Missouri lawmakers may have to pay out of pocket for Chiefs parade defamation suit

COLUMBIA, Mo. (TND) — Missouri state Senators at the center of a defamation lawsuit stemming from the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl victory parade may have to pony up their own money to cover any financial fallout from the case.

Three Republican Senators -- Rick Brattin, of Harrisonville; Denny Hoskins, of Warrensburg; and Nick Schroer, of St. Charles County, all members of the hard right Freedom Caucus -- are accused by Kansas resident Denton Loudermill Jr. of making defamatory statements about him both being a suspect in the shooting and an immigrant who entered the country illegally.

Loudermill Jr. was never arrested, cited or charged for a role in the tragedy and says -- in the complaints -- "humiliation, embarrassment, insult, and inconvenience” over the “highly offensive” posts the trio made on social media about his alleged culpability. He is seeking $75,000 in damages from each of the three men.

The state's Republican Gov. Mike Parson told his administration Monday to refrain from using any taxpayer dollars to cover damages that may be awarded to Loudermill Jr. as a result of judgments made in the trial.

However, the senators are still being represented by the office of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, despite Parson calling that circumstance "problematic" at a news conference with local reporters earlier this month.

“This gentleman did nothing wrong whatsoever other than he went to a parade, and he drank beer and he was Hispanic,” Parson said at the newser, according to the Kansas City Star (note: Loudermilk is Black).

According to reports, Loudermill froze after shots rang out in front of Kansas City's historic Union State that Valentine's Day and was paralyzed for so long that police put up crime tape around the scene while he was still in it. After coming to and attempting to duck under the tape, Loudermill was stopped by officers and handcuffed to the curb for his failure to promptly leave the crime scene. However, he was ultimately released the same day.

But posts soon began appearing on the lawmakers’ accounts on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that included a picture of Loudermill and accusations that he is an “illegal alien” and a “shooter,” the suits said.

Those posts have since been deleted but the X post, what would have been once called a tweet, below captured several of them before they were taken down.

Loudermill, who was born and raised in the U.S., received death threats even though he had no involvement in the shooting, according to the complaints.

The litigation described him as a “contributing member of his African-American family, a family with deep and long roots in his Kansas community.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report

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