By Denise Hollinshed ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Copyright 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
O’FALLON An East St. Louis police officer who lives in O’Fallon has been charged with aggravated battery in the beating of an 18-year-old who is hospitalized in critical condition.
The officer, Allen E. Bonds, 41, kicked and beat Jermond Owens in the head and left him unconscious after Owens stole a bike from the officer’s son, O’Fallon police charged.
Owens, of the 800 block of North 76th Street in East St. Louis, has been unconscious since Sunday at St. Louis University Medical Center.
Bonds, a three-year veteran of the force, was taken into custody Monday by O’Fallon police. He was charged Tuesday with aggravated battery and was being held at the O’Fallon Police Department, with bail set at $150,000.
At the time of Bonds’ arrest, he had an Illinois State Police trooper’s badge in his wallet that had been reported lost in East St. Louis three years ago, authorities said. The trooper who reported the badge lost is now working in a State Police office near Chicago. Bonds could be charged with impersonating a police officer if it is proved that he used the badge, police said.
O’Fallon Police Chief John Betten and the State Police declined to comment on the badge.
Betten said that police received a tip and found Owens unconscious about 5:30 p.m. Sunday in the 200 block of East First Street.
About the same time, Bonds contacted police and told them that someone had taken his son’s bike, that he intervened and got into a physical confrontation with that person.
May 24, 2006