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Hartmann: St. Louis ‘Sugar Daddy’ Fabian Marta’s Kidnapping Arrest Draws Attention | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

August 8, 2023

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click to enlarge ST. LOUIS METROPOLITAN POLICE Fabian Marta was arrested for kidnapping after funding the film Sound of Freedom, a box-office hit about child predators. This column was first published on Ray Hartmann’s St. Louis Insider Substack and is reprinted with permission. A Chesterfield man is the subject of national news media coverage today over his recent arrest in the city on child kidnapping charges.Fabian Marta, 51, stands accused by Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore of “accessory child kidnapping,” a Class A felony. The complaint alleges that Marta assisted a woman referred to as “Suspect 1” in harboring her children at an apartment building he owned “knowing she had taken them illegally” from a lawful parent. It accused him of “refusing to allow police access to the residence and impeding the kidnapping investigation.”The national angle of interest – reported at Newsweek and other outlets – is that Marta was “a patron of the crowdfunded anti-child trafficking film Sound of Freedom.” The box-office hit about child predators is all the rage on the Right, drawing praise from everyone from Donald Trump to mainstream conservative politicians to Qanon.Marta posted on Facebook that he was “proud to have been a small part” of funding the film. He added, “If you see the movie, look for Fabian Marta and family at the end of the credits.” For someone with that credential to be charged with child kidnapping does seem somewhat ironic. click to enlarge School board member Jessica Clark has called Rockwood parents “libtards” and previously hosted sugar baby workshops and gatherings. But the more interesting local angle of the story is Marta’s connection to controversial Rockwood School Board member Jessica Clark, who was elected in April 2022. Clark’s claim to fame was that she was the first person elected to a school board after proudly holding the title, “Sugar Baby.”It turns out, from all appearances, that Marta was her first “Sugar Daddy.”In a since-deleted Facebook post dated February 10, 2020, Clark – posting under the name “Jessica Laurent” – displayed photos of herself with Marta. Under the heading “Jessica Laurent is with Fabian Marta,” there was this:“On this day last year, I walked into this weird-ass party and met that weird-ass man (heart emoji). Now we spend our days being weird all day. It was pure magic. Cheers to the sweet life.” On the same day, Clark/Laurent also posted an invitation to “Sugar Ball” – “the finest sugar party experience” – at a place called “Elmo’s Love Lounge” in University City.Still, Rockwood voters elected Clark to shake up their school district. And Marta, himself a Rockwood parent, has supported her efforts in social media and as a frequent front-row attendee at school board meetings, according to a reliable source (and fellow Rockwood parent).It didn’t take Clark long to make the news as a school board member. Four months after her election, the Post-Dispatch reported that Clark was being condemned by Rockwood school district leaders and parents for having “mocked students with disabilities and used political slurs in a recorded speech that has been shared widely on social media.” Here’s what the Post reported that Clark said at a town hall meeting hosted by a conservative radio station in O’Fallon, Missouri: “They come to the school board meetings with their gay flags and their masks,” Clark said, earning laughter from the audience. “I use the word libtard, they said I was an ableist … They come in with the kids in the wheelchairs and everything … whatever, you are a libtard and I mean it, and I stand on it.”In the video, Clark can also be heard referring to “transgender crap” in schools and saying teachers are “indoctrinated” during college.”Marta defended Clark three days after that story in an August 28, 2022, Facebook post: “Jessica has come under fire for standing strong on her conservative values.” He also referred to the Post-Dispatch news story “as a political hit piece.”Clark has not in any way been implicated in the current charges against Marta. The criminal-justice part of the story will play itself out and doesn’t interest me a bit.But less than a year ago, Marta was an important public part of Clark’s efforts to bring conservative family values to Rockwood. Call me cynical, but that sweet connection still has my attention. It’s so educational.Perhaps it’s a sign of my advanced years that sugaring is a phrase with which I wasn’t familiar until Clark burst on the scene. I’ve tried to get up to speed, and here’s the best definition I was able to find from a law firm online:“Over the past decade, an unconventional method of dating, known as sugaring, has become more and more popular. Sugaring is when a younger woman and an older, wealthy man form a relationship where the man, the sugar daddy, gives the woman, the sugar baby, money and gifts in exchange for the time they spend together.“The phenomenon often draws comparisons to prostitution. Both prostitution and sugaring involve exchanging money for intimate services. While sugaring does not always include sexual acts, it is often part of the arrangement. Those who are involved in sugaring often differentiate between prostitution and sugaring by emphasizing the dating aspect of sugaring. They say that prostitution is flat out exchanging money for sex, and being a sugar baby is more similar to being in a consensual, adult relationship where your partner supports you financially.”I hope that clears it up.There’s no indication that the study of sugaring will become part of the Rockwood Schools curriculum in the foreseeable future. Clark has not brought that up publicly in her campaign to clean up Rockwood’s swamp, but you never know where conservative values will lead you these days.I understand this irony isn’t nearly as sexy as the “Guy Who Helped Fund Child Trafficking Film Busted For Child Kidnapping” national story. But I don’t care about that movie.I like Fabian Marta’s local angle better.Ray Hartmann is the founder and former columnist for the Riverfront Times. Now you can read news and insights on his substack Ray Hartmann’s St. Louis Insider. If you miss his column as much as we do, why not subscribe?Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year 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

1 year 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

1 year 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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