St. Louis police board approves settlement up to $275K for shooting victim
April 24, 2012
BY CHRISTINE BYERS

ST. LOUIS - The Board of Police Commissioners has agreed to pay up to $275,000 to Jeffrey Bladdick for a wound suffered when he shot by an intoxicated, off-duty St. Louis officer outside a bar in Pontoon Beach in 2008.

Bladdick’s attorney, Thomas Q. Keefe III, confirmed earlier this month that all parties had agreed to an unspecified settlement.

According to meeting minutes released this week, the board voted 3-1 during a closed session March 21 to pay the money. Commissioner Bettye Battle-Turner was the lone dissenting vote. She has told the Post-Dispatch she does not speak to the news media.

Bladdick, of Granite City, filed a federal civil suit against former officer Bryan Pour and others, alleging negligence and inappropriate use of force.

In a separate settlement April 2, Pour agreed to pay Bladdick $5,000 in $500 monthly installments.

The suit followed a brawl outside Mac and Mick’s, 5240 Nameoki Road, in the early-morning of Nov. 9, 2008, which ended with Bladdick and Chris Hantak, also an off-duty police officer from St. Louis, both shot and wounded.

Authorities said Pour, Hantak and two other officers were at the bar celebrating a birthday and an engagement when Pour became involved in a fight on the parking lot. Pour maintained he was attacked by two men with a metal bar, and reached for his gun to defend himself but mistakenly shot Bladdick, who was coming to his aid.

Hantak reportedly refused to put down his gun and was shot by on-duty Pontoon Beach Officer Aaron Morgan, who had responded to the incident. A grand jury later decided that Morgan was justified.

Pour initially was charged with aggravated battery with a firearm but he pleaded guilty in 2010 to a reduced charge of aggravated discharge of a firearm and received probation after Bladdick told the judge he favored leniency.

Pour had graduated first in his police recruit class. He, Hantak and one of the officers with them were fired within days of the incident.

Hantak sued Morgan and the village of Pontoon Beach over his injuries but the action was dropped last year.