JEFFERSON CITY — A former Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper who was driving a boat when a handcuffed Iowa man fell out and drowned in 2014 has received the last of a financial settlement he made with the state over his bid to get his job back.
In February, Anthony Piercy voluntarily dismissed his lawsuits against the patrol, the Department of Public Safety and the department’s director in exchange for $201,000 and an agreement to not be reinstated as an officer.
He received $126,000 from the patrol in January and records released Monday show he was paid a final installment of $75,000 in February, ending the state’s obligation to the settlement.
Piercy had been fighting to regain his law enforcement license since he pleaded guilty in 2017 to a misdemeanor boat violation in the death of Brandon Ellingson, 20, of Clive, who fell into the Lake of the Ozarks while in Piercy’s custody. Ellingson was handcuffed and slipped out of an improperly secured life vest.
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Piercy pleaded guilty last year to negligent operation of a vessel for using the wrong type of life jacket. He was sentenced in September to two years of supervised probation and 10 days in jail.
He was fired in December but sued, saying Missouri Highway Patrol leaders had overstepped their authority.
A Cole County judge ruled that Piercy should be reinstated as a trooper. After an appeals court supported that ruling, the state agreed to the payout in order to avoid bringing Piercy back on the force.
“As a result of the settlement, Piercy dismissed all of his cases against the state. He is prohibited from ever again working as a peace officer in the state of Missouri,” the attorney general’s office said Tuesday.
Ellingson’s family has received a $9 million settlement from the state and won a lawsuit in which a judge found that the patrol violated the state’s open records law by not handing over some information or delaying the release of other documents.