Former Columbia police officers seen in beating video hired as Callaway County deputies
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Two former Columbia Police Department officers who resigned amid blowback from a video showing a violent confrontation outside a downtown bar have been hired in Callaway County.
Callaway County interim Sheriff Darryl Maylee wrote in an email Friday to ABC 17 News that the sheriff's office hired Keenen Shouse and Gardner Pottorff as road deputies.
"This decision by me was not taken lightly and both have since completed their field training and are very productive and entrusted members of our agency," Maylee wrote.
Shouse and Pottorff resigned from CPD amid a public furor over a video showing them violently subduing a man outside Harpo's bar early May 7. An attorney for the officers says the man, Lee Martin, kicked one of them during the brawl.
A grand jury declined to indict the officers and their resignation ended an internal affairs investigation.
Martin has filed a federal lawsuit against the two officers.
Pottorff was also named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Alfred Jacobs Jr., the father of Quillan Jacobs. Quillan Jacobs was shot and killed by Columbia police in 2021.
The lawsuit accuses Pottorff and Turner Schuster of excessive use of force and wrongful death after they shot Quillan Jacobs 13 times in the early morning of Nov. 14, 2021. The petition also accuses the City of Columbia of depriving Quillan Jacobs of his constitutional rights. The officers were cleared in the shooting by prosecutors in May 2022.
Anthony Willroth, of Hold CoMo Accountable -- a group formed earlier this year that stated its goal is for more accountability and transparency from the City of Columbia -- wrote in a statement that Keenen and Shouse's move was disappointing.
"This is disappointing and indicative of the complete lack of accountability police officers will ever face in Missouri," Willwroth wrote. "We raised concerns back in May that with no internal affairs investigation having taken place after officers Shouse and Pottorf resigned their employment that there would never be an opportunity for accountability in this case. This simply proves that to be true."
