Relatives sue for prison video after guards charged in Black Missouri man’s death

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The family of a Black Missouri man who prosecutors say was killed by guards in a Missouri prison sued Tuesday for surveillance video of the moments leading up to his death.

Four prison guards were charged last month with murder, and a fifth with accessory to involuntary manslaughter, in 38-year-old Othel Moore Jr.'s December 2023 death. All five former guards have pleaded not guilty.

Moore’s mother and sister said they submitted a request in January through Missouri’s public records laws for prison surveillance video from the day of his death.

In a lawsuit their attorney said was filed Tuesday, the family said it still has not received the footage.

The Department of Corrections “knowingly and purposefully withheld the requested video in violation of the Sunshine Law,” attorneys for Moore’s family wrote in the lawsuit. They said the agency is claiming “without evidence, that releasing the videos would somehow harm security.”

Corrections spokesperson Karen Pojmann on Tuesday said she cannot comment on pending litigation, “but I can assure you that the department cooperated fully with the outside law enforcement investigation into this case.”

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Prosecutors allege Moore was searched and stripped down to his boxer shorts inside his cell during a prison contraband sweep.

He was then handcuffed behind his back and led outside, according to a probable cause statement from deputies. Moore showed no aggression during the process and was complying with orders, investigators wrote.

While standing handcuffed just outside his cell door, Moore was pepper-sprayed, then put in a spit hood, leg wrap and restraint chair, according to a prosecutor. Guards told investigators that Moore was not following orders to be quiet and spit at them, although witnesses said Moore was spitting pepper spray out of his mouth.

Moore was eventually taken to a hospital wing and was pronounced dead. Cole County Prosecuting Attorney Locke Thompson said the medical examiner ruled Moore’s cause of death was from positional asphyxiation, and his death was listed as a homicide.