FORMER POLICE INTERN TESTIFIES THAT OFFICER IN FLORISSANT BEAT HIM

A former high school intern with the Florissant police testified in federal
court Tuesday that an angry Officer Gary Sperber had punched, choked and
head-butted him in a darkened room at the station in 2000.

Eric Schwab, 20, said Sperber accused him of tipping off a drug
investigation target and then attacked him while two other officers looked on.

All three - Sperber, Brian Dolan and John Lynch - are being tried on
charges of depriving Schwab of his civil rights. If convicted, they could
face up to 10 years in prison.

Defense attorneys dispute that any beating occurred and contend there is
little medical evidence to back up Schwab's claims.

Sperber was forced to resign from the Florissant Police Department after an
internal investigation last year; Dolan resigned this year for personal
reasons, his attorney said.

In his senior year at McCluer North High School, Schwab participated in an
internship that allowed him to ride on patrol with Sperber and other
officers. He hoped to become a police officer, he said.

After the internship ended in January 2000, Schwab testified, he stayed in
contact with the officers. On April 14, 2000, he told Sperber about some
McCluer North students involved with marijuana and Ecstasy.

But Schwab said he regretted his actions and the next morning warned one of
the students that the police had his name on a list of suspects. Later that
day, Sperber asked Schwab to come to the station, which he did, arriving
about 1 a.m. April 16, Schwab said.

The three officers took him into the "traffic safety room" but it was
Sperber who did all the beating, Schwab testified.

"He turned off the lights and he rushed at me," he said. Sperber punched
him in the mouth, threw him against a file cabinet, pushed him to the
floor, head-butted him, choked him and kneed him in the groin, he said.

Sperber shouted at him to reveal whom he had informed, Schwab said. The
witness said he replied: "Nobody." He added, "I was so scared."

After placing Schwab in a chair, Sperber pushed his head down on a desk and
rolled it around, Schwab testified. Schwab said Dolan told him that if this
had happened in St. Louis, "I would more than likely be dead by now."

Lynch then asked him to write a statement about his activities, including
his own smoking of marijuana and the warning he gave the other student,
Schwab said. He was not informed of his constitutional rights against
self-incrimination, he said.