and wrote a letter of approval for Piercy, albeit with what the Lake Expo newspaper describes as “ambiguous wording, fearing that some day the letter might be used against him.”
“I knew something was gonna happen,” Henry lamented to Lake Expo.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/we-killed-brandon-ellingson-investigating-ourselves/#xzHaz6D80vOl673J.99
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