UPDATED at 5:16 p.m. with comments from deputy's attorney and prosecutor. 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY • One of four St. Charles County police officers facing misdemeanor charges as a result of a 2009 drug raid in Montgomery County now faces an upgraded felony charge.

St. Charles County Sheriff's deputy Christopher E. Hunt, 37, now faces a first-degree burglary charge, a felony, and misdemeanor charges of property damage, assault and making a false report. The charges were upgraded on Feb. 3.

Montgomery County prosecutor Nicole Volkert said the earlier charges were filed by a previous prosecutor and that the new charges weren't based any any new information. “These are the charges that I believed were appropriate,” she said, declining to comment further.

The other officers are set to go to trial next month in Montgomery County for misdemeanor charges of third-degree assault and making a false report. Hunt had been charged with trespassing, property damage, making a false report and two counts of third-degree assault, all misdemeanors.

Hunt, sheriff's deputy William S. Rowe III, 34, Lake Saint Louis Officer Dion E. Wilson, 38, and O'Fallon police Officer Deric Dull, 34, were members of the St. Charles County Regional Drug Task Force on Feb. 5, 2009. On that day, they helped members of the East Central Drug Task Force with the arrest of Phillip Alberternst, 46, on felony drug charges.

East Central's officers were searching the property and had agreed to try a consensual search, but it appeared nobody was home, court documents say. Hunt then arrived in a vehicle, got out and kicked in a porch door, court documents say. Hunt and the three officers from St. Charles County are accused of kicking and punching Alberternst, whom they found inside. Police said Alberternst resisted arrest.

Court documents filed in the upgraded charge say Alberternst said he believed Hunt had been hostile towards him, and that he had had issues with Hunt in the past, and that Hunt had backhanded him on a previous occasion while Alberternst was handcuffed.

Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Kenneth Schulte, who investigated and wrote a report of the Montgomery County arrest incident, interviewed Hunt and said that his report "was in sharp contrast to the reports of other officers at the scene." Court documents did not detail what those differences were.

Attorney Joe McCulloch, representing Hunt and Rowe, said he was “absolutely shocked” by the upgraded charges. “Certainly nothing has changed in three years. If anything, the facts have gotten worse. This is strictly about politics and this is nothing about prosecution.

“It's an assault on police officers trying to do police work. Every police officer ought to take note of this.”

Sheriff's department spokesman Craig McGuire said the department continues to support Hunt and Rowe and found no basis for disciplinary action during an internal investigation.

Wilson, Hunt, and Rowe have continued to perform their regular duties with their departments, officials said. O'Fallon officials would not confirm whether Dull still worked there.