Michael Waller was beaten by a St. Louis police officer, Thomas A. Carroll, in 2014. Carroll is no longer on the force, and is in fact serving a sentence of 52 months for the incident, but the aftermath is still reverberating through the legal community.
As described in an ethics opinion, after Carroll beat up Waller, who he believed had broken into his daughter’s car, Carroll told his friend, a prosecutor, Bliss Worrell about it. Worrell then told two other prosecutors, Ambry Nichole Schuessler and Katherine Anne Dierdorf, of the beating and called Carroll on speakerphone and let him tell the three assembled prosecutors himself. As reported by ABA Journal, Schuessler responded not with shock or horror, but with a homophobic and racist joke:
Later that day, Worrell brought a cellphone into an office where Dierdorf and Schuessler were sitting and let Carroll tell his own story on speakerphone.
During the phone call, the detective said he kicked the suspect, punched him in the face, hit him in the back with a chair and stuck a gun in his mouth, the opinion said. Schuessler then commented, “I bet that’s not the first big, black thing he’s had in his mouth.”
Worrell then filed false charges against Waller, including a felony charge of fleeing custody, to justify his injuries. Worrell told Dierdorf and Schuessler, as well as another prosecutor, about the charges she filed against Waller. That other prosecutor, accompanied by Schuessler, reported Worrell’s charges against Waller to a supervisor. During the inquiry, Dierdorf told Schuessler that, “I told them I don’t know anything. You don’t tell them you know anything, either.”
As a result of the incident, Worrell was disbarred and sentenced to 18 months of probation and 140 hours of community service. And the subterfuge of Dierdorf and Schuessler during the investigation became the subject of an ethics inquiry.
The Missouri Supreme Court indefinitely suspended Dierdorf and Schuessler for not being forthcoming during the process, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
The court’s ruling cited “the severity of Ms. Dierdorf’s misconduct as a result of her dishonesty and instruction of others to conceal information about the incident” and Schuessler’s “repeated dishonesty during and interference with the federal prosecution of the police detective” in their decision.
Despite the court’s opinion, Dierdorf’s lawyer objected to his client’s punishment:
In an emailed statement, Dierdorf lawyer Michael Downey called the suspension “inconsistent with the facts, its own precedent, and what is appropriate to protect the public and maintain the integrity of the judicial system in this case.”
He said Dierdorf had “promptly and repeatedly attempted to remedy her earlier misstatements but was rebuffed by her supervisors” and that she voluntarily produced thousands of text messages to the FBI.
Dierdorf may apply for reinstatement to law practice after three years, and Schuessler may apply after two.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).