Three Workers Charged in St. Louis Work Zone Fight with Driver

By: Dana Rieck
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (TNS)

CLAYTON — In September last year, a brawl broke out between three construction workers and an off-duty officer who drove into their work zone. A week later, the three workers were charged with assault and kidnapping.

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Prosecutors described the fight as a racially charged attack, accusing the three white workmen of hurling racial slurs at the Black officer while throwing him to the ground and beating him. Several local and national advocacy organizations condemned the assault, calling it a blatant display of racism.

Now defense attorney John Rogers is arguing the officer, Darnell Wallace, was drunk when he drove into the work zone that night.

In court filings, Rogers said one of the three construction workers told police he saw several empty mini shot bottles in Wallace’s car and that when Wallace stepped out of his SUV, “a mini alcoholic shot fell out of his lap onto the ground.” Wallace admitted having a shot, Rogers said. Moreover, police waited hours before giving him a sobriety test, he said.

“Law enforcement didn’t do their job and adequately perform field sobriety testing,” Rogers told the Post-Dispatch. “Instead, they fed him water and waited over two hours before they did one of three normal tests. And I can tell you, the video supports that that test wasn’t even done properly.”

Prosecutors called Rogers’ claims “simply false” and said they’re not supported by the evidence. Wallace’s attorney, Mark Pedroli, told the Post-Dispatch that any suggestion that Wallace was intoxicated “is not only unsupported but is directly contradicted by witness testimony.”

St. Louis County police Chief Kenneth Gregory was not available to discuss the allegations against his officers, according to his media relations office.

The fight happened on the night of Sept. 26, 2024, as Devlin and his two co-defendants, Garrett Gibbs and Donnie Hurley II, were working road construction at the intersection of South Lindbergh Boulevard and Lemay Ferry Road. Gibbs is Devlin’s stepson.

Wallace, in plain clothes and an unmarked black SUV, drove past work signs and into the construction zone, charges say.

Hurley later told police Wallace got out of the car and Hurley could smell alcohol on the off-duty officer’s breath, Rogers wrote in the July filing. Hurley also told police about the empty shot bottles he saw, and the one that fell to the ground, Rogers wrote.

Rogers added that witnesses told police Wallace was “visibly intoxicated and that he became belligerent with the road workers after being confronted about his vehicle’s presence in their work zone and the danger it posed to road workers.”

Devlin and Gibbs got involved in the argument. According to charging documents, Devlin used racial slurs against the officer and also told him he didn’t belong there and to “go back to the hood with your gold chain.”

Prosecutors say Devlin started the physical struggle by punching Wallace. Rogers wrote in his motion that Wallace threw the first punch.

The construction workers then “took Wallace to the ground,” Rogers wrote.

Police said Gibbs and Hurley held the officer while Devlin beat him with a hard hat. Hurley is accused of choking him in a headlock with the help of Gibbs and Devlin. Wallace pleaded with them that he couldn’t breathe, charges say.

In Roger’s filing, he says a witness called police to report the fight and said that one of the men was intoxicated.

Rogers also said body camera footage and reports show responding officers, who he said were friends with Wallace, followed “a number of irregular procedural steps.”

“Get up here. It’s Wallace,” an officer said in the footage, according to Rogers’ filing.

Prosecutors respond

Wallace tells a responding officer he drank a single shot of alcohol, hours prior, the filing says.

Rogers wrote that it wasn’t until “approximately three to four hours” after the fight that Wallace tried to leave in his SUV, but a supervisor stopped him, according to body cam footage. Police only allowed him to drive off after passing field sobriety tests.

In conclusion, Rogers asked the judge to dismiss all charges against Devlin.

Prosecutors, in their response, say Rogers’ filing “lays out a version of the facts of this case that can be described as a best-case scenario potential defense, unsupported by evidence.”

Rogers largely leans on the defendant’s statements rather than the evidence, writes Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jessica Hathaway. And his claims that the officers were Wallace’s close friends are false, she says.

Pedroli, Wallace’s lawyer, said the lead construction foreman told police he talked to Wallace after the fight and did not notice signs of impairment.

“The same lead foreman told police that his own employee (Devlin) had ‘anger issues,’ and that a similar confrontation had occurred in the past between his employee and yet another off duty police officer,” Pedroli said in a statement to the Post-Dispatch. “Indeed, the supervisor reported that in just the two days prior to the incident, he witnessed (Devlin) engage motorists aggressively five or six times.”

Wallace was hired by St. Louis County police in 2017 and made $75,294 in 2024, according to the Post-Dispatch’s salary database.

Devlin is charged with three counts of first-degree assault, two counts of armed criminal action and one count of kidnapping. A hearing in his case scheduled for this week was rescheduled for Jan. 26.

Gibbs and Hurley are each charged with two counts of first-degree assault, armed criminal action and kidnapping.

Hurley is also scheduled for a hearing Jan. 26. Gibbs is slated to be in court Jan. 8.

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