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State Trooper Retires From Highway Patrol After Prosecutor Drops Internal Complaint

Scott Davidson via Flickr

 An appeals hearing between the Missouri State Highway Patrol and Sgt. Randy Henry that was scheduled for Monday was cancelled due to Henry’s announcement that he will retire.

Henry’s announcement came Friday after an internal complaint from former special prosecuting attorney Amanda Grellner was withdrawn the same day.  Henry’s attorney, Chet Pleban of St. Louis, said in a statement the 30-year veteran officer decided to retire “wanting nothing else to do with this organization.”  Pleban was unavailable for interview.

Grellner’s attorney, Michael Berry of Jefferson City, said Grellner withdrew the complaint simply because she didn’t want to pursue the case anymore.  He added that she is trying to escape criticism from a previous incident involving the Highway Patrol investigating her son.

“She has always been particularly interested in clearing her name and clearing any remaining suspicion there was that her son was somehow involved in a sexual assault of a young girl in 2012, but somehow or the other that kept getting brought up in connection with the drowning investigation,” Berry said.

The Highway Patrol questioned Grellner’s son, but he never faced any legal troubles.  Berry said Grellner’s son should have never been a suspect in the case and that he doesn’t think the investigation of Grellner’s son had anything to do with withdrawing her complaint against Henry.

Berry said he did not know whether Henry would retire after Grellner decided to withdraw the complaint.

Henry was subject to discipline after he criticized the Highway Patrol’s investigation of the 2014 drowing of Brandon Ellingson, 20.  The Kansas City Star reported that while Ellingson was in custody on a boat in Lake of the Ozarks, he fell off the boat while handcuffed.  Anthony Piercy, the trooper who had Ellingson in custody, tried to save Ellingson but was unsuccessful.

After speaking out against the Highway Patrol’s handling of the incident, Henry faced a transfer from his post at Lake of the Ozarks and a demotion to corporal.  According to the Highway Patrol’s statement Friday, the discipline would have been discussed in the hearing scheduled for Monday.  The Highway Patrol declined to comment any further.

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