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Man Jailed 8 Months After Charges Dropped Deserves Nothing, City Says | St. Louis

Published

11 months ago

November 22, 2023

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click to enlarge DANNY WICENTOWSKI The Workhouse, officially the Medium Security Institution, now shuttered.

Does the City of St. Louis owe anything to a man it accidentally kept locked in jail for eight months after the charges against him were dropped?

That’s the question now facing a three-judge panel on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. But the city is fighting tooth and nail to argue it owes Michael Jones nothing.

Jones, now 75, was locked up in the since-shuttered Medium Security Institution, better known as the Workhouse, in 2013 while facing one felony and one misdemeanor charge. According to the suit he later filed, the charges against him were dismissed that November but he remained in jail until the following July.

It may sound shocking, but Jones wasn’t alone in being held long after his release date. In the last 10 years, at least seven people have remained in the city’s custody even though they were no longer facing charges.

One of the federal judges hearing the case last week blamed a breakdown of the system, not mere negligence.

“If this happens once, it is offensive,” Judge Ralph Erickson told the attorney for the city, “but this happens multiple times and nobody cares enough? That is a problem….You ought to go back to whoever employs you and tell them there needs to be a policy.”

The suit says that the jail continued to hold Jones even after the public defender’s office notified jail staff he was past his release date.

Said Erickson, “This isn’t some guy who sat there for three days. This is a person who sat there for months.”

Yet attorneys for the city have argued that the city should be let off the hook in Jones’ lawsuit because of qualified immunity, a legal concept that protects government officials from lawsuits in certain situations, including ones in which officials couldn’t have known they were breaking the law.

The city previously filed a motion to dismiss Jones’ lawsuit, but that motion was denied.

After the city appealed, Assistant City Counselor Abby Duncan argued the case last Thursday in front of a panel that included Erickson and two other judges. The three-judge panel has yet to rule on the matter.

Attorney Elad Gross was there arguing for Jones. He has represented six other men and women who were also held in the Workhouse and the City Justice Center between 2013 and 2019 after the criminal cases against them were dismissed. Some of those people were only locked up for a few days past their cases’ dismissals, others for months.

The other six suits have settled, with the individuals generally receiving more settlement money the longer they were wrongfully locked up. Some have received approximately $100,000 from the city. Of the seven, Jones spent the longest period of time allegedly wrongfully incarcerated.

“His is the longest and I would anticipate that’s probably why we’re still fighting his case the most at this point,” Gross says.

In court, Duncan told the judges she believes the problem has largely been fixed, replying to Erickson’s criticisms by saying, “Many of those things you said have likely already been done,” she said.

Since 2020, according to city policies governing detainee release, jail procedure holds that when charges against a defendant are dropped by prosecutors, “the Circuit Attorney authorizes the release of inmates.” In situations where a detainee is found not guilty, that responsibility lies with the courts.

Gross says he wasn’t aware of anyone suffering the same situation as Jones in the past year or two.

“That could be a good thing that 1700660440 maybe this isn’t as much of an issue,” Gross says.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

5 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

5 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

5 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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