CLAYTON — St. Louis County police on Wednesday released audio of a dispatcher using a racial slur, hours after a county resident sued to get the record.
A St. Louis County civil rights attorney in the case, Mark Pedroli, , which he said the county released to him on Wednesday. The slur happens just after the 19-minute mark of the file.
Pedroli filed suit Wednesday on behalf of his client Millicent Williams, a St. Louis County resident who regularly speaks at public meetings on police issues. Williams’ request for the release of the audio was denied Tuesday by St. Louis County police who argued it was exempt from state records laws because it related to a personnel matter.
The recording from Jan. 9 includes the dispatcher using an expletive and the N-word in what sounds like an aside over the police radio.
The context of the slur is not clear from the audio alone. St. Louis County Police Association said in a statement earlier this week that the dispatcher directed the slur at another employee.
The St. Louis County Police Department launched an internal investigation Saturday into the employee’s actions. The dispatcher was then removed from the radio and relieved of duty, county police said this week.
County police have not publicly named the dispatcher. Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger reported Tuesday that police sources identified him as Mark Peeler, the brother-in-law of St. Louis County police Chief Mary Barton.
Pedroli said he filed the suit because the personnel record exemption is “one of the most often abused†sections in ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ open records laws.
“You could argue that just about any record has some relation to a person’s personnel record,†Pedroli said. “This needs to be litigated more.â€
The plaintiff, Williams, is the wife of a former St. Louis city police officer. She has another ongoing suit against St. Louis County police stemming from claims of mistreatment during a traffic stop in April 2019.
