EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) – An East St. Louis strip club bouncer charged with killing a customer with his truck will first stand trial on felony charges of beating three people at a bar.
Reginald Allen of Dupo is accused of driving over 23-year-old Anthony Rice in the parking lot of the now-shuttered City Nights bar in 2009 after taunting Rice and his brother with racial comments and then throwing a brick through their friend’s car windshield.
Scheduled hearings have been postponed 16 times since Allen was charged with reckless homicide in 2011.
Rice’s family protested outside of City Hall until charges were filed nearly two years after Rice’s death. They maintain the death was racially motivated. Rice was black, Allen is white.
Allen said he feared for his life. He has pleaded not guilty.
