Judge reverses department’s decision to revoke former trooper’s peace officer license

A judge has reversed the Missouri Department of Public Safety’s decision to revoke former Highway Patrol Trooper Anthony Piercy’s peace officer license.

The order, entered by Judge Daniel Green, sends the disciplinary proceedings back the the department of public safety to decide what to do.

In May 2014, Brandon Ellingson drowned at the Lake of the Ozarks while in Piercy’s custody for boating while intoxicated. Piercy pleaded guilty to negligent operation of a vessel last year for using the wrong type of life jacket on Ellingson while he was handcuffed. Piercy was sentenced to 10 days in jail and two years of supervised probation.

Last year Piercy appeared before Director of Public Safety Drew Juden in a hearing concerning whether or not Piercy should keep his peace officer license.

Judge Green said that Juden’s decision did not comply with law, since it didn’t come with a “findings of fact and conclusions of law.”

Sandra Karsten currently serves as the director of the department of public safety. Karsten fired Piercy in 2017 when she was a colonel at the Missouri State Highway Patrol. That decision is currently being litigated in appeals court, after Cole County Judge Patricia Joyce ruled Karsten’s firing was unlawful.

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