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A brand new federal indictment accuses a former St. Louis-area police officer of sexually assaulting 19 males whereas they had been restrained and in his custody, marking 11 further victims.
Marcellis Blackwell of St. Louis assaulted the lads from Nov. 8, 2022, to June 5, 2023, based on the 36-count superseding indictment returned by a grand jury Wednesday in U.S. District Courtroom for the Japanese District of Missouri.
He has now been charged with 19 counts of deprivation of rights beneath coloration of regulation and 17 counts of altering data in a federal investigation.
Blackwell, 34, is accused of groping the lads beneath their clothes with out their consent and “and not using a reliable authorities goal,” the indictment stated. The assaults occurred whereas the lads had been detained, restrained or beneath arrest.
In a single occasion, Blackwell is accused of sodomizing a person along with his finger, based on the indictment.
Blackwell additionally knowingly falsified arrest studies in regards to the males he’s accused of assaulting, the indictment acknowledged.
Blackwell’s legal professional, Evan Greenberg, declined Thursday night time to remark.
The indictment additionally mentions about 15 cases by which Blackwell is accused of kidnapping the victims.
Blackwell was an officer for a few 12 months for the North County Police Cooperative, an company that serves a number of communities in north St. Louis County.
In September, a federal indictment accused Blackwell of groping eight males he’d handcuffed. Blackwell has pleaded not responsible to the federal costs filed in September, based on court docket data. It was unclear Thursday whether or not he had entered a brand new plea primarily based on the superseding indictment.
The FBI in St. Louis has arrange a hotline for potential victims.
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