Ex-St. Louis officer declines plea deal in colleague beating

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former St. Louis police officer who was set to plead guilty in the 2017 beating of a Black colleague who was working undercover is now taking his case to trial. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Christopher Myers’ trial on a federal charge of destruction of evidence is scheduled for May 2. He had been set to plead guilty Tuesday to a misdemeanor charge of deprivation of rights, in which he would have admitted to damaging Detective Luther Hall’s phone on the night Hall was beaten by fellow officers. Myers, who is white, would have agreed to a sentence of probation in the deal. Now, he faces years in prison if he’s convicted.