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St. Louis Lawyer Uncovered Rooming House Scheme Months Before City’s Suit | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

January 26, 2024

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click to enlarge COURTESY PHOTO Ryan Gavin took Dara Daugherty to court — and won.

Nine months before the City of St. Louis took legal action against Dara Daugherty and her associates’ wide-ranging “illegal rooming house” scheme, attorney Ryan Gavin took Daugherty to court with similar allegations — and won a $1.8 million judgment against her.

Gavin filed the lawsuit against Daugherty and one of her LLCs in April of 2023 on behalf of James Cole, who had rented a room from Daugherty in the Benton Park West neighborhood. Cole, a laborer, paid Daugherty $500 a month to stay at a property that had been condemned by the city and later described as “a haven for illegal drug use and criminal activity.”

Cole ended up being stabbed on site by another tenant. The lawsuit filed by Gavin alleged that Daugherty failed to provide her renters with “safe and inhabitable premise” in which to live, that she didn’t provide repairs or maintenance or do any due diligence in screening renters and that all this amounted to negligence.

In the process of writing and researching that lawsuit, Gavin and just one other staffer at his firm uncovered much of what the city would later reveal in its bombshell suit, filed by its Affirmative Litigation Unit nine months later.

Gavin found out that Daugherty had bought many foreclosed properties on the cheap and that, without taking out a mortgage or maintaining insurance, she operated them as rooming houses.

“Dara was not afraid to sue people to evict them from her property. And some of those tenants had counterclaims, I think even had some pictures, if not just descriptions of the conditions they were living in, at other properties” he says. “At that point, this is starting to look like a pattern. That was kind of what when pieces were being put together.”

The suit argued that Daugherty’s lack of oversight and care for the property made it attractive to “dangerous persons who were likely to, and in fact did, commit criminal and harmful acts on the premises.” Daugherty knew or should have known this, the suit says.

Gavin says the city also knew about Daugherty’s operation and he wonders why it took so long to take action. Cole was stabbed in April 2021. The police report written up shortly thereafter states plainly that the house on Jefferson was operating as a rooming house. Police had been called there 40 times in the year preceding the double stabbing.

“The police were definitely very well aware of Dara and the problems at her properties. Why the police and the city counselor and whoever else didn’t act, I don’t know,” he says.

The tenant who stabbed Cole in the Benton Park West home, James Gibson, sliced Cole’s arm and slashed his abdomen, causing Cole to suffer a “partial disembowelment,” according to a police report. Another man on the premises was stabbed as well. He too suffered a partial disembowelment, but was able to communicate with police when they arrived on the scene.

That same report lists Daugherty as a witness, saying that she was the one who called 911 and was present when police arrived.
click to enlarge St. Louis Metropolitan Police Photo of crime scene inside Dara Daugherty’s rooming house on Jefferson Avenue taken by police.

Cole was transported to Saint Louis University Hospital, underwent surgery and was released after 17 days.

“He still receives physical therapy,” Gavin says. “And really the problem for him is that he’s a laborer. The loss of use of his right hand really ended his time at work.”

Gavin says that after Cole suffered those injuries, Daugherty helped him apply for rental assistance through the State Assistance For Housing Relief program, also known as SAFHR. The federally funded, state-administered program was designed to help people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to pay their rent, but the RFT reported earlier this week that it was not an uncommon way for Daugherty to receive payments for housing units the city had condemned.

“That money did go straight to her,” Gavin says of Cole’s SAFHR benefits.

Photos from the police report show a house in disarray, with trash strewn about alongside mattresses on the floor. Unplugged window units and space heaters sit on the floor, cardboard moving boxes stacked atop them. The city says that in 2022 two people died there.

The city’s Building Division cited the property for collapsed walls, a collapsed roof, “rotten interior structures, and failing to maintain the premises in a safe and sanitary condition,” among other code violations.

In September, ruling on Gavin’s lawsuit, St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer hit Daugherty and her LLC with a judgment of more than $1.8 million. Court records suggest neither Daugherty nor her attorney bothered to mount a defense. The judgment written by Stelzer says that she “didn’t file responsive pleadings or otherwise defend.”

It’s unclear how much of that money Cole will be able to collect. Gavin says he is actively working on that now.

“We know that she has properties and so we’re looking into whether or not we can collect through those properties,” he 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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