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David Mueller Will Challenge Kim Gardner in 2024 | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

April 10, 2023

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click to enlarge Courtesy David Mueller Criminal defense attorney David Mueller.

Criminal defense attorney David Mueller says he will run for St. Louis Circuit Attorney, making him the first challenger to announce a campaign against embattled incumbent Kim Gardner.

Mueller, a 37-year-old St. Louis native and political newcomer, tells the RFT he feels called to run for the city’s top prosecutor job because, after decades of population decline, he thinks the city is at an inflection point.

“We’re losing 7,000 residents a year,” he says. “We’re going to go from the 20th largest [metro region] in the country to the 30th in a decade. If we don’t change it now, the next Busch Stadium is going to be built in Pacific.

“We have to keep people, we have to attract people. We’ve got the new NGA going in. It’s an opportunity. People are excited about the city. They’re excited about Cortex. But if we fail in this moment, I really believe that the city is in danger.

Mueller grew up in the suburb of Normandy and got his law degree from the George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C., before moving back to St. Louis in 2013. He took a job as a public defender, working in the St. Louis County trial office. After growing up in north county and then starting as a public defender shortly before the 2014 Ferguson protests, he says he’s witnessed over-policing by tiny municipal police departments and the other systemic issues that plague the region’s policing and courts.

Now a resident of Tower Grove South, Mueller says he voted for Gardner but that she hasn’t lived up to the promises of the racial justice platform she ran on. He cites the case of a client, Levi Henning, who was prosecuted by Gardner’s office, as what ultimately motivated him to seek the circuit attorney job.

Henning, 21, was first charged in March 2021 with the murder of Carieal J. Doss. That August, police processed DNA evidence collected from the scene that suggested someone else was there, but Mueller says prosecutors waited six months to disclose that evidence to him — and even then didn’t drop the charges. Mueller says the Circuit Attorney’s Office also had ballistics evidence that tied the killing to a murder committed by another man, but prosecutors sat on that for over a year. Gardner’s office finally dropped all the charges against Henning last month, but only after the young man spent two years in and out of jail.

Mueller says that case was more egregious than anything he saw during his time as a public defender in St. Louis County (and that was a time when the county’s top prosecutor was Bob McCulloch).

“When I think about systemic problems in [Gardner’s] office, I think about my clients, the young men sitting in the Justice Center without any hope of resolution in a timely fashion,” Mueller said as the charges against Henning were dismissed. “It’s not justice to hold somebody for a year before you can get a case for the grand jury.”

Gardner announced last month that she will seek a third term. She was elected to the office in 2016 after winning a four-way race in the August Democratic primary and facing no opponent in the November general election. In the 2020 cycle, Gardner bested former Assistant Circuit Attorney Mary Pat Carl by 20 percent in the primary and faced only token Republican opposition in the general.

Mueller says that Gardner has undoubtedly been the victim of racist and sexist attacks for the past six years. “But unfortunately, what’s also true is that for six years, she has blamed everyone else for everything that was happening.

“The problem is that she’s fighting everybody all the time,” he says. “Not just the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, not just the Ethical Society of Police. She’s fighting every single one of the judges. She’s fighting the mayor’s office, she’s fighting the Board of Aldermen, she’s fighting the treasurer and the comptroller. And now she’s fighting with the Attorney General’s Office. ”

Mueller says that if he were elected circuit attorney he’d make a priority of chipping away at the office’s case backlog, and that he would personally prosecute cases.

“Miss Gardner does not have a caseload. I don’t know of any case she’s first chaired since her time in the Circuit Attorney’s Office,” he says. “You have to address the backlog first. For me, that means doing it yourself. You need a lot of help. But I’m willing to lead from the front.”

Though he’ll be campaigning against Gardner for the next year, Mueller is adamant that he doesn’t support Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s current efforts to remove Gardner from office.

“To have Jefferson City politicians come in and try to remove a legally elected circuit attorney is not appropriate,” Mueller says. “I trust that the voters of St. Louis City will see for themselves what’s happening, and that they will make the right decision next August.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated soon after publication to correct a fact about the city’s voting system. The new approval voting system does not apply to “county-level” offices like circuit attorney. We regret the error.We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at [email protected] or follow on Twitter at @RyanWKrull. Coming soon: Riverfront Times Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting St. Louis stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

7 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

7 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

7 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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