Local News

Missouri AG Gets Specific on Why Kim Gardner Has to Go | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

3 years ago

March 22, 2023

[ad_1]

click to enlarge DANNY WICENTOWSKI File photo of Kim Gardner.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s quest to remove Kim Gardner from office continued today when he filed a 120-page amended petition in circuit court accusing the embattled circuit attorney of a litany of failures while in office, including a failure to prosecute a man who killed a seven-year-old. According to Bailey’s court filing, Gardner’s mismanagement has resulted in judges dismissing more than 2,700 cases. Gardner’s own office has dismissed more than 9,000 cases due to a lack of diligence, the amended petition says. The initial quo warranto petition that Bailey filed on February 23 relied heavily on media reports about Gardner’s office. This amended petition cites numerous specific cases in which Bailey is alleging Gardner’s office failed to bring defendants to court, show up to court themselves or prosecute misdemeanors like domestic assault. One of the cases Bailey mentions in the petition is of a man, identified as E.P., who was charged with assault and armed criminal action in February 2021 for shooting a person referred to as S.P. seven times. According to Bailey’s petition, an assistant circuit attorney contacted S.P. and allegedly told her not to appear at E.P.’s bench trial, which was to take place in February of this year. That assistant circuit attorney then told E.P.’s lawyer that S.P. wasn’t cooperating as a witness. At the bench trial, the prosecutor said the CAO was “not ready for trial as the complaining, essential witness is not cooperative.” The court subsequently dismissed the case. According to the petition, when the shooting victim read that the case had been dismissed, she wrote, “I am the complaining witness / victim for this case. I was and remain cooperative. I have attended court for the trial that didn’t end up going, and I was willing to come to court to testify on Feb. 10th 2023, but was directed not to appear by the assistant circuit attorney assigned to the case.” Bailey also alleged the CAO has a pattern of filing last minute nolle prosequi motions “on the eve of trial or the day of trial.” This is a move that drops charges against a defendant and allows prosecutor to refile them, essentially restarting the prosecutorial clock and allowing prosecutors more time to prepare a case. However, it can also leave defendants lingering in jail. Bailey’s amended petition cites multiple examples of this, including a 2019 case against an individual identified as D.H., indicted for assaulting a police officer for allegedly trying to stab him with a knife. After a jury had been selected in the case, the prosecutor filed a nolle prosequi and elected not to proceed. The petition claims court data shows the nolle prosequi rate has “skyrocketed” during Gardner’s tenure, from 14.9 percent of case dispositions in 2016 to 35 percent in 2020. Bailey’s filing also references the case against Brandon Campbell, who was indicted for murder. On three occasions between May and July 2021 an attorney from the CAO failed to show up to hearings relating to the case, which was eventually dropped. The petition also highlights the August 12, 2019, shooting death of seven-year-old Xavier Usanga in Hyde Park. According to the petition, Malik Ross got into an argument with two other men and began firing at them. One of the bullets struck Usanga, who was playing in an alley behind his home. The SLMPD collected enough evidence to try Ross, but the CAO requested “follow-up work.” The police collected more evidence and again presented it to the CAO, but Bailey’s petition alleges the office never followed up on the case. The SLMPD also collected evidence against Ross implicating him in an embezzlement scheme as he sought to collect money to flee in the aftermath of the shooting. With the CAO not prosecuting, police took the evidence of embezzlement to federal prosecutors, who got a 10 year sentence against Ross. The evidence related to Usanga’s shooting was given in testimony at Ross’ sentencing, leading to the stiffer sentence. The amended quo warranto also accuses Gardner of failing to investigate officer-involved shootings as well as failing to disclose evidence to defendants and their attorneys in a timely manner. A graph included in the filings shows that the number of cases issued by the CAO has declined precipitously in the past decade, with less than 2,000 cases being issued in 2022, down from 6,118 in 2013. Many of the later parts of the amended petition describe what Bailey refers to as the “untenable position” Gardner’s staff attorneys have been put in by their heavy caseloads and lack of support. The petition cites one assistant circuit attorney responsible for handling the prosecution of 400 felonies. Another assistant circuit attorney told a judge on the record he could not continue for reasons of “exhaustion and health.” “Because Respondent has knowingly and willfully assigned so many felony cases to so few assistant circuit attorneys, the assistants are suffering from health conditions, including exhaustion and seizures from the extraordinary stress,” the petition says. According to the petition, between 2017 and 2020, at least 85 assistant circuit attorneys either resigned or were fired from the office. This story has been updated.
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

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

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.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

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

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

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.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

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.”

[ad_2]

Source link