Missouri trooper won’t go on trial in Brandon Ellingson drowning until May

A Missouri state trooper charged in the death of a handcuffed Iowa man won’t go to trial until the middle of next year, almost three years after the drowning.

Anthony Piercy initially was scheduled to go before a jury Monday for involuntary manslaughter. That court date was canceled and has now been set for May 1, according to the state’s online court database.

“It’s totally disappointing,” Craig Ellingson, the father of the drowned man, said of the delay. “Our family deserves better than this.”

Trooper Piercy arrested Brandon Ellingson on May 31, 2014, for suspicion of boating while intoxicated on the Lake of the Ozarks, and they headed to a field office for a sobriety test, traveling at speeds up to 46 mph. Ellingson ended up in the water, and the life vest — which witnesses say Piercy didn’t properly secure on Ellingson — soon came off. The trooper eventually jumped in to try to save Ellingson, but he couldn’t.

In December, a year after the family filed an open-records lawsuit as well as a civil lawsuit, a special prosecutor charged Piercy with involuntary manslaughter. The charge against Piercy is a Class C felony carrying a punishment of up to seven years in prison, up to a year in the county jail, a $5,000 fine or some combination.

Piercy has been on administrative leave without pay since December. His criminal attorney did not return a call for comment.

This story was originally published September 23, 2016 at 11:46 AM with the headline "Missouri trooper won’t go on trial in Brandon Ellingson drowning until May."