Charges against bar: PM owner dropped nine months after accident

ST. LOUIS — Charges against the owner of Bar:PM were dropped Monday, the owner's attorney said.

Bar owner Chad Morris was charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest after a police vehicle drove into the building last December. Attorney Javad Khazaeli said the charge, which had previously been reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor, was dropped entirely on Monday when prosecutors decided not to pursue the case.

A court spokesman confirmed the dismissal of the charges on the grounds that “the evidence did not support the charges.”

The case is related to an incident on December 18 at Bar:PM, a popular gay bar on South Broadway, where a police SUV crashed into the facade of the building.

After conflicting reports, police said another officer was distracted by using his police radio while driving. Surveillance video shows a police SUV driving at high speeds and ignoring traffic lights before losing control and crashing into the building.

Minutes after the accident, James Pence, one of the owners of the gay bar, was handcuffed; his partner, Chad Morris, was arrested and later charged with a misdemeanor after an alleged physical altercation with one of the police officers.

Earlier this month, St. Louis police confirmed that one of the officers responsible for the crash was no longer employed by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Wallace was the officer who arrived on the scene after the Bar:PM crash and arrested bar owner Chad Morris.

Wallace is facing a lawsuit from Morris' partner and co-owner of the bar, James Pence, in connection with the Bar:PM incident, as well as another lawsuit from Richard Hopkins III over an earlier incident at the St. Louis City Justice Center.

There is also a lawsuit for a 2019 case on South Broadway in which Wallace was accused of arresting a man for revenge and shattering his collarbone, left proximal tibia and fibula after the arrest. That case was settled earlier this year.