A Black Missouri teen that survived a harrowing brush with death has a new fight to undertake, with losing meaning the potential loss of his freedom. Walter Currie, Jr. of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, was nearly burned to death after an altercation with two teens of which he had previous history. Several weeks after the incident, authorities issued a notice that stated the Currie would be charged for assault in the incident where a teen related to the juvenile that set Currie ablaze was punched in the face. Court officials have declined to give full details regarding the incidents because the parties involved are minors. Butler County officials have also refused to discuss any names other than the ones that have already been mentioned.
In an unrelated case of juvenile brutality, sheriff deputies in Southern Illinois are being sued by the Illinois Office of State Guardian, with the state agency alleging that the two officers of the law threatened, handcuffed, and tasered a group of teenage foster children. The allegations state that without physical provocation, officer David Bowers tasered a boy several times, including at least one time on his neck.
That same officer then pushed another minor male onto his bunk-bed and threatened to sodomize him before shocking the boy multiple times which caused him to urinate and defecate on himself. Officer Lonnie Lawler, the other deputy mentioned in the suit, was alleged to have handcuffed another minor male so that Bowers could taser him, while also, threatening and choking a 17-year old girl that plead with the two men to stop. Her words fell on deaf ears, and she was promptly and viciously tossed into a closet.
Sheriff Roger Mulch, head of Southern Illinois’ Police Department, was also included in the lawsuit, citing that he allowed a “pattern and practice of unreasonable use of force by deputies.”
