By Joshua Phelps
The Scene staff
Former St. Louis Community College adjunct professor Steve Taylor has filed a lawsuit against a Florissant Valley campus police officer and the STLCC board vice president.
The lawsuit claims that officer Robert Caples committed battery when he tackled and handcuffed Taylor at an STLCC board meeting on Oct. 19. Taylor was attending as a representative of a committee negotiating a union contract for adjuncts.
The lawsuit was filed in St. Louis Circuit Court. It reads, “As a direct and proximate result of defendant officer Caples’ acts, plaintiff Taylor suffered severe injuries and damages, including traumatic brain injury, concussion, post-concussion syndrome, right shoulder pain, bruising, right rib pain, chest pain, contusion to upper face, back pain (and) headaches.”
The lawsuit also claims that STLCC board Vice President Rodney Gee violated Taylor’s rights under the 1st and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
“Plaintiff Taylor seeks judgment against defendant Gee and defendant officer Caples for libel for falsely and maliciously publishing statements that plaintiff Taylor charged the board,” the lawsuit states.
Taylor most recently taught math on STLCC’s Wildwood campus but is no longer working for the college. When reached by The Scene on Jan. 26, he referred questions to his attorney, Lauren Bronson, of Newman, Bronson and Wallis.
“Our practice is that once we file lawsuits (we do) not discuss the case because it’s in litigation,” she said.
Kedra Tolson, executive director of marketing and communications for STLCC, did not return calls for comment. On Jan. 25, she sent an email statement that read, “The college has not been served with any documents related to Mr. Taylor’s lawsuit. We cannot comment at this time.”
At the STLCC board meeting on Oct. 19, Taylor objected to new rules that limited the length of public comments and prohibited the crowd from clapping to show support. His supporters say he was simply voicing his opinion when Caples tackled and handcuffed him.
“I was approached and grabbed from behind,” Taylor told The Scene at the time. “No one introduced themselves as law enforcement to me until I was on the ground.”
The college had a different interpretation. A statement emailed on Oct. 20 said Taylor disrupted the board meeting, refused to leave when asked to do so and charged toward a table, where board members and the chancellor were sitting.
“College police responded by restraining the individual before he reached the table,” the statement read. “The individual was subsequently arrested by St. Louis metropolitan police.”
Charges of resisting arrest were later dropped, according to Taylor’s lawsuit.
Adjuncts voted to join the Service Employees International Union in 2015. The committee on which Taylor served still is trying to negotiate a union contract with the college.
Committee member Brett Williams, an adjunct art professor on the Forest Park campus, also attended the STLCC board meeting on Oct. 19. He stands by Taylor’s version of events.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” Williams said on Jan. 26. “What happened at that board meeting, where professor Taylor was tackled and arrested for asking a question … I’ve never witnessed anything like that, except for when I’ve been in protests in the street in support of Black Lives Matter. I never expected that to happen at a board meeting to an academic.”
Williams noted that the union still has not reached an agreement with the college on a union contract.
“We’ve met with the college, and they are looking over the language that both sides agreed on,” he said. “We’re currently still waiting to hear back from the college.”
Editor’s note: Taylor was cited for two municipal ordinance violations after the Oct. 19 board meeting: resisting arrest and peace disturbance. The city counselor’s office decided not to charge him in connection with the first. On Feb. 14, a municipal judge found him not guilty of the second violation, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This information came too late to appear in The Scene’s print version of this story.