Family seeks answers in East St. Louis strip club killing

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. -- In the nearly six years since a Southern Illinois man died in an East St. Louis strip club parking lot after being run over by a bouncer's pickup truck, court hearings for a reckless homicide charge have been postponed 16 times and the case is on its sixth judge -- one of whom is in federal prison.

Meanwhile, the bouncer, who has two methamphetamine-related convictions and faces felony charges of beating three people at a bar his family owns, remains free on bail.

The long-delayed trial, which remains unscheduled, lingers at a time of increasing national scrutiny over race and criminal justice.

The 2009 death of Anthony Rice, a 23-year-old black man, inflamed racial tensions in East St. Louis, where 98 percent of residents are black. His family and supporters protested weekly outside city hall until criminal charges were filed nearly two years later.

But when asked whether race was a factor in Rice's death, St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly said Reginald Allen, who is white, wasn't charged with a hate crime.

Reginald Allen

St. Clair County is two-thirds white.

"I've never seen the wheels of justice spin slower, or with less direction," said Justin Meehan, who is Rice's great-uncle and a lawyer in St. Louis.

He also noted the case could prove difficult to prosecute, given conflicting accounts from witnesses.

Allen is accused of driving over Rice in the parking lot of the now-shuttered City Nights bar after taunting Rice and his brother with racial comments and throwing a brick through the windshield of their friend's car.

Allen, who has pleaded not guilty, has said he feared for his life after the brothers' friend grabbed a gun from his car and fired several warning shots.

Kelly, who displays a photo of Rice in his office as a reminder of the unresolved prosecution, declined to further discuss the years-old case against Allen, other than to say the state will first proceed with the charges brought against Allen in January stemming from an alleged 2012 attack on a stripper and two men at a club owned by Allen's mother.

That trial is to begin Oct. 12.

The grand jury that indicted Allen in Rice's death initially sought a $500,000 bond, though it was lowered to $200,000 largely because he wasn't charged until 20 months later.

After the latest charges of aggravated battery and mob action, Allen only needed to post another $10,000 in cash to stay out of jail.

County officials said they don't keep transcripts of bond-reduction hearings, and the judge who lowered Allen's bond in that case declined to comment.

Annette Nash-Smith, Rice's mother, suggested Allen would be stuck behind bars if he was black.

"I'm sorry, a black man in East St. Louis -- if you kill a white person, you're going to jail," she said. "You're going to have an extensive bond, and you're not going to get out."

Rice's family settled a wrongful-death suit against the Allen family and their businesses for $1 million, but the criminal trial was delayed again in August.

The next hearing is set for Oct. 20.

Rice family attorney Lloyd Cueto provided a copy of surveillance camera footage from the 2009 incident, which initially was reported to East St. Louis police as a carjacking.

It shows Rice tried to re-enter the club after being denied entry at closing time but ran away as a stun gun-wielding employee pushed against the door from inside.

Another camera shows Allen leave through the club's back door, enter his white Ford F-150 pickup truck and swerve through the front parking lot.

Defense attorney Tom Daley called the state's evidence weak and vigorously disputed race played a role in Rice's death or how the case has been handled.

"It was a tragic accident," he said. "I don't think there's sufficient evidence to prove this was a reckless homicide. ... It never should have been filed to begin with."

Allen's lengthy criminal record includes a guilty plea to unlawful possession and transporting anhydrous ammonia, an ingredient in methamphetamine, for which he served less than a year on a three-year sentence. He also was convicted in 2004 of aggravated battery for using his car to knock down a motorcyclist during an argument.