St. Louis resident Kaitlyn Killgo is suing a detective from the Washington University Police Department and an officer from the Eureka Police Department for detaining her on a “wanted” last year due to allegations that she stole an officer’s riot helmet during a protest in April 2024.
The case was filed by civil rights law firm ArchCity Defenders in federal court on Thursday. The suit argues that police use of “wanteds” against Killgo, 36, has caused her fear and anxiety — particularly since police stated they will not remove her from the wanteds system after she refused to answer questions.
Washington University and St. Louis County are also listed as defendants as Killgo seeks punitive damages in the lawsuit.
The wanteds system enables any officer in Missouri to arrest and detain persons of interest wanted for questioning, even if the arresting officer has no knowledge about the alleged underlying offense. Police can find the names of individuals wanted for questioning in a centralized system for law enforcement called the Regional Justice Information System.
Police can arrest and detain those listed as “wanted” without going to a judge, providing probable cause or getting an arrest warrant.
But the use of wanteds by police has been challenged in court for nearly a decade — a lawsuit filed in 2016 by the Center for Constitutional Rights and ArchCity Defenders states that plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights were violated after they were targeted with a “wanted.”
The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued a ruling on that lawsuit in November 2022, writing that while St. Louis County’s use of wanteds is “fraught with the risk of violating the Constitution,” the policy itself is not unconstitutional.
Killgo said she hopes her lawsuit will bring about change.
“These wanteds have to go away,” Killgo said in a statement. “It’s immoral. It’s illegal. But more importantly, it’s inhumane. I feel like I’ve been kidnapped by the police. And kidnapping is illegal, but I have no way, other than this lawsuit, to get my rights back.”
The arrests
Killgo was arrested by the Washington University police in April 2024 while attending a divestment and anti-genocide protest on campus. She was detained at the St. Louis County jail and released later that night.
Four months later, in August, the lawsuit states, Killgo was participating in another protest outside the county jail. At that time, an unmarked black Suburban pulled up near Killgo, and two men inside the car shouted “Killgo!” and “We want our helmet back!”
The following month, during Labor Day weekend, Killgo was arrested and detained on a wanted by officer Torre Kuelker of the Eureka Police Department, who is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit. Killgo and a friend had taken a day trip to a nature reserve when they were pulled over.
Killgo was held at the Eureka Police Department for four hours and would not answer questions while seeking legal counsel. She ultimately retained ArchCity Defenders to investigate the circumstances of her arrest.
Wanted or not?
ArchCity Defenders attorney Maureen Hanlon and Killgo learned on Sept. 9, 2024, that a police riot helmet had been allegedly stolen during the April protest on WashU’s campus after contacting lawsuit defendant WUPD detective Jeffrey Barnhouse.
The wanted had been put out by WashU’s private police department in April 2024 following the protest, the lawsuit states.
Hanlon told detectives that Killgo would not be adhering to their request for questioning and that Killgo had no knowledge of the riot helmet theft and was not involved.
Barnhouse’s response was that if Killgo “wasn’t going to come in [he] would put out the wanted again,” the lawsuit states, and that Killgo was required to sign a document stating she was refusing to be questioned.
According to ArchCity Defenders, as of Thursday, it’s still unclear if there is an active wanted out for Killgo’s arrest since there is no publicly available way for her or any other citizen to know if a wanted has been issued.
ArchCity Defenders attorney Ebony McKeever said in a statement that the organization believes this is a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
“Wanteds are also distinct from warrants because they cannot be searched for in any public database,” McKeever said. “This results in people being afraid they’ll be arrested, detained, and questioned without probable cause — and there is no recourse.”
Attorneys say efforts to obtain details about Killgo’s arrest — as well as WUPD policies and procedures that authorized the arrest — have been denied through a Sunshine Request.
The lawsuit states that WashU’s reason for the denial is that the university is not subject to the Sunshine Law since WUPD officers are private employees.
According to the lawsuit, WashU is the only private university in the state that has its own police department distinct from the police department of the county in which it is located.
The lawsuit states that Killgo has suffered emotional distress, fear and anxiety due to the threatened arrest and not knowing the status of the wanted.
“She has avoided going out to social events or other opportunities because of her fear of being arrested by law enforcement agencies,” the lawsuit reads.
