Mediation fails in Cape Girardeau excessive force lawsuit

The City of Cape Girardeau could face a police excessive force jury trial after the city and a plaintiff couldn’t agree on settlement terms during mediation in April.

Lloyd Gilmore filed a federal civil rights complaint against the City of Cape Girardeau in February 2022 following an altercation with police in 2020.

On April 29, two attorneys made entries of appearance to represent Gilmore. On May 3, the federal court gave the attorneys 90 days to conduct additional fact discovery, such as obtaining depositions and documents associated with the case.

An Alternative Dispute Resolution Report was filed April 23 following a mediation meeting April 19. The parties did not achieve a settlement.

Gilmore claims he was shocked with a Taser 20 times and beaten while handcuffed and shackled following a report of assault at West Park Mall in Cape Girardeau. According to legal documents offered by the city, police “overheard radio traffic regarding an assault that had occurred at the West Park Mall … and, while enroute, (were) advised that the suspect was a black male wearing all white who had stolen a cell phone from a subject inside the mall.”

Later, police “located an individual matching the description of the suspect who had a cell phone in his left hand.” The city, according to court records, denies Gilmore’s allegations.

Gilmore said the charges against him that resulted in the beating were dropped. Gilmore wrote to the court in January saying he served two years and eight months in jail while fighting the charges. No criminal charges with Cape Girardeau exist from 2020 on Missouri’s online database. Gilmore initially named Blake Leadbetter and Nicholas Mayberry as the officers who Tased and beat him, then added Tanner Hiett’s name.

“I got Tazed, and I was in handcuffs and leg shackles when he did so,” Gilmore wrote of Leadbetter and Mayberry’s actions. Gilmore wrote that he was in the intensive care unit for four days before being transferred to the county jail. In his initial filing, he said he wanted $50 million in damages, though in more recent filings he said he was asking for $700,000, plus $60,000 for child support.

Gilmore wrote in a filing to the court that he was not resisting arrest, adding that he had obtained video that “clearly shows me fully compliant on the video,” he wrote. “Blake Leadbetter Tazed me 20 times while I was helpless in handcuffs. … He tortured me for no reason at all, and I posed no threat to officers in any way.”

While the Southeast Missourian has obtained video footage from several other complaints of excessive force by the Cape Girardeau Police Department over the last few years, the newspaper has not reviewed body-camera footage from Gilmore’s altercation with police. The newspaper sent a public request to the city for video and documents Wednesday, May 8.

Gilmore was represented and dropped by an attorney early in the case and has largely tried to manage his case pro se with several handwritten filings from jail or prison. Gilmore’s high cash demand — and not the merits of the accusation — was cited as a reason by a person with knowledge of the case as to why his original attorney removed himself as Gilmore’s attorney.

Gilmore has an extensive criminal record, including charges of second-degree assault and assault of a law enforcement officer, according to previous reporting in the Southeast Missourian in 2010.

Gilmore’s former estranged wife, Tambra Gilmore, pleaded guilty to the 2008 murder of Chabreshea Egson. Tambra Gilmore shot and killed Egson after finding out Egson was in a relationship with Lloyd Gilmore.

Officials at the time said Lloyd Gilmore refused to testify against his wife. Ultimately, Tambra Gilmore, following a manhunt that captured national attention, was apprehended and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree burglary. She was sentenced to 10 years.

Gilmore is being represented by Brendan Roediger and Matt Vigil from the Saint Louis University School of Law. Roediger declined to discuss the case, saying he is still new to the case and working through discovery.

Gilmore is not alone in his complaint of excessive force by officers. In 2023, Cape Girardeau paid a settlement of $100,000 to Ryan Mosley after an officer kicked him in the head while another officer was on top of his back trying to put handcuffs on him. Mosley was knocked unconscious and required hospitalization.

The city also faces a federal excessive force lawsuit by Robert Teater, who was sent to the hospital after officers tackled him while he was on his knees and being handcuffed. Teater’s case is headed toward a mediation hearing.