court action, misconduct reports while an SLMPD officer On the morning of Aug. 8, 2019, Neil is seen on video walking into a St. Louis City gas station and getting in line to buy something. At the time, he was a St. Louis City police officer, and he was off duty as he was heading into work, court records say. Inside that gas station, security footage obtained by First Alert 4 in 2019 showed Neil get into an argument with a man, attempt to tase him and then repeatedly punch him in the head with his handcuffs. That man, Bryan Boyle, spoke to First Alert 4 in 2019 after the gas station incident. During that interview, he said that he had asked Neil a question. What are you?' That's all I asked because I was interested in doing private security and private bodyguard work, Boyle said during that 2019 interview. A St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) Employee Misconduct Report of the incident obtained by First Alert 4 Investigates reports that Boyle said Neil never identified himself as a police officer during the incident. Neil was charged with third-degree assault in the case, a class-E felony. In September 2021, Neil had a bench trial, which waives a defendant's right to a jury trial and allows a judge to make the ruling of guilty or not guilty. A judge found Neil not guilty following a single-day trial, court records show. Eusef Robin Huq, now a defense attorney, had tried the case against Neil in 2021. He says the prosecutor's office argued Neil had no reason for the response he had to Boyle, and he had escalated the situation. Essentially, we argued that there was no reason for the aggressive response by Brandin Neil, he said. We had witnesses testify that he was the aggressor in the situation. In 2021, Boyle sued Neil in federal court, accusing him of Fourth and 14th Amendment rights violations. Boyle's attorney filed to drop the lawsuit in April of 2024 after Boyle was shot dead in his car while waiting at a red light in St. Louis City's Vandeventer neighborhood. The man police say shot Boyle died inside of the St. Louis City Justice Center before going to trial. Neil, when asked about this incident with Boyle, wrote in a statement, As far as Mr. Boyle, who is unfortunately deceased, all matters of that case are public record. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, before the incident with Boyle, Neil was already being investigated for a different internal affairs complaint. In May of 2019, Neil was accused of tackling Billy Busch's daughter, Abbey Busch, and her boyfriend to the ground inside a South City bar. The Post-Dispatch reported this incident was under investigation by both St. Louis City Police internal affairs and the circuit attorney's office. First Alert 4 Investigates filed multiple records requests with SLMPD regarding any potential internal affairs investigation into Neil from this incident with Busch. SLMPD says under Missouri law, internal affairs investigations into police officers are closed records. Neil was never criminally charged with anything related to this May incident inside a bar, but he did ultimately leave the department in September that same year. Whether an officer is fired or resigns is not an open record under Missouri law. Records show he was with SLMPD for less than three years. The alleged incident involving Ms. Busch, is exactly as stated, an alleged incident, that was investigated and found to not be factual, Neil said when asked about these allegations. First Alert 4 Investigates reached out to Busch for comment, and as of publication time, we have not heard back. First Alert 4 has not been able to independently verify the alleged incident between Neil and Busch. Huq says he was surprised to hear Neil is now a police chief, but hopes he's changed for the better. Maybe 2021 and that trial was a wake-up call, Huq said. Maybe a mentor had a word with him and said, Hey Brandin, you've got to do things different, because you got lucky this time. If you keep pulling stuff like that, it's going to catch up with you.' Potential misconduct seen on video, again More recently, in 2025, Neil was seen on video arresting former Riverview Alderwoman Regina Davis during a town hall meeting. Davis told First Alert 4 at the time she had gone to a meeting to ask then-Mayor Cornell about a lawsuit accusing him of sexual misconduct with a city employee. She was charged with assault, accused of biting Neil during the arrest. Those charges have since been dropped against Davis. Davis has now filed a lawsuit against Neil and the city of Riverview over the arrest. Davis' lawsuit claims the force used by Neil specifically was excessive and unwarranted. When asked about Davis' lawsuit, Neil said he would not comment on active litigation. This year, a video was circulated on social media showing Neil in a police uniform punching a man in the head while he was on the ground outside of a St. Louis City nightclub. A former Riverview detective says the video is from March 14 and that the man seen throwing the punch is Neil. When asked about this video, Neil said in a statement, I only ask that you share the entirety of the video that is approximately 25 minutes long, as it depicts the attempted de-escalation of a group of subjects, assault of officers, and the resisting of arrest that followed. First Alert 4 asked Neil to share this additional video with us. As of publication time, we have not received it. Potential investigation by a state agency, jail calls suggest A recorded jail call conversation between the now-former Riverview mayor and now-former Riverview Alderwoman Judy Jones in April suggests Neil may have been under investigation by Missouri Peace Officer's Standards and Training (POST) from an incident during his time with the Moline Acres Police Department. Neil was with Moline Acres from Dec. 1, 2025, until April 23, 2026, the department said. Jones, who Riverview confirms recently resigned for the board of aldermen, is heard in the call asking then-Mayor Cornell about POST. What's up with this... St. Louis City POST? Is it an organization or what is that? Jones asked during an April 17 call. Jones tells Cornell that POST is coming against Neil. This person is not even where we are yet. They're still at the other place, Jones said. Neil, at the time of the call, was still with Moline Acres. And they're cool, they're good with it. They're good with it. They look at the stuff that whatever occurred, and they don't have no problem. First Alert 4 Investigates reached out to Jones to get comment for this story. Jones responded by text, asking not to be contacted and telling us to reach out to Riverview's city attorney instead. Riverview's city attorney, when asked about a potential investigation into Neil by POST, said, The city has no comment regarding this matter, as it predates the current administration's depth and breadth of knowledge regarding the topic. Missouri law prohibits the Missouri Department of Public Safety, which oversees POST, from commenting on any investigation. First Alert 4 reached out to the Missouri Attorney General's Office, which files complaints against peace officer licenses based on POST investigations. As of publication time, the attorney general's office has not provided information regarding any possible action against Neil's license. Former detective alleges being fired for investigating Chief Neil before his appointment Maurico Wilson, a former Riverview Detective Corporal, says he was fired by Chief Brandin Neil following an investigation. (First Alert 4) Since Neil was appointed the chief of police for Riverview, he told First Alert 4 Investigates he has fired three officers. All three officers, he said, were fired for policy violations. One of those officers, according to Neil, is being investigated for a non-specified non-violent felony. A court records check shows no charges have been filed against any of the three officers who were fired from the department since Neil's appointment. Former Riverview Detective Corporal Maurico Wilson says he believes he is the officer Neil is investigating for a felony. Ultimately, I was fired for investigating him and uncovering other crimes, Wilson alleged. According to Wilson, he was in charge of doing Neil's background check before he was rehired into the department. During the background check, Wilson says he learned of accusations made against Neil while he was working secondary employment as security at a North County grocery store. Wilson says the incident he was investigating happened during a time when Neil wasn't working for any police department, which, under Missouri law, would prevent him from legally working secondary employment. First Alert 4 Investigates confirmed with the Moline Acres Police Department that Neil worked for them from Dec. 1, 2025, until April 23, 2026. Wilson says Neil was rehired into the Riverview Police Department and made chief on May 5. Wilson says the incident he was investigating allegedly happened on April 26, while Neil was not employed by either police department. Wilson said because Neil was not with any department at the time, he began investigating him for impersonation of a police officer. A wanted was put out for Neil on May 4 for impersonating a police officer, according to Wilson. A wanted is not a warrant, but an internal note for police, flagging Neil for questioning or possible arrest. Neil started working for Riverview the next day. The wanted had got issued out on [May 4], Wilson said, So you see how it became a sticky situation. Wilson and his supervisor were both fired the next month, he said. Neil confirmed Wilson and his supervisor had been fired when asked directly by First Alert 4 Investigates. All I can honestly, legally, say is that they were terminated, Neil said. With that being a personnel matter, I can't go any further into it. Wilson also shared with First Alert 4 Investigates a written reprimand document he says was written by Neil. The document reads: Upon notification from police officers from surrounding agencies, it was made aware that Interim Chief of Police Neil, DSN 375, had an active Wanted for Impersonating A Police Officer through the Riverview Police Department. Further investigation revealed the Wanted was authorized by Detective/Corporal Maurico Wilson, DNS 414, on 5/04/2026. Upon review of the report, it was discovered the report was blank, containing very vague and fictious pedigree information and there was additionally no narrative. In the document written to reprimand Wilson, it says Neil was not a member of the Riverview police department when the wanted was issued against him. The document says that Wilson was not acting ethically after he issued a wanted on citizen of Riverview for a supposed crime that did not take place in Riverview's venue and by leaving the wanted Active' after the citizen was appointed to Interim Chief of Police. Wilson says he had a right to conduct his investigation because Neil had applied to work for the department, and he was in charge of background checks. According to Wilson's termination paperwork, which he also shared with First Alert 4 Investigates, he was fired for multiple blatant violations of Police Department and City policies, as well as alleged criminal conduct. Wilson says he didn't violate department policies or do anything criminal. He says he believes he was fired for investigating Neil. Who's above the law? Nobody, right? We all should be held accountable, Wilson said. Jailed mayor handpicks Neil for Riverview's top brass Jailed mayor handpicks Neil for Riverview's top brass (First Alert 4) Neil had previously worked for the Riverview Police Department as a Sergeant. He left the department in 2025, telling First Alert 4 Investigates shortly after then-Mayor Cornell was arrested that he had quit because of Cornell's behavior. I was just tired of the mayor and his antics; the foolishness is usually how I refer to it as, Neil said in his Jan. 23 interview with us. During this interview, Neil said he had suspicions that a lot of things Cornell had done were criminal. We felt a lot of things that he did were criminal, he said. We just couldn't put our fingers on it or prove that these things were happening. I'm not really surprised about how you flaunt your authority and your power over people and stuff like that. That mentality you have. But to hear that it was, underage men and the child pornography and stuff like that. That was surprising to me. When asked if he was surprised by Cornell's arrest, Neil said, No, I'd honestly been waiting on it. Two months after this interview with First Alert 4 Investigates, Neil is on a recorded jailhouse call with Cornell and Alderwoman Jones. What would that look like if he's not on board? Neil asked Jones about then-acting Police Chief Toreyon Times. I don't know, Jones responded, this is perpetual existence of government. You know, push, pull in, pull out, change up, to make sure that the government continues. Neil also said the board would need to post the job opening on the front door of Riverview City Hall. That way, even if it came down to, Hey, we know we want you for the position, we're going to select him,' you've given other people the opportunity, so it doesn't seem like an unfair hiring practice, Neil said. Neil mentioned Wilson's supervisor would likely apply for the position and might file a lawsuit if he isn't given a chance to apply. This is not an opening, Cornell said. This is more like my appointment thing. It is not an opening, so it doesn't matter. First Alert 4 Investigates asked Neil after the press conference on his department being furloughed if he had heard from the former mayor since his January arrest. I would prefer not to answer that or involve that, he said. I have not contacted him directly, but I have heard. First Alert 4 Investigates pressed Neil on why he would need to speak with Cornell after his arrest. Again, since I have been in this position with the city of Riverview, I have not spoken to him, he said. Preemptive conversations before I return to Riverview is another story. However, since I have been here, there has been no communication or contact. Neil worked protection detail' for Cornell, was paid for trips to Metro East strip clubs When Neil was first with the Riverview Police Department, he said he was assigned to work frequently with Cornell. He had what he called the mayor's protection detail, Neil said in January. So, I was assigned to that. So, the majority of the time I was like his driver, but he always goes somewhere with police officers as his security and different things. Neil said a part of the job of being a part of Cornell's protection detail was joining him on nights out. The mayor would come into the police department and say, Hey, I'm going out tonight. I need you, you, you. You're going to go clock out, go on to secondary duty, go on to the special patrol, mayor's detail,' whatever the case might be, Neil said. Neil said the protection detail would join Cornell on trips to Illinois, as well. There's been a time before where, I mean, we bounced to multiple clubs, and now we're over in East St. Louis because he wanted to go to a strip club, Neil recounted. Neil said officers would be in their Riverview police uniforms on these outings, and even if we were in plain clothes, he wanted your gun and badge to be displayed. Neil said when he would go out to these clubs with Cornell, he was supposed to be paid for it. That would go to the comp time, he said. First Alert 4 Investigates reached out to Cornell's attorney for comment on these alleged trips. As of publication time, we have not heard back. Days after Cornell's arrest, Neil filed a lawsuit against Riverview claiming the city did not pay out his accrued comp hours, along with holiday and vacation hours. The court dropped Neil's lawsuit after he did not show up to a hearing in May, records show. During his interview in January, Neil said nobody ever stood up against Cornell. He's the mayor. He runs everything in this city, he said. Who are you going to call? Who are you going to tell on? The Riverview Police Department furlough is expected to last until December. During the press conference about the furlough, Neil said he would still be working for Riverview as a civilian employee and would be assisting the St. Louis County Police Department when they respond to calls in the city. Chief Neil's full written statement: At this time, I will have to deny the request for the on-camera interview in regards to the aforementioned topics. Three of the incidents have no correlation with my tenure with the City of Riverview. As far as Mr. Boyle, who is unfortunately deceased, all matters of that case are public record. The alleged incident involving Ms. Busch, is exactly as stated, an alleged incident, that was investigated and found to not be factual. As to the video you were provided, I only ask that you share the entirety of the video that is approximately 25 minutes long, as it depicts the attempted de-escalation of a group of subjects, assault of officers, and the resisting of arrest that followed. Lastly, in regards to Ms. Davis, who was lawfully arrested, I will not comment on any current litigation of the City and would recommend any information request be directed to our City's attorney. In closing, since my return to the Riverview Police Department, I have utilized the past 5 months to bring this department into state compliance, foster working relationships with our neighboring departments and elected officials, and attending as many community events as possible. The betterment of this city and the protection of it's residents is my ultimate goal, and I will continue to do so, both as transparently and efficiently as possible. Karla Vasquez Mejia contributed to this report.