A former St. Louis police officer was on January 31 indicted on 36 federal costs after he was accused of sexually assaulting 19 male detainees. In keeping with the St. Louis Put up-Dispatch, 34-year-old Marcellis Blackwell was with the North County Police Cooperative when he sodomized, abused, and groped the male victims.
Blackwell is alleged to have dedicated the sexual assault crimes on male detainees he had both arrested or restricted their means to react. The previous police officer had been with the North County Police Cooperative for only a 12 months when he was arrested and charged in reference to the sexual assaults.
In addition to doctoring some data to stop himself from being implicated, authorities additionally stated the suspect in some situations sexually abused a number of victims in a day. The costs introduced in opposition to Blackwell got here after he was accused of arresting and sexually assaulting a person positioned in handcuffs. That incident occurred near the Normandy Excessive Faculty, and he was charged in reference to that assault in June. The previous police officer was subsequently handed a 16-felony indictment by a federal grand jury in September.
Authorities stated the boys Blackwell is accused of sexually assaulting continued to return ahead, including that investigators who seemed by way of his private and work telephones discovered a number of movies and photographs of him committing these crimes, the St. Louis Put up-Disptach reported. Secret photographs of individuals utilizing public restrooms or small elevators had been additionally discovered on these units, courtroom paperwork acknowledged.
Blackwell resigned within the wake of the allegations. His alleged actions had been additionally labeled as “massively disheartening” by division spokesman, Maj. Ron Martin. In December, a choose ordered the 34-year-old suspect to stay in custody as he posed a risk to the security of the group and will make a run for it earlier than the courtroom settled his instances.
