The former police chief of Greenwood, Mo. pleaded guilty to assaulting a man accused of trying to drown and kill his infant daughter in an icy pond.
Greg Hallgrimson pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday morning, according to court records reviewed by the Kansas City Star. A grand jury indicted him for violating the civil rights of a man when he threw him to the ground and punched him while he was handcuffed to a chair in 2018.
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The father had walked into the station and turned himself in, telling police he tried to drown his 6-month-old daughter in a pond, authorities said. The former chief and a colleague found the baby unconscious and floating face up in the freezing water. Hallgrimson warmed the child and tried to revive her until paramedics responded. An ambulance took her to the hospital with severe hypothermia.
Prosecutors said when Hallgrimson returned from saving the infant's life in Greenwood, Missouri, he punched the baby's father in the face while yelling, "You deserve to die."
Surveillance video in the police station filmed the attack. The department placed Hallgrimson on administrative leave until he resigned five months later.
The infant's father, who is still in jail, faces charges felony of child abuse and assault.
Correction: Hallgrimson was the former police chief of Greenwood, Mo. -- not Kansas City.
