Trooper who criticized patrol custody death at the Lake retires
The Missouri state trooper who says he was unfairly punished after criticizing the Highway Patrol is now retiring.
On Friday, a lawyer for Cpl. Randy Henry confirmed he is leaving the agency, wanting nothing else to do with the organization. He will still be available to testify about the Brandon Ellingson case if necessary.
Henry appealed his demotion in June, claiming the Highway Patrol targeted him for his criticism of the way the agency trained its new Water Patrol members. The Highway Patrol announced Friday afternoon they no longer considered Henry an “active employee,” and canceled Henry’s procedural hearing set for November 2.
Henry criticized the agency after the Ellingson case. Afterwards, he was demoted to a corporal and then forced to move from the Lake of the Ozarks to the Truman Lake area after nearly 30 years of service.
Brandon Ellingson, 20, died in May last year, after falling off another trooper’s boat while he was handcuffed, before slipping out of a life jacket while in custody of the patrol for suspicion of boating while intoxicated.
An official coroner’s inquest ruled his death accidental, but it later sparked intense scrutiny from lawmakers in Jefferson City. State hearings focused specifically on how troopers are trained, and what the protocol is for life jackets. Extensive cuts were made to the agency after Gov. Nixon decided to merge the water patrol with the highway patrol in 2011.
There were no criminal charges ever filed in Ellingson’s death, after the prosecutor stepped down from his case this March, citing an unspecified conflict of interest.
(Editor’s note, 10/30, 5:23 p.m.: The headline of the story has changed from “Trooper who criticized patrol custody death at the Lake resigns” to “Trooper who criticized patrol custody death at the Lake retires.”)
