St. Louis officer sentenced for berating handcuffed man

ST. LOUIS – A former St. Louis police officer has been sentenced to four months in jail for handcuffing a man and then driving him around and berating him over an argument the man had with the officer’s fiancée.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Kenneth Grooms II was sentenced Thursday in federal court for a misdemeanour civil rights violation.

Prosecutors said he deprived the victim of his constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure in May 2018 when he drove the man around in his police SUV while in uniform, slamming on the brakes to throw the man around in the backseat.

Prosecutors say he also stopped in an alley and pushed the man before releasing him. The defence said Grooms’ fiancée, now wife, had been threatened while she was pregnant.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com