Larry Moreau and his family were cruising the Lake of the Ozarks on a sunny Saturday last May when they noticed a Missouri Highway Patrol boat race past them. Moreau, an engineer from nearby Jefferson City, recalls looking down at the speedometer on his boat and seeing that it read 32 mph. The patrol boat, containing a trooper and another man standing next to each other, was traveling much faster than that.
A few moments later the patrol boat came into view again. This time it was stopped in the middle of the lake's main channel. In front of the boat, a few hundred feet away, was something else.
"My wife said, 'There's somebody in the water.' It scared me something fierce, and I came to a complete stop," says Moreau.
A man's head was bobbing up and down in the wake. A few feet away from him floated a life jacket, and though the Moreaus couldn't see the swimmer's arms, he seemed to grab at the flotation device once or twice only to let it go. Moreau witnessed the trooper, now alone onboard the highway-patrol boat, "messing with his controls." Finally, the officer navigated the vessel back toward the man in the water. At one point the officer was close enough to touch the man, but as this happened, Moreau says, the trooper, Anthony Piercy, moved to the opposite side of the boat.
From their vantage point a few hundred feet away, the Moreaus started quizzing each other about what might be happening. It was dangerous to swim in the lake's main channel on such a busy day, but the trooper and the man looked oddly at ease — like friends enjoying an afternoon dip.
"[The trooper] didn't bend over or do anything" to grab the man, Moreau says, nor did the officer seem to panic or send emergency cues. "My son said, 'Dad, is this a training exercise?' My wife was like, 'No way. They wouldn't do that in the middle of the lake.'"
Another 30 seconds passed, and again the waves began carrying the boat away from the man. A party barge full of people soon arrived, and its occupants also took in the scene. The Moreaus, now convinced nothing was wrong, headed back to their marina.
As they pulled into their boat slip a few minutes later, another trooper was frantically jumping onto a patrol boat docked nearby. "Hey, one of your guys lost his passenger out there!" Moreau joked. The officer fired back: "That's not a passenger. That's a suspect, and he's gone."
That's when Moreau and his family realized what they saw. "My God, that person was handcuffed," he recalls saying.
Two hours later, at about 7:30 p.m., the Moreaus were still at the marina when the party barge returned. Its passengers confirmed their fears. The handcuffed man, who the Moreaus would later learn was twenty-year-old Brandon Ellingson, had continued to tread water for three more minutes. Eventually the trooper tried reaching out to Brandon with a pole. When that didn't work, he finally took off his firearm and holster, kicked off his shoes and dove in.
"Then they both went under, and the trooper came up alone," one of the party-barge passengers would later testify to highway-patrol officials. "The last words I heard from the victim were, 'Oh my God.'"
While listening to the passengers recount their story, Moreau noticed two young men in his peripheral vision. They approached and asked what everyone was discussing.
"I guess this kid drowned on a water-patrol boat," Moreau's wife, Paulette, told them. One of the two young men, Brandon's best friend, Brody Baumann, went pale and vomited.
Baumann isn't the only one who has become sick over the handcuffed drowning of Brandon Ellingson. Nine months later his death continues to torment the young man's family, friends and even complete strangers, such as Larry Moreau, all of whom want answers from a highway patrol that they believe has been less than forthcoming about the events of that day.
Had been following this ...
obviously a huge effort to cover up by the trooper and highway patrol.
Even watched a live feed of a hearing and all the officials really looked like dough heads.
Not very good at lying dough heads too.
Terribly SAD deal.
Death of Brandon Ellingson, who drowned in handcuffs, gets another look
By LAURA BAUER -
The Kansas City Star
A special prosecutor is taking a new look at the case of a handcuffed Iowa man who drowned after he fell from a Missouri trooper’s boat.
Amanda Grellner acknowledged that she is reviewing the case after receiving new information. Four months ago, she declined to press charges against Missouri Highway Patrol trooper Anthony Piercy after a coroner’s inquest found Brandon Ellingson’s death in the Lake of the Ozarks to be an accident.
For the new review, investigators with the Missouri Highway Patrol have reinterviewed witnesses in recent weeks, including a husband and wife who, with their son, saw Ellingson in the water minutes before he drowned and who saw his life vest float away.
“There are a few things that I asked them (investigators) to follow up on that I wanted to have cleared up,” said Grellner, the Osage County prosecutor.
She would not elaborate on what aspects she is reviewing and said she couldn’t comment publicly about specifics of the investigation.
The case, which has garnered an online following across the country, also has been forwarded to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has met with Ellingson’s family and personally asked Holder to review the case to see whether any federal laws were violated. No time frame has been given on that review.
Sherry Ellingson, Brandon’s mother, said she doesn’t think her son’s death was thoroughly investigated. She emailed Grellner in the fall after Larry and Paulette Moreau told her they had contacted the special prosecutor to say that the inquest jury hadn’t heard all of their information. They were not called to testify at the inquest.
“I reached out to her (Grellner) as a mom,” Ellingson said. “I was just wanting to understand how they could have had that pass as the investigation. Not having all the testimony, not putting together a timeline.”
Having the prosecutor take another look is a “good sign,” Ellingson said. “I’m hopeful, but I can’t help but be incredibly skeptical, too.”
Grellner’s review of the case comes after The Star spent months investigating Ellingson’s death and the merger of the Missouri Water Patrol into the Highway Patrol that ultimately led to Piercy working on the water. The paper uncovered several mistakes Piercy made the day Ellingson drowned, as well as discrepancies in Piercy’s account of events. The Star also found missteps in the way the merger was handled, including the lack of training road troopers such as Piercy had before they were cleared to patrol in a boat.
Patrol officials say Piercy cannot be interviewed because of a pending civil lawsuit filed by Brandon Ellingson’s family. Lt. John Hotz, a patrol spokesman, said that all he could say about the case review was that patrol investigators had conducted additional interviews in recent weeks.
Ellingson drowned on May 31. The 20-year-old from Clive, Iowa, was partying with friends when Piercy pulled him over soon after the group left a lakeside bar and restaurant.
Piercy arrested Ellingson for boating while intoxicated and cuffed his hands behind his back. Piercy then placed him in a life vest with armholes that could not be secured on a person already in handcuffs. As the trooper transported Ellingson to a zone office for a breath test, the young man fell from the boat.
The Moreaus witnessed Piercy’s boat speed past them and saw the trooper and Ellingson seemingly chatting. Seconds later, the couple said, they saw Piercy’s boat stop ahead of them. Ellingson was in the water, keeping his head above the surface, and his life vest was floating away. They didn’t know he was in handcuffs.
In June, the Moreaus told a patrol investigator that once Piercy had maneuvered his boat next to Ellingson, the trooper showed no urgency in helping the man in the water, didn’t turn on his red lights and didn’t motion for them to assist. The family eventually left the area thinking the trooper had everything under control.
At the time of the summer interview, the couple thought that the incident had been captured on the video camera on Piercy’s patrol boat and that their recollections — which they say they briefly gave the investigator — would be used to clarify what was on tape. It was only after subsequent news stories that they realized the patrol didn’t have video of the arrest because, according to testimony, Piercy’s boat did not have a digital storage card in place that day.
Larry Moreau’s initial interview with a trooper several months ago lasted about 15 minutes. Earlier this month, he said that same trooper and another investigator interviewed him for nearly 11/2 hours.
“I don’t think the truth had been told,” Larry Moreau said. “We are tickled to death they are relooking at this.
“I feel confident they now know exactly what I saw. And I appreciate the opportunity. It’s long overdue.”
Paulette Moreau was interviewed this past week for more than an hour. She said she was able to tell in depth what she saw and how Piercy’s boat “came from out of nowhere, lickety-split.” GPS data from the boat showed it going as fast as 46 mph while Ellingson was on board and at speeds of 39.1 and 43.7 mph immediately before he went overboard.
Moreau also told the investigators that from the time her family saw the event, the trooper didn’t appear to be in a hurry to help Ellingson.
She said she did think the investigator she spoke with back in June was more engaged this time. He asked more questions and was more thorough.
“I felt like it was a different demeanor today than I experienced before,” Paulette Moreau said Wednesday, hours after she sat with the two investigators for the interview.
The Moreaus’ testimony has called some initial details into question. Piercy told jurors at the inquest that Ellingson was sitting during the transport and stood up right before he went over the side of the boat.
Yet the Moreaus said that when the patrol boat went past them, Ellingson was standing and appeared to be talking with the trooper.
Other discrepancies and missteps have come out during the investigative process.
Piercy told a supervisor shortly after the incident that once he initiated the stop of Ellingson for boating while intoxicated, he realized his boat camera wasn’t loaded with a digital storage card. The card would have recorded the entire stop and transportation of Ellingson to a patrol zone office.
But at the inquest, Piercy told jurors he discovered that the card was missing earlier in his shift when he pulled over a family for having children seated in the wrong section of their boat.
Another discrepancy centered on the fanny-pack flotation device that Piercy wore on May 31.
Jim Bascue, a water taxi captain who came upon Piercy’s boat, told jurors that he helped Piercy get back to his boat after Ellingson disappeared under the water. Bascue said the trooper took off his flotation device and threw it on the boat’s dash, saying, “This darned thing didn’t even go off. It didn’t even activate.”
The flotation device came up again in two conversations Piercy had with Sgt. Randy Henry, according to an audio recording of an interview of Henry by Highway Patrol investigators.
Later in the evening of May 31, Piercy called Henry and told him that once he jumped in the water to try to save Ellingson, he waited for his flotation device to auto-inflate. Henry told him that the type of device he was wearing doesn’t auto-inflate, to which Piercy reportedly said, “Oh, I thought they did.”
Henry said he then told Piercy: “You have to pull the ripcord.”
A few days later, Piercy talked again with Henry. At that time, Henry told the investigators, Piercy said he wished he had pulled the ripcord. He didn’t mention anything about thinking the device would auto-inflate.
At the inquest in September, Piercy told jurors that when he was in the water with Ellingson, he struggled to find the ripcord so he could bring them both to the surface. When he eventually found the cord, he said, he no longer had hold of Ellingson, so he didn’t pull it.
The goal now, said the Moreaus — as well as the Ellingson family — is for Grellner to hear all the information. They say they hope that now that some lingering questions have been answered, more action will be taken.
And in the future, Paulette Moreau said, agencies should not be allowed to investigate themselves after a critical incident such as Ellingson’s drowning.
“I hold out hope the right thing happens, but I just don’t know,” she said. “I can’t stand the thought of someone losing their life and changes not coming from it. Positive changes.”
Special Prosecutor In Handcuffed Drowning Of Brandon Ellingson Removes Herself
Laura Bauer/The Kansas City Star (TNS)
A special prosecutor reviewing how a young Iowa man drowned in handcuffs in the Lake of the Ozarks has stepped aside, saying it would be a conflict if she stayed on the case.
Osage County Prosecutor Amanda Grellner on Wednesday filed a motion to recuse herself. She told The Star that she was close to a decision on whether to pursue criminal charges in the death of Brandon Ellingson, but would not say what that was.
She said she had stepped down because of a “conflict that developed recently in the additional investigation that is being performed.” She would not say what that conflict was.
“I feel I have no choice,” Grellner said in a telephone interview. “I have asked the judge to appoint another prosecutor so that person can give this case the additional attention it deserves and review the additional information I was able to obtain when I reopened it. ... I believe it’s very important that a new prosecutor be appointed.”
Ellingson drowned in May 2014 while in the custody of a Missouri Highway Patrol trooper. Jurors at a coroner’s inquest in September found the death to be accidental, and Grellner announced days later that she would not file criminal charges against the trooper, Anthony Piercy.
Grellner decided to review the case in January because she had received new information. Patrol investigators re-interviewed several witnesses, and family and friends of Ellingson felt encouraged.
They were waiting for Grellner’s decision when they heard Wednesday that she had stepped aside.
“It’s frustrating,” said Craig Ellingson, Brandon’s father. “I’m not going to stop pursuing them until they are criminally charged for killing my son. ... If anything, I’m more determined than ever.”
Ellingson, along with Brandon’s mother, Sherry, and sister, Jennifer, has filed a civil lawsuit against the Highway Patrol, Piercy and several commanders, including Col. Ronald K. Replogle, the patrol’s superintendent, who has announced he will retire later this year.
The case, which has garnered an extensive online following across the country, also is being reviewed by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, asked Holder to examine the case to see whether federal laws were violated.
Brandon Ellingson was a 20-year-old college student partying with friends on May 31 when Piercy pulled him over soon after the group left a lakeside bar and restaurant.
Piercy arrested Ellingson for boating while intoxicated and cuffed his hands behind his back. Piercy then placed Ellingson in a life vest with armholes that could not be secured on a person already in handcuffs. As the trooper took Ellingson to a zone office for a breath test, the young man fell from the boat. Piercy eventually jumped in to try to save him, but couldn’t.
Grellner’s review of the case came after The Star investigated Ellingson’s death and the merger of the Missouri Water Patrol into the Highway Patrol that ultimately put Piercy, a veteran highway trooper, on the water.
The paper uncovered several mistakes Piercy made the day Ellingson drowned, as well as discrepancies in Piercy’s accounts of events. The Star also found missteps in the way the merger was handled, including a lack of training for road troopers before they were cleared to patrol in boats.
The Highway Patrol did not return a phone call Wednesday regarding Grellner’s recusal. Patrol officials have said Piercy cannot be interviewed because of the civil lawsuit.
Grellner spent eight months on the case. She said Wednesday that it was tough to step aside.
The case, she said, “has been challenging because of every nuance ... including the gravity of what happened that day.”
Trooper Demoted After Criticizing Highway Patrol In Wake Of Handcuffed Drowning
LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — A Missouri Highway Patrol trooper who spoke out against the agency after the drowning death of an Iowa man has been disciplined.
Sgt. Randy Henry has been demoted to corporal and moved from Lake of the Ozarks where he’s patrolled for nearly three decades. Henry now is assigned to Truman Lake, according to his attorney, Chet Pleban of St. Louis, who sent out a release Thursday detailing the discipline and referring to his client as a whistleblower.
In the days after Brandon Ellingson’s death, Henry told investigators what Trooper Anthony Piercy told him the night a handcuffed Ellingson died. The college student was in Piercy’s custody.
But Piercy’s account later, as well as his testimony to a coroner’s inquest, was different. Henry also testified in front of a legislative committee about minimal trooper training after the Water Patrol merged into the Highway Patrol in 2011.
“Randy Henry doesn’t have a horse in the race,” Pleban told The Star. “He’s not on one side or the other. He has testimony to give that’s material. The truth is the truth. He went to his superiors to say, ‘This is wrong. This is what happened.’ And they blew him off. So now here we are.”
The reason for the discipline has not been disclosed.
A patrol spokesman said he could not comment.
“As with any personnel issue with the Highway Patrol, I’m not at liberty to be able to discuss that,” said Lt. Paul Reinsch.
Earlier this week, Henry appealed the discipline and transfer from Lake of the Ozarks.
“You’re going to make that man move from his home, where he’s lived for 19 years, and force him to move to Truman Lake?” Pleban said. “And you’re going to say that’s not retaliation, malicious and vindictive?”
Ellingson drowned May 31, 2014, while in the custody of Piercy, a veteran road trooper. Jurors at the September coroner’s inquest found the death to be accidental, and special prosecutor Amanda Grellner announced days later that she would not file criminal charges against Piercy, who had been on the Highway Patrol for 18 years.
Since Ellingson’s death, the patrol’s marine operations — especially along Missouri’s most popular waterways — have been under scrutiny. A special House Committee met for several months last year and in January released a report calling on the state to correct flaws created by the 2011 merger of the Missouri Water Patrol into the Highway Patrol.
Among the changes it called for: an overhaul in training troopers for the water and recruitment of specialized officers to patrol by boat. The committee also called for an update from the patrol in six months and a thorough inspection of changes in two years.
Henry told legislators that road troopers who helped out on the lake part time received four weeks of classroom training.
“The field training of the (part-time officers) was very, very minimal,” he said.
Days after Ellingson’s death, Henry was interviewed by patrol investigators looking into the incident. At one point during the interview, a recording shows, Henry had questioned whether the highest degree of care was taken with Ellingson that day. When he mentioned a state law pertaining to that, his sentence was cut off and one investigator insisted the recorder be turned off.
Earlier this month, Henry was deposed in the civil suit the Ellingson family has filed against the patrol, Piercy and top commanders. In a letter to the patrol superintendent, Col. Bret Johnson, Pleban stated: “You might want to educate yourself by requesting a copy of the transcript of Sgt. Henry’s deposition so that you can fully comprehend his status as a whistle blower.”
Pleban said Thursday that the patrol set out to retaliate against Henry.
In recent months, the patrol sent Henry to a mental-health provider for an examination, according to a letter Pleban sent to patrol commanders. No cause for concern was noted, the attorney said.
Henry was sent for a second exam. Again, no concern.
“Ultimately, the mental-health provider warned that because she found nothing wrong with Sgt. Henry, it would be unethical for her to see him a third time at the insistence of the patrol,” Pleban wrote to Johnson. “When the mental health route failed, a Professional Standards investigation surfaced.”
The nature of the complaint or who filed it has not been disclosed, but Pleban said it was related to the Ellingson case.
According to a letter Pleban wrote the former patrol superintendent, Col. Ron Replogle — who has retired — Henry was accused of disseminating confidential information.
On May 31, 2014, Piercy was helping patrol the lake during peak water season. He pulled over the college student on suspicion of boating while intoxicated.
The trooper first handcuffed Ellingson’s wrists behind his back and then, according to witnesses, pulled an already buckled life vest, with armholes, over his head and upper torso. The vest, which wasn’t properly secured, came off shortly after Ellingson entered the water during transport to a zone office for a breathalyzer test.
In an extensive investigation into Ellingson’s death, The Star discovered that Piercy had just two days of field training before he was released to patrol on the water alone. The trooper told jurors in the coroner’s inquest that he hadn’t received the proper training to handle what happened the day Ellingson drowned.
Piercy’s boat was traveling between 39.1 and 43.7 mph in the moments before Ellingson entered the water. During the investigation, the patrol re-created the speed of Piercy’s boat that day. The Star obtained that video showing a patrol investigator needed to hold onto a pole as the boat reached speeds of 38 to 40 mph.
Ellingson, Brandon’s father, has said for the past year that Piercy should be held accountable for what happened to his son. A special prosecutor, who took on the case earlier this year after the previous prosecutor recused herself, is still reviewing the case, and so is the U.S. Department of Justice.
Contacted Thursday, Craig Ellingson said Henry’s discipline is wrong.
“That’s pretty pathetic,” Craig Ellingson said. “It’s retaliation. They shouldn’t be doing that.”
What a mess. No action against the officer who seems to be clearly responsible for this kid's death, but discipline against a 30 year veteran of the force for being honest. I hope the family puts the screws to them in the civil suit and I hope the local's down there keep pressure on for proper training.
State Rep. Says Trooper Demotion ‘Looks And Sounds Like A Poor Move’
by Nathan Bechtold
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — State Representative Rocky Miller says the recent move to demote and relocate Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant Randy Henry could be trouble, but he says he won’t seek any action against the patrol or any other party until disciplinary procedures are complete.
Henry was the voice of dissent when the Highway Patrol came into the spotlight in 2014, after a handcuffed 20-year-old drowned while in the custody of a supplemental MSHP trooper on the Lake of the Ozarks. In a public hearing before a state House of Representatives committee, Henry told legislators about his concerns regarding the training process for supplemental troopers—those who would primarily have road duty but who could also patrol the water on busy weekends.
Henry had served as a trooper on the Lake of the Ozarks for nearly three decades, but the patrol has moved to demote him from sergeant to corporal and relocate him from Missouri’s busiest recreational body of water to neighboring Truman Lake. Henry has appealed the discipline and transfer.
Rep. Miller said in a press release that the “supposed demotion and transfer… looks and sounds like a poor move by the Highway Patrol.”
However, Miller noted, “a statutory, legal method for handling discipline is in place and has not yet been completed.”
District 123 Representative Diane Franklin clarified on Wednesday that, contrary to early reports, Henry has not been officially demoted (he is still a sergeant). Franklin said the disciplinary process and review has begun as the result of a complaint that was levied against Henry.
After the review process—which is laid out in Missouri state statute, and requires six random members of the MSHP to meet and handle the issue—is complete, Miller says, based on the facts that are uncovered, he will have a better idea of whether to pursue any legal action.
“When it is appropriate, I will take any and all legal actions to protect our citizens and our Lake,” Miller concluded. Franklin concurred that no decision could be made by legislators until the internal review process is complete.
Missouri trooper charged in handcuffed Iowa man's drowning
VERSAILLES, Mo. — A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper was charged Friday with involuntary manslaughter in the drowning death of an Iowa man who fell from a patrol boat while he was handcuffed at the Lake of the Ozarks.
Special prosecutor William Camm announced the charge Friday against trooper Anthony Piercy in the May 31, 2014, death of Brandon Ellingson, 20, of suburban Des Moines. Piercy, 44, was placed on leave without pay, the patrol said in a statement Friday.
Piercy had arrested Ellingson for boating while intoxicated and was taking him to a patrol zone office. Witnesses have said Piercy placed an already buckled life vest over Ellingson's head and didn't property secure it. Ellingson's life vest came off shortly after he went into the water, and Piercy eventually jumped into the water but was unable to save Ellingson. His body was recovered the next day from the lake bottom.
Piercy's actions on the day Ellingson died were reckless, Seay said.
"I have reviewed boxes and boxes of reports and records in regard to Mr. Piercy's training and experience and everything that was done in the investigation," he said. "I have charged him (Piercy) with recklessly causing the death. ... It relates to an unjustifiable risk being taken."
Online records do not show that Piercy has an attorney to speak for him and no phone number was listed for his home address in Versailles.
The drowning led to legislative hearings about the decision to merge the state's water and highway patrols into one unit. A legislative report found that the merger resulted in less training for troopers working on state waterways, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/1k6IFDl ).
Piercy, who had previously patrolled roads, told jurors during a coroner's inquest in September that he hadn't received the proper training to handle what happened the day Ellingson drowned. Jurors found the death to be accidental, and special prosecutor Amanda Grellner did not file criminal charges against Piercy. In January, Grellner reopened the investigation but Seay, a city attorney in Salem, Missouri, took over the case in March after Grellner said she had a conflict.
A Justice for Brandon movement began after his death and Ellingson's parents, Sherry and Craig Ellison, of Clive, Iowa, have pushed hard to have Piercy held accountable for their son's death.
Craig Ellingson said Friday that he was happy Piercy was charged.
"But it should have been a lot earlier," he said. "I think it has been a cover-up from the beginning. They had everything. They knew what Piercy did to my son."
Patrol Sgt. Randy Henry, whom Piercy called the night of the drowning, testified during legislative hearings that road troopers who help at the lake on a part-time basis receive little field training. After he retired earlier this year, Henry said several things went wrong the day the younger Ellingson died and he contended the patrol covered up the problems, in part to shield Gov. Jay Nixon from criticism for pushing the merger of the two patrol units.
A special House committee in January urged the state to correct problems created by the 2011 merger, suggesting overhauling training for troopers for the water and recruiting specialized officers to patrol by boat. The committee was told last month that some of the changes had occurred.
