Former Ferguson officer gets probation in man’s beating

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (AP) — A federal judge sentenced a former Ferguson police officer to three years for probation for beating a handcuffed man and filing a false police report. Sixty-three-year-old Jackie Matthews was sentenced Wednesday. He pleaded guilty in January to falsifying information in a federal investigation. Court filings say Matthews beat the man, identified in court as “G.R.,” after officers responded to a domestic disturbance call in March 2020. Investigators said Matthews and the man began arguing after he was handcuffed and the fight escalated to Matthews hitting the man several times in the face. Matthews was fired in May 2020, about a year after he joined the Ferguson police force.