2 former Missouri police officers accused of federal civil rights violations

ST. LOUIS — Two former police officers in a small St. Louis suburb are facing a federal indictment alleging that a man was beaten with a police baton while handcuffed.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced the indictment accusing Samuel Davis and Michael Hill of federal civil rights violations. Both formerly worked as officers in Northwoods, Missouri, a town of about 4,200 residents.

The indictment said the officers encountered a man at a Walgreens on July 4, 2023. Hill, who was a supervisor, told Davis to take the man to nearby Kinloch, Missouri, and Davis took the handcuffed man to a field and struck him with his police baton, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Davis told a dispatcher that the man was gone before Davis arrived at the Walgreens, and turned off his body camera, according to the indictment. It said Hill lied to FBI agents investigating the incident.

Both former officers have turned themselves in. Davis' lawyer, Neil Bruntrager, said his client will plead not guilty. Hill did not yet have a listed attorney.