Editor’s Note: This article and its headline have been significantly updated to correct a factual error regarding the cause of the mistrial. The judge declared a mistrial due to public comments made by an attorney for the plaintiff, not by police officers as previously reported.
On Tuesday, a St. Louis judge scrapped the first attempt at a trial in Board of Aldermen President Megan Green's lawsuit against the city’s police, declaring a mistrial and ordering a complete do-over after finding that public comments made by Green's legal counsel had prejudiced the proceedings. The case, which reached a jury this week, centers on Green's allegation that she was tear-gassed and assaulted during protests in September 2017 following the acquittal of officer Jason Stockley. Jury selection was underway before the judge abruptly hit pause and dismissed the prospective jurors.
The judge ruled that comments made to the press by Green’s attorney, Javad Khazaeli, risked unfairly influencing the jury pool and that a fresh trial was the only way to preserve fairness, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The city’s legal team had moved for the mistrial, arguing that the public statements violated court protocols intended to prevent extrajudicial comments from reaching jurors. According to courtroom accounts, the issue came to a head during a sidebar about media contact and the impact of published interviews on the fairness of the trial.
How the case ties to the 2017 Stockley protests
Green's suit says she was hit with chemical agents near Lindell during those Stockley protests, that she had earlier ducked into a synagogue to seek refuge as tensions flared, and that the effects of the exposure lingered for months. The case is among the last major civil actions tied to the September 2017 demonstrations, which featured mass "kettling" arrests and several multimillion dollar settlements. St. Louis Magazine notes that the city has already paid roughly 11 million dollars in payouts connected to those nights.
Legal stakes for the city
A retrial will put the city back on the hook for potential damages and will again spotlight protest policing tactics that courts and advocates have repeatedly criticized. A federal judge previously restricted the department's use of chemical agents in related litigation, as reported by the St. Louis American. Those earlier rulings and settlements mean the outcome of Green's case could resonate well beyond a single plaintiff.
"You can just basically call anything an unlawful assembly," Green’s attorney Javad Khazaeli had told reporters in the comments that sparked the mistrial motion, arguing that the city's ordinance gives officers too much discretion, according to St. Louis Magazine. Green has framed the lawsuit as a bid for concrete policy change rather than personal gain, stating that any damages awarded would be donated to tornado relief efforts. Her legal team says that putting clear, binding rules on how police handle demonstrations remains the central goal.
What’s next
The judge ordered the case reset for trial and directed both sides to return to court to hammer out a new schedule, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The city’s legal department expressed satisfaction with the mistrial ruling, while Green's team signaled they are prepared to retry the case on a new timetable. Legal observers say the retrial will be closely watched for what it signals about how St. Louis chooses to police protests in the years ahead.
