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Former Client Suing Al Watkins Wanted to Avoid Upsetting ‘Femi-Nazis’ | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

March 14, 2023

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DOYLE MURPHY Attorney Albert Watkins speaks to reporters in 2017 following ex-St. Louis police Office Jason Stockley’s acquittal.
New details have emerged in a lawsuit filed in federal court earlier this month against local attorney Albert Watkins. Former client Paul Henreid, a graduate of Washington University’s School of Law is suing Watkins for malpractice and negligence. Henreid says in his suit that in 2018 he instructed Watkins to “fly below their radar” as Watkins worked to have an invasion of privacy conviction expunged from Henreid’s record. Instead, Watkins went on a “media blitz,” generating significant press coverage and defeating the purpose of the expungement, according to Henreid.The invasion of privacy conviction stemmed from the late 1990s when Henreid — whose legal name was then Paul Henroid — filmed himself having sex with numerous women without their knowledge. At the time, Henroid was working as a stripper under the name Geno, and he referred to the camera hidden inside his bedroom’s alarm clock as the “Geno-cam.” One of the women caught wind of the recordings and reported Henroid to the authorities. One of Henroid’s victims was 17 when he filmed her, resulting in a slew of more serious charges. He hired defense attorney Scott Rosenblum and pleaded guilty to the invasion of privacy charge in exchange for the other charges being dropped. In addition to a two-year suspended sentence and five years probation, Henroid spent 30 nights in jail and had to perform 250 hours of community service. A copy of an email obtained by the Riverfront Times shows that Henreid, who had changed his name and become a lawyer in California, contacted Watkins and his partner Michael Schwade on January 10, 2018, saying that he was planning to run to be a judge in Los Angeles County Superior Court in “a sneak attack campaign on an incumbent.” “I do not think my judicial campaign should be mentioned in the initial Petition [for expungement] because one of the femi-Nazis in the circuit attorney’s office may go ballistic,” Henreid wrote. “I believe the better strategy is to fly below their radar. It has been over twenty years, but hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”When asked why he would engage the famously not-media shy Watkins as legal counsel on such a sensitive matter, Henreid tells the RFT he “didn’t know how bad his reputation [was] about the whole press thing.”The following month, Watkins inserted Henreid into the turmoil surrounding then-governor Eric Greitens, who was being investigated for invasion of privacy charges for allegedly taking a nude photo of a woman without her consent. In February 2018, Watkins issued a press release about the case and gave interviews, including to the Post-Dispatch, saying that it would be hypocritical for Greitens not to pardon Henreid as Greitens sought to have his own charges dismissed.“What’s good for the governor should be good for the gander,” Watkins told the Post-Dispatch.National outlets such as the Washington Post and CBS News picked up the story as well. Henreid says at the time, he felt blindsided. “It makes no sense,” he remembers thinking.Watkins however insists that Henreid was well-aware he’d be entering into a high-profile fray. He stresses that the “below their radar” phrase referred to expungement efforts in St. Louis circuit court, not to the efforts to win a pardon from the governor. Three days after the Post-Dispatch article, an upset Henreid sent Watkins an email asking him to stop work on the expungement petition. “The Post Dispatch article from this past week does the opposite of my express goal of flying below the radar,” Henreid wrote to Watkins, who Henreid refers to later in the email as Judas. “Now every Circuit Attorney (and possible Judges) will be on high alert.” The story’s internet presence was so great, he wrote, that he might have to change his name again, this time to “Smith, Jones or Johnson.” Plus, the governor denied the pardon.However, in May that same year, Henreid again emailed Watkins, seemingly still eager to work with him on the expungement. In this email, Henreid referenced Sun Tzu’s Art of War saying that “the best General wins without fighting” and therefore he and Watkins should not ask for a hearing in the expungement case. Instead they should hope that the court rules sua sponte, meaning on its own accord, given that the circuit attorney had not filed an objection to the petition for expungement. Henreid eventually did get his expungement in November 2018. Henreid’s lawsuit in federal court is similar to a 2019 complaint he filed against Watkins with the Missouri Supreme Court Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, an agency responsible for handling alleged misconduct by lawyers in the state. In September 2020 the counsel closed the complaint without discipline.In a lengthy August 2019 email from Watkins to Alan Pratzel, a St. Louis attorney who serves as Missouri’s chief disciplinary counsel, Watkins says that Henreid sought to pay Watkins’ firm from the coffers of his campaign for judge, a move Watkins says he strongly advised against. He added that Henreid has “emOr braced” Sun Tzu’s Art of War “as a life guide.”Henreid never became a judge. He tells the RFT the results of Google searches of his name prevent him from taking on clients as an attorney, and he makes his living flipping houses.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

8 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

8 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

8 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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