Kansas City police sergeant pleads guilty to assault that injured 15-year-old boy

Kansas City police sergeant Matthew T. Neal pleaded guilty Thursday to smashing the face of a 15-year-old boy in the parking lot of a fast food chicken restaurant on Troost Avenue almost three years ago.

Neal, who faced a third-degree assault charge, was placed on four years probation and has to surrender his law enforcement license.

As part of his plea agreement with prosecutors, Neal was ordered to write a letter of apology to the victim.

Circuit Court Judge S. Margene Burnett told Neal that she would not impose a prison sentence but any probation violation could result in sentencing him to four years in prison.

In admitting his guilt during a virtual hearing, Neal avoided a criminal trial that was scheduled to begin Nov. 14. Neal had previously pleaded not guilty to the charge.

“We are thankful to have resolved this case favorably,” said attorney Molly Hastings, who represented Neal in court Thursday.

The plea agreement also prohibits Neal from carrying a firearm or having any contact with the victim or his family. He also required to complete an anger management class.

A Jackson County grand jury indicted Neal for the 2019 incident that happened in front of the Go Chicken Go restaurant at 51st Street and Troost Avenue following a vehicle pursuit.

The teen suffered bruising to his head, broken teeth and a gash on his head. As he was lying on the parking lot pavement, Neal forced his knee on the back of the teen’s head, prosecutors said.

The victim was heard saying, “I can’t breathe,” prosecutors said.

In January 2021, the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners agreed to pay the teen $725,000 to settle an excessive use of force claim against Neal and Officer Dylan Pifer.

Tom Porto, an attorney who represented the victim, said he and his client were pleased with the outcome of the criminal case.

“It’s significant that a sergeant voluntarily pleaded guilty,” Porto said.

Capt. Leslie Foreman, a police spokesperson, said Neal left the department Thursday.

“The victim in this incident had a negative experience with a member of the KCPD,” Foreman said in a statement emailed to The Star. “This is extremely regrettable and the incident has been reviewed and discussed at all levels of the department.

“We expect Department members to treat all citizens with dignity and respect at all times, and it did not happen in this case.”

Foreman said the incident was reviewed by the Jackson County Prosecutor’s office, which ultimately filed charges against Neal.

“We respect the judicial process and the outcome determined by the court,” Foreman said.

According to charging documents, the teen was a passenger in a car that fled as police attempted to pull it over.

The vehicle occupied by the teen came to a stop in the restaurant parking lot. The driver and the teen exited the vehicle and got on their knees with their hands up.

The teen did not struggle or pull away. Neal pressed his knee into the teen’s head and neck, pinning his face into the pavement and forcing him to struggle to breathe, prosecutors said.

The teen was not arrested nor charged with any crime associated with the vehicle pursuit. He was treated at Children’s Mercy Hospital, where he received six stitches near his hairline.

Civil rights organizations have long criticized the police department and former police chief Rick Smith for their handling of police officers accused of using excessive force against Black people.

Lora McDonald, executive director of MORE2, the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, said the guilty plea on Thursday supports their call that the police department hold its officers accountable.

“He (Neal) should have been fired years ago. How long does it take them to complete an assault investigation of their own?” McDonald told The Star.

“I recall over 10 officers witnessed this event and the chief only learned about it when Jean Peters Baker’s office was filing charges. The system is broken.”

Three Kansas City police officers currently face criminal charges.

Former officers Matthew Brummett and Charles Prichard are both charged with felony assault for allegedly using excessive force when they arrested Breona Hill, a transgender woman, in May 2019.

The alleged assault was captured on video showing the officers pinning her to the ground and slamming her head into the pavement. They are scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 28, according to court records.

Nicholas McQuillen is charged with a misdemeanor assault after he was seen in a viral video dousing a man and his teenage daughter with pepper spray at a protest at the Plaza in the summer of 2020.

McQuillen, who is currently assigned to the patrol division, is scheduled to go to trial on those charges on Dec. 12. Earlier this year, the police department paid $110,000 in a legal settlement to the teenage girl.

Eric J. DeValkenaere, a former detective, was sentenced to six years in prison for the Dec. 3, 2019, shooting death of a Black man. He remains free on bond while he appeals the conviction.

DeValkenaere was convicted of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the killing of Cameron Lamb, who was backing his pickup truck into his garage when he was shot.

A Jackson County judge sentenced DeValkenaere to three years on the involuntary manslaughter conviction and six years on the armed criminal action conviction, the sentences to run concurrently.