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Sheriff’s Lawyer Tries to Quash Suit Against Him — By Blaming Sheriff’s Own Deputies | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

September 28, 2023

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click to enlarge RYAN KRULL Sheriff Vernon Betts at the Carnahan Courthouse downtown.

Normally, when people sue someone in St. Louis, they hire the St. Louis City Sheriff’s Department to serve their target with the lawsuit — whether that’s directly handing the suit to them or to a representative who agrees to accept service on their behalf. The sheriff in St. Louis, like sheriffs around the country, is paid to perform that function by many private litigants.

But what happens if you hire the sheriff’s office to serve a lawsuit on the sheriff himself? As one prominent local attorney learned in recent weeks, that could complicate things.

Attorney Jerryl Christmas says he believes the office engaged in shenanigans with the lawsuit he filed. “I’m trying to get to the bottom of this,” Christmas said.

Christmas is representing deputy Steve Chalmers in his discrimination lawsuit against Sheriff Vernon Betts. The suit alleges that Betts demoted Chalmers because he showed Betts insufficient political support — more specifically, that Chalmers didn’t put out a single yard sign for Betts’ re-election.

Betts was later caught in a recorded phone call referring to Chalmers by a number of racial slurs as well as saying the deputy “didn’t get out there and help me do what he should have been doing.” Audio of that call was released by the RFT in February.

Christmas filed the suit on Chalmers’ behalf last September. That month, Christmas paid to have a process server with the Sheriff’s Office serve a summons to Betts. Typically, a deputy then goes out and serves the actual summons.

In this case, though, someone just popped the lawsuit in the mail — a process that is allowed, but only in very specific circumstances. And now Betts’ attorney is using the specter of improper service — improperly done, again, by Betts’ staff — to say the lawsuit against him cannot proceed.

Assistant City Counselor Thomas Wahl, who is Betts’ attorney in the matter, filed a motion arguing that the summons should be quashed because Betts was improperly served.

At a hearing Wednesday on the matter, Judge Michael Stelzer asked Christmas, “Why didn’t you just have a process server drop it off?”

Christmas brought with him to court the paperwork and the receipts showing that he paid for Betts to be served the summons in the normal manner, by a deputy.

“Something is going on in the sheriff’s office, which is a problem,” Christmas said. “I am just trying to figure out how I requested it this way, and then they in turn served him by mail.”

Judge Stelzer said that he didn’t want to get into any potential impropriety by Betts’ office but instead to focus on the argument raised by Wahl. The judge agreed that the lack of service to date is a problem and said that Christmas will now have to try again to serve the sheriff, either again attempting to use the regular channels or via a special process server.

“I don’t know what they’re doing in the Sheriff’s Office,” Christmas said after the hearing. “I think what it shows is that they can’t be trusted.”

He added, “No one can explain why the sheriff was served by mail. It’s a mystery.”

click to enlarge RYAN KRULL Attorney Jerryl Christmas outside the Civil Courts Building downtown.

Betts attended the hearing, and the RFT reached out to him for comment afterwards. We’ll update the story if he responds.

Christmas told the RFT he can’t help but wonder if the deputy who wound up tasked with serving their boss the summons feared retaliation for doing so — that Betts would shoot the messenger, so to speak. He theorized that fear may have led a deputy to put the summons in the mail, not knowing that it would have a big impact on whether the case could proceed.

For what it’s worth, Chalmers alleges in his lawsuit that as retaliation for not supporting Betts politically, he was demoted from the Civil Process Servers Unit to the Security Unit.

“Serving process in the sheriff’s office is a plumb job,” Christmas says.

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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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