A former St. Louis assistant prosecutor has pleaded guilty to federal charges accusing her of concealing a police officer assaulting a suspect. Misprision involves helping someone cover up a crime.
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In the plea, Worrell says that she did not intend to bring any charges against the suspect in the incident, but that she was present when the arresting officer showed up at the warrant office and chose to help a new prosecutor file charges against the suspect.
After learning the truth, Worrell started working to cover it up.
Judge Autrey, himself a former St. Louis prosecutor, said he normally does not make comments at a plea hearing.
U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey told the court that Worrell’s actions were “most distasteful” and that she left “a black mark on a very venerable office”, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Circuit attorney Jennifer Joyce told the Post-Dispatch that the incident was the worst thing that has happened to her in her 20 years as a prosecutor. The suspect is also not named, but is identified as “M.W.” in the plea.
He also added that the arresting officer was upset because “this was the first time he had to take one for the team”, something Worrell says she interpreted as meaning “lie and cover up for a fellow officer”, according to the plea. The events detailed in the plea agreementmirror the reason Worrell and colleague Katherine Dierdorf left the circuit attorney’s office a year ago.
Worrell would resign days after the assault.
A St. Louis police detective, identified in media reports as Thomas A. Carroll, is accused of beating up 41-year-old Michael Waller, who was caught July 22, 2014, using a credit card that had been stolen from the officer’s daughter’s vehicle.
Worrell later consulted with the arresting officer, who confirmed the suspect was found with stolen credit cards and had resisted arrest and tried to flee.
The theft of a credit card belonging to a police officer’s daughter led to a brutal beating for a St. Louis man, court documents allege.
Later that night, the officer told Worrell he injured his foot. The beating included the officer putting a pistol down the man’s throat. He then proceeded to tell the story of the assault to Worrell and other colleagues, including mentioning “shoving [his] pistol down the guy’s throat”. “Worrell concealed this information from her supervisors, allowing the charge to stand”. That officer alleged that Waller had resisted arrest by “wriggling” his body and breaking free of the officer’s grip once in the station.
According to the plea, Worrell and the veteran officer frequently “communicated and texted each other” and “often” confided in one another.
The next day, Worrell checked Waller’s booking photo to try to learn the extent of his injuries.
Worrell now faces felony misprision charges.
Carroll, a 25-year veteran, resigned about two months later, and all charges against Waller were eventually dropped. On July 27, prosecutors dismissed the escape charge and Worrell and Dierdorf resigned, according to the Post-Dispatch.
Worrell has been in private practice, but a felony conviction presumably will result in loss of her law license.
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Her lawyer, Paul D’Agrosa, called Monday a “tough day”.
