Former East St. Louis bouncer pleads guilty to mob action; reckless homicide charge dropped

Reginald Allen pleaded guilty to mob action Monday in connection to the death six years ago of Anthony Rice, but a charge of reckless homicide was dropped, to the dismay of Rice’s father and brother.

The reckless homicide charged accused Allen of causing the death of Anthony Rice by running over him with a truck after Rice and his brother tried to enter an East St. Louis night club and were racially taunted. Rice was black. Allen, who is white, remains free on bond.

Allen, 32, who worked as a bouncer, faces one to three years in prison for the class four felony, although Assistant State’s Attorney Steve Sallerson said Allen could receive an enhanced sentence of up to six years following a sentencing hearing yet to be set. He could also receive probation. The potential sentences and the option for probation would be the same if Allen had pleaded guilty to reckless homicide.

“If it had been me and I killed a man of another color, it would have been 15 to 20 years,” said Anthony Rice’s brother Aubrey Rice, who was in the parking lot of the now defunct City Nights club in October 2009 where Anthony Rice Jr., 23, the father of two, was run over by a vehicle and killed. “I feel hurt and I feel betrayed. I feel the state didn’t do their job,” he said.

His father, Robert Rice, said during a courthouse hallway interview after Allen’s guilty plea in St. Clair County Court, “I am disgusted by the whole system, the way this went down.”

Asked if prosecutors consulted with the victim’s family before the agreement with Allen and his attorney Tom Daley of Belleville, was agreed upon, Robert Rice said, “Yeah, they talked to us. This was the best we could get.”

State’s Attorney Brendan Kelly said after the plea, “Our decision to move forward with the mob action charge was made with Anthony’s family and was based on the evidence — no more, no less.”

Attorney J. Justin Meehan, who represented the Rice family sent a congratulatory email to Kelly on Sunday after he had learned the details of the proposed plea bargain.

“Thank you and congratulations. You are a man as good as your word. Our entire family appreciates all you have done on our behalf,” the email stated.

Before he pleaded guilty in front of Circuit Judge Jan Fiss, Allen said he was guilty of mob action in that he threw a brick or stone through the windshield of a Monte Carlo that held Rice and his brother Aubrey and another male family member. This preceded a melee in which shots were fired into the air by the male family member and Allen, according to police reports, fled in his Ford F-150 pick up.

Sallerson told Fiss that the state would be able to prove that it was Allen who caused the death of Rice, but Daley, the defense lawyer, said that exactly who caused the victim’s death “is still up in the air.”

Two other felony counts from earlier this year where Allen was accused of aggravated battery and mob action involving a stripper at Miss Kitty’s club in Washington Park that is owned by a member of Allen’s family were also dismissed.

Allen, who has remained free on bond, has a criminal history that includes 30 felonies and 22 misdemeanors but few convictions. Court records show that he has been charged with throwing rocks through the windows of cars, including at least two occupied by women. He served a prison sentence for possession of anyhydrous ammonia, a substance regulated by law that is a key ingredient in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

A wrongful death lawsuit in St. Clair County Circuit Court on behalf of Anthony Rice’s two sons was settled for $750,000, with about $500,000 going to the boys.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Former East St. Louis bouncer pleads guilty to mob action; reckless homicide charge dropped."