Thomas Gounley

TGOUNLEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM

The Springfield Police Officers Association has decided not to pursue legal action against a KOSP 92.9 FM disc jockey who spoke on air last month about being stopped by an officer.

"Long and short, we haven't been able to find any precedent case," Association President Mike Evans told the News-Leader Monday.

Richard Deaver, the 25-year-old co-host of "Rich and McClain in the Morning," was pulled over while driving a scooter to work around 5 a.m. Nov. 14. The scooter was searched for drugs after an officer claimed he smelled marijuana; nothing was found in the search, which involved a K-9 unit and an additional officer. Deaver was handcuffed and placed in a patrol car while the search was conducted. Ultimately, Deaver was issued citations for running a flashing red light and not having a valid driver's license. An officer also told Deaver that he had a non-extraditable warrant for his arrest out of Camden County, Mo.

On air later that morning, Deaver claimed to have been "torn" off the scooter and "thrown up against the cop car" and said the warrant was not for him; he also played audio of a portion of the stop he recorded on his phone. Within hours, the association — a labor group which represents those lower in rank than lieutenant within the Springfield Police Department — called for a boycott of KOSP and said it was asking its attorney whether the statements amounted to defamation. The police department, meanwhile, quickly released dashboard camera footage of the stop.

Generally, a successful defamation lawsuit requires the party claiming defamation to prove he or she was identified in connection with the communication of statements that harmed his or her reputation. Deaver never named the officers involved in his traffic stop on air. So Evans said the key legal question the association sought to answer was whether the officers who interacted with Deaver were identified by the playing of their voices on air in Deaver's recording.

He said the association was unable to find a case in which that type of argument was successfully used. The possibility of legal action was tabled at the association's Dec. 4 meeting, and is unlikely to come up again unless new information is found.

"Barring a similar case that we could use as an example, we didn't want to be the example," Evans said, citing the cost of a lawsuit as another factor in the decision.

Evans maintained that he feels a case would have had merit, and that the officers involved were "bashed on false pretenses." But he acknowledged it was "not the strongest case in the world."

As for the boycott, Evans said the association is "still sticking with it," and encouraging those who support the police force not to listen to KOSP. He said no one associated with the station, including Deaver, has reached out to him.

"Somebody has to make the guy account for his falsehoods," Evans said.

Management with Mid-West Family Broadcasting, which owns KOSP, has declined multiple requests for comment. Deaver released one statement to the News-Leader following the stop, but declined to be interviewed on the record.