ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis judge on Monday awarded nearly $23.5 million to a former police officer who was beaten by colleagues while working undercover during a protest.
Luther Hall was badly injured in the 2017 attack during one of several protests that followed the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a former St. Louis officer, on a murder charge that stemmed from the shooting death of a Black man.
Hall previously settled a separate lawsuit with the city for $5 million. In 2022, he sued three former colleagues — Randy Hays, Dustin Boone and Christopher Myers — for their roles in the attack.
Hays never responded to the lawsuit despite being served while he was in prison on a civil rights violation, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. A judge issued a default judgment in favor of Hall in February and heard testimony Monday about why Hall should receive damages.
Hall's claims against Boone and Myers are still pending.
Hall, in court on Monday, talked about the severe physical and emotional damages that followed the beating. He suffered several herniated discs and a jaw injury that left him unable to eat. He developed gallstones with complications, requiring surgeries.
“Mr. Hall had to endure this severe beating and while that was happening, he knew it was being administered by his colleagues who were sworn to serve and protect,” Circuit Judge Joseph Whyte said.
Hays was not at the hearing. He was sentenced to more than four years in prison in 2021 and is in the custody of the St. Louis Residential Reentry Management Office, which supervises people who have been released from prison and are serving time on home confinement or in halfway houses. He has one year to contest the judgment.
The attack happened on Sept. 17, 2017, days after Stockley was acquitted in the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith on Dec. 20, 2011. Hall was walking back toward police headquarters when his uniformed colleagues ordered him to put up his hands and get on the ground, then beat him.
Hays, Boone, Myers and another officer, Bailey Colletta, were indicted in 2018 in connection with Hall’s injuries. A fifth officer, Steven Korte, was indicted on a civil rights charge and another count of lying to the FBI.
Boone was convicted of a civil rights charge and sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison. Meyers received probation after pleading guilty to a single felony charge. Colletta received probation for lying to the FBI and a grand jury about the attack. Korte was acquitted.
In addition to the settlement with Hall, the city of St. Louis last year paid nearly $5.2 million over allegations that police violated the rights of dozens of people by capturing them in a police “kettle” and arresting them. Some said they were beaten, pepper-sprayed and attacked with stun guns in various downtown protests after the Stockley verdict.
St. Louis Police Officer Randy Hays exits the federal courthouse following his first court appearance, Nov. 30, 2018, in St. Louis, Mo. Hays was one of three officers charged with kicking and beating Luther Hall. A St. Louis judge on Monday, April 15, 2024, awarded nearly $23.5 million to Hall, a former police officer who was beaten by colleagues while working undercover during a 2017 protest. In 2022, Hall sued Hays, Dustin Boone and Christopher Myers for their roles in the attack. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Hays never responded to the lawsuit. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
Luther Hall speaks with news reporters in the KMOV TV studio in St. Louis, Mo., on April 6, 2022. A St. Louis judge on Monday, April 15, 2024, awarded nearly $23.5 million to Hall, a former police officer who was beaten by colleagues while working undercover during a 2017 protest. (Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting Wednesday as Wall Street waits to hear from the Federal Reserve about where interest rates may be heading.
The S&P 500 was down 0.3% in afternoon trading, coming off its first losing month in the last six. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 142 points, or 0.4%, as of 1:43 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.
CVS Health tumbled 16.6% after reporting weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It said it’s been hurt by increased costs at its Medicare Advantage business, and it cut its forecast for profit over the full year.
Other big names also dragged on the market following their profit reports, including Starbucks, Advanced Micro Devices and Super Micro Computer. But the focus is on Washington, D.C., where the Federal Reserve will announce its latest move on interest rates in the afternoon.
No one expects the Fed to make any change to its main interest rate, which is sitting at its highest level since 2001 in hopes of grinding down on the economy enough to get inflation under control. But Fed Chair Jerome Powell will give a press conference after the rate announcement, and he could give some guidance about the chances for a cut to rates later this year.
He recently hinted rates may stay high for a while as Fed officials wait for more confirmation inflation is heading down toward their 2% target. That was a disappointment for Wall Street, after the Fed earlier had indicated it was penciling in three cuts to rates during 2024.
Traders had been even more optimistic after coming into the year forecasting six or more cuts to rates. Now, many are betting on the possibility of just one, if any, according to data from CME Group. A string of reports on inflation this year that have come in stubbornly higher than forecast has dashed hopes for multiple rate cuts.
Without the benefit of easing rates, which can goose the economy and investment prices, companies will need to deliver better profits.
Starbucks dropped 17.2% after falling short of expectations for both profit and revenue in the latest quarter. Sales trends weakened at its stores outside the United States in particular, and it cut its full-year forecasts for profit and revenue.
Super Micro Computer, which has been one of Wall Street’s hottest stars, gave back 14.6% despite topping expectations for profit. The company, which sells server and storage systems used in AI and other computing, fell shy of analysts’ forecasts for revenue. Expectations had bult up after its stock had already tripled this year amid a broader frenzy on Wall Street around artificial-intelligence technology.
Advanced Micro Devices dropped 9.1% despite reporting profit that matched expectations. Its revenue came in a bit shy of forecasts, as did the midpoint of its forecasted range for revenue in the current quarter.
They helped to offset a 1.6% gain for Amazon, which reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The retail behemoth credited reaccelerating growth at its cloud-computing business, in part, as it benefits from demand for AI.
Chemical producer DuPont was another winner, up 7.1%, after reporting stronger profit than expected. It said demand from customers in the semiconductor industry continued to recover.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased a bit following some weaker-than-expected reports on the economy.
One report from the Institute for Supply Management said the U.S. manufacturing sector unexpectedly fell back into contraction last month. Economists had been looking for one of the hardest-hit areas of the economy to stay steady. Perhaps more concerningly, manufacturers also reported prices were rising at a faster rate.
A separate report said U.S. employers were advertising slightly fewer jobs at the end of March than economists expected. The hope on Wall Street has been that a cooldown in the number of openings could help keep the job market in check, not allowing it to get so hot that it adds upward pressure on workers' wages and inflation overall. The downside is that if it weakens too much, a major support for the economy could give out.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.65% from 4.68% late Wednesday.
The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, eased to 5.01% from 5.04%. It's still near its highest level since November.
In stock markets abroad, many exchanges were shut for holidays. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.3%, and London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.3%.
AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimon Zhong contributed.
A banner for cruise operator Viking, marking its initial public offering, hangs on the front of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, May 1, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
FILE - A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, on April 22, 2024. Asian stocks fell Wednesday, May 1, 2024 with most of the markets in the region closed for a holiday. Meanwhile, U.S. stocks closed out their worst month since September. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
FILE- A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's stock prices at a securities firm in Tokyo, on April 30, 2024. Asian stocks fell Wednesday, May 1, 2024 with most of the markets in the region closed for a holiday. Meanwhile, U.S. stocks closed out their worst month since September. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
