No charges in handcuffed man’s death

A special prosecutor says she will not file criminal charges against a Missouri Highway Patrol trooper in the drowning of a man who fell from the trooper’s boat on the Lake of the Ozarks.

Monday’s announcement by Amanda Grellner follows last week’s conclusion by jurors at a coroner’s inquest that the death of 20-year-old Brandon Ellingson was accidental. The jury found that Trooper Anthony Piercy was not criminally negligent in the May 31 drowning.

Ellingson, a college student from Clive, Iowa, was being transported by Piercy after being arrested on suspicion of boating while intoxicated. Ellison was handcuffed when he somehow went into the water. His life vest came off, and he drowned.

Grellner said the trooper’s actions did not meet the legal definition of criminal recklessness.