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New Life Takes the City to Court, Seeking Review of Permit Denial | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

11 months ago

November 6, 2023

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PHOTO BY NICK SCHNELLE Unhoused residents protested the closure of Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelical Center in 2017.

Rev. Larry Rice’s years-long battle with the city has made its way to the courts. Again.

Earlier this year, the St. Louis Board of Building Appeals unanimously voted to revoke a building permit that would have allowed Rice’s New Life Evangelistic Center, or NLEC, to reopen its former Downtown West shelter as a church. The board ultimately agreed with claims levied by NLEC’s former neighbors — that Rice did not intend to run a church in the building, but rather to once again operate it as a shelter.

Rice vowed to fight the city’s decision in court. Today, he followed through.

In a petition for administrative review, NLEC argued the city violated its religious rights by revoking a building permit the building commissioner had issued NLEC in November 2018. NLEC also lambasted the board’s inquiry into the validity of NLEC’s plans, saying the board relied on “unsubstantiated evidence, including inadmissible hearsay and other improper hearsay.”

NLEC also argued the board improperly allowed and considered testimony that NLEC was misrepresenting the space’s intended use.

“That testimony was speculative, lacked foundation and was based on inadmissible hearsay,” the petition reads.

In addition, testimony about NLEC’s prior operations at 1411 Locust were “irrelevant,” the petition claims.

click to enlarge New Life Evangelistic Center in downtown St. Louis.

NLEC was headquartered at the corner of Locust and Fourteenth streets for more than 40 years up until 2017.

In 2015, the city revoked Rice’s 32-bed permit, which dated back to 1976, after neighbors complained about crime and chaos. The shelter kept operating until late 2017, when a string of drug overdoses led the city to issue a cease-and-desist that ultimately caused Rice to close NLEC’s doors.

Rice filed a federal suit against the city in 2015 on grounds of religious freedom. It was dismissed the same year. Property owners took Rice to court a year later over his shelter’s purported negative effects on public safety. The attorney who filed the suit, Elkin Kistner, also filed the appeal seeking to revoke NLEC’s building permit this year.

Earlier this year, Rice unveiled what seemed to be sweeping changes to the building that once housed the shelter. It would be a church complete with a food pantry, stores of free supplies and offices. It would be open strictly during the daytime and would provide some homeless services. It was definitely not a shelter, Rice and his son, Chris Rice, insisted.

The Rices’ assurances weren’t enough for the former shelter’s neighbors. Matt O’Leary, a real estate developer and member of Citizens for a Greater Downtown St. Louis, previously told the RFT that NLEC was masquerading its shelter as a church to get around city codes.

NLEC’s petition lists the city of St. Louis, the Board of Building Appeals and an LLC called 1401 Locust Street as defendants. NLEC is not asking for damages. Instead, the nonprofit asks that the court reverse the Board of Building Appeals’ decision.

Last month, after the board released its decision, Rice told the RFT that NLEC had “gone through all the things the city wanted us to do” and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars repairing the building since it closed in 2017. Yet the “legal lynching” continues.

“We’ve been lied to consistently,” Rice said. “I think people are ultimately going to come to recognize the grave injustice that the homeless are presently experiencing in this area.”

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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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