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Sheriff Betts, St. Louis Judges Have Kumbaya Moment on Court Security | St. Louis

Published

9 months ago

January 18, 2024

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click to enlarge DOYLE MURPHY St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts has promised to put a deputy in every courtroom.

Sheriff Vernon Betts seemed to reach an agreement this afternoon with St. Louis circuit court judges, who had previously publicly mulled no longer working with Betts’ deputies and being responsible for their own security.

Last month, a letter from presiding Judge Elizabeth Hogan said that the court had plans to hire 36 bailiffs to provide daily security to the courtrooms, duties that are currently under the sheriff’s department’s purview. The judges wanted a deputy in every courtroom all the time; Betts said he didn’t have the manpower for that.

But in a meeting this afternoon, Betts promised that starting tomorrow he would have a deputy in every courtroom where either a judge or a clerk was present.

He said that once he gets his department fully staffed, he will have a deputy in all 36 courtrooms at all times, as the judges previously requested.

“If that is what the circuit wants, that is what I aim to deliver,” he said.

Hogan will issue a written response to Betts plan in the coming days, though she seemed to be willing to go along with his plan, at least for now.

Betts was speaking to Hogan and several judges as part of a regular 22nd Circuit Court budget committee meeting. Betts was there to request more money for his department, saying that he needed to pay his deputies more to stop attrition, which he says has caused the courtrooms to be un-manned in the first place.

Starting pay for deputies is now $34,000, and he wants it raised to $50,000. He also asked to be allowed to hire more deputies. He currently has 170 approved positions, with 161 of them filled. He asked to have the total number of approved positions raised to 180.

He also wanted $800,000 for new tasers.

The judges will take those requests under consideration, and when the court sends its proposed budget to the city later this year (this usually happens at the end of February), Betts’ requests for more salary and tasers may or may not be in that proposal.

At today’s meeting, several judges asked Betts how it was that he had so many deputies working places outside the courtroom — at Busch Stadium, Enterprise Center, Walgreens — when he couldn’t adequately staff the courthouse.

Betts assured the judges that though his deputies work secondary jobs all over the city, but that does not interfere with deputies working their 40 hours for the department.

However, Judge David Mason took Betts to task for allowing some courtrooms to go without bailiffs while deputies work secondary at places like MetroLink and Schnucks.

“If there is a period nine to five that a judge doesn’t have a bailiff and a deputy is working MetroLink, we have a problem,” Mason said. He called protecting court personnel “job number one” for deputies, adding that if a deputy wants to work beyond their 40 hours a week, let them work a double shift at the courthouse.

“What I am not hearing is concern for job number one,” Mason said.

Ironically, Mason himself was recently assaulted at a MetroLink station. But Betts left the meeting without responding to Mason directly.

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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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