Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat.
A third former police officer has been indicted in the U.S. Court for Southern Illinois on civil rights charges for their alleged roles in the macing of two juvenile prisoners as they slept in an East St. Louis holding cell.
Juan McCoy, formerly of the East St. Louis Police Department, was indicted Wednesday in connection with the incident, which occurred in October of 2019. The grand jury’s indictment charges McCoy with two counts of deprivation of rights under the color of law and one count of conspiracy against rights.
Police department surveillance video of men in police uniforms spraying a substance on a sleeping teenager surfaced in police circles in 2022. It’s not clear why the video surfaced or who released it.
The beginning of the video shows an officer pulling something from his belt and opening the cell door. He reaches into the cell but a wall obstructs part of the view of what is happening inside. The officer then closes the cell door, and seconds later, the young man in the cell reacts in distress.
The young man’s reaction is visible through a large window next to the cell door. Another officer appears to glance into the holding cell at the juvenile while he is in distress and wiping his eyes. The other officer is not shown giving any aid to the juvenile She turns away and appears to be talking to someone at a counter across from the cell. The Belleville News-Democrat obtained a copy of the video.
In April, former East St. Louis officers Vincent Anderson and Jason Boyd both pleaded guilty on charges related to the incident.
The first two counts against McCoy allege a “willful failure” to intervene to stop another officer’s “unreasonable use of force.” It says he knew another officer intended to use the pepper spray against the juvenile, “which was not legally warranted,” while he was being detained in the holding cell despite having “the realistic opportunity to do so,” according to the indictment.
The third charge alleges McCoy agreed with the officer who sprayed the first juvenile that he should also spray the second, despite knowing that officer had no legal justification to do so, the indictment states, and that it was done to “injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate the second juvenile victim.”
Carolyn P. Smith is a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
