KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ A former Missouri trooper has filed another lawsuit against the state _ this time to get back his license to be a cop.
Anthony Piercy filed suit this week in Cole County against the Missouri Department of Public Safety and the director of that agency in hopes that he would regain his peace officer's license. An online court database detailing the petition states that Piercy is asking that the recent decision to revoke his license be reversed or remanded.
"I thought it was over," said Craig Ellingson, father of Brandon Ellingson, who drowned in handcuffs while in Piercy's custody four years ago on the Lake of the Ozarks. "I'm just so fed up. ... I can't believe this guy. He has no remorse at all and acts like he's a victim."
Tim Van Ronzelen, Piercy's lawyer, did not immediately return a call and email for comment.
Ellingson had pushed for Piercy to lose his Peace Officer Standards and Training license for life after Piercy was sentenced in September for misdemeanor negligent operation of a vessel. Ellingson said he didn't believe 10 days in the county jail, two years of supervised probation and 50 hours of community service were enough punishment for the trooper.
Piercy also had lost his job with the patrol, but a Cole County judge ruled earlier this summer that the patrol's leader overreached her authority when she fired Piercy. When his license was revoked, though, it became a moot point. All officers must carry a POST license to be employed as an officer or trooper.
Piercy pulled over Brandon Ellingson, a 20-year-old college student, on May 31, 2014, on suspicion of boating while intoxicated. During the stop, Piercy handcuffed the 20-year-old Iowa man's hands behind his back. Witnesses told authorities that the trooper then pulled an already-buckled life vest _ the wrong one for a handcuffed person _ over Ellingson's head.
On the way to a field office for more testing, Piercy traveled at speeds up to 46 mph. At one point, after the boat hit a wave, Ellingson was ejected. His improperly secured life vest soon came off. Piercy eventually jumped into the lake to try to save him but couldn't.
Though a coroner's inquest ruled Ellingson's death an accident in September 2014, a special prosecutor charged Piercy with involuntary manslaughter in December 2015. He later pleaded to the lesser charge of negligent boating.
The Kansas City Star began investigating days after Ellingson's death in the Gravois Arm of the lake, and through interviews and records requests discovered that after Missouri merged the Water Patrol into the Highway Patrol in 2011, some road troopers weren't adequately trained to work on the water.
Piercy _ who at the time of Ellingson's death was an 18-year veteran of the road _ received just two days of field training before he was cleared for "solo boat time." Before the merger, Water Patrol recruits were required to receive at least two months of field training.
Since Ellingson's death, the patrol has increased training for troopers who work on the water.
Brandon Ellingson's family members have said they've waited four years for Piercy to face strong consequences for what happened on May 31, 2014. And now, Craig Ellingson said, he and his family have to go through another lawsuit.
"It's just so frustrating," he said. "They seem to forget they killed my son."
