ST. LOUIS 鈥 The co-owner of a bar was handcuffed less than a minute into his interaction with an officer after a police SUV crashed into his south 狐狸视频 bar a month ago, a video released by his attorney on Thursday shows.
The video, taken by a bystander and by attorney Javad Khazaeli, shows James Pence hanging up a call on his cellphone outside Bar:PM and an officer asking him if he鈥檚 the owner of the building. It鈥檚 just after midnight on Dec. 18.
Update on Bar:PM where a 狐狸视频 police SUV slammed into our clients 'bar. Then officers handcuffed the owners, beat one up & charged him. Here's video of initial interaction that shows police had no basis to cuff James & escalated this whole thing (Please RT for visibility)
鈥 Javad Khazaeli (@javadesq)
Pence, the bar鈥檚 co-owner, says he is and the officer asks if Pence has his ID on him.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e not IDing me,鈥 he tells the cop. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 do anything wrong.鈥
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The officer tells Pence he cannot yell at an officer and cause a 鈥減eace disturbance.鈥
鈥淵ou鈥檙e raising your voice at me,鈥 the officer says.
鈥淏ecause you just drove into the front of our building,鈥 Pence replies.
And, within a minute of the video鈥檚 start, Pence is being handcuffed.
Pence then sits down on a stoop with his hands cuffed behind his back, just a few feet away from where the police SUV crashed into the bar.
His husband and the bar鈥檚 co-owner, Chad Morris, would arrive minutes later. Morris was arrested and charged with assault and resisting arrest after a confrontation with officers.
Khazaeli posted on Thursday that yelling at an officer is not against the law.
The video is the fourth clip Khazaeli has publicized in the case.
鈥淲e are releasing this video because the city released an edited portion of a few seconds of the video to some aldermen and the LGTBQIA liaison committee,鈥 Khazaeli wrote on Twitter. 鈥淭he police refused to show them any video that occurred before the interaction or after.鈥
Morris鈥 arrest stirred up public outrage on social media last month after a rookie police officer drove his police SUV into Bar:PM, a popular gay bar on South Broadway. In two different surveillance video clips released last month by Khazaeli, the police SUV can be seen driving down South Broadway, running a red light and swerving unexpectedly and slamming into the building.
Initial reporting suggested the officer swerved to avoid a dog, but later the department said he overcorrected after trying to avoid a parked car. The department then said he admitted to being distracted by the in-car radio.
The confrontation escalated between responding officers and Morris, who was released from jail more than a day later with a bruised face.
Police said Morris pushed one of the officers investigating the crash and ran from police; Khazaeli has disputed several parts of the officers鈥 account, including that Morris was the aggressor.
No toxicology tests were administered to the officers, Lt. Col. Renee Kriesmann said a few days after the crash, because officers investigating the crash did not have reasonable suspicion of impairment, which department policy requires for toxicology tests.
The officers were wearing body cameras, Kriesmann also said, but police will not release that footage because of the bar owner鈥檚 pending criminal case.
狐狸视频 police Chief Robert Tracy remained silent on the matter until just last week when, during a press conference, he said he was sorry the accident happened, and that the rookie officer is, too.
Khazaeli responded to those remarks by saying the best way to apologize is to drop the charges against Morris.
鈥淏ut criminal charges are still pending against Chad,鈥 he wrote Thursday on X. 鈥淲e need to keep the spotlight on this.鈥