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St. Louis TV Reporter Injured by Politician ‘Fleeing’ Interview in Vehicle | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

August 18, 2023

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click to enlarge Hillsdale City Hall were photojournalist Wade Smith was allegedly run over while doing his job.

Last week, the top official of a north St. Louis County municipality was allegedly in a vehicle that ran over a photojournalist hoping to interview her, leaving him with a broken leg that required emergency surgery.

The incident, first reported by the Post-Dispatch yesterday, occurred last Friday outside city hall for the Village of Hillsdale, where Mitch McCoy, a reporter with Fox 2 (KTVI) showed up with cameraman Wade Smith to speak with Hillsdale Chairwoman Dorothy Moore.

McCoy has been reporting extensively in north county in recent weeks. His “Towed Away” series investigated municipal governments towing people’s cars from their own driveways due to expired tags.

Smith’s attorney Chet Pleban says that Smith and McCoy got to city hall seeking to talk to Moore but were told she wasn’t there. However, the two recognized Moore’s vehicle parked outside and suspected they were being lied to.

At some point Moore went out the back door and got into a vehicle that had a trailer hitched to its back. Pleban says another municipal employee was behind the wheel, with Moore in the passenger seat.

“My understanding is somebody that works for their public works department hopped in the truck to assist her in the getaway,” Pleban says. “As crazy as that sounds.”

Smith was struck by the trailer as the two fled. Pleban says that the cameraman was laid out on the ground, unable to get up. “Bone was sticking out,” Pleban says. “It’s gonna take a while to heal. No question about that.”

Pleban says that Moore and the driver drove off, not stopping to see if Smith was all right or to assist him in any way.

McCoy and Smith called 911, and it took about 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

Pleban says that as far as he knows, a camera was rolling at the time of the incident, but that footage is now in the custody of Fox 2.

KTVI has yet to broadcast a story about the incident, or the underlying story McCoy and Smith were working on. The station also has yet to release a comment and did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Post-Dispatch yesterday, nor to one this morning from the RFT.

The Hillsdale Police Department says that police in nearby Velda City are handling the investigation into the incident.

“I don’t know anything about the Velda City Police Department, but that’s Hillsdale’s neighbor,” Pleban says. “It would seem to me that a better approach would probably be to have the St. Louis County Police Department or the highway patrol do the investigation, particularly because the injuries were so severe.”

Chairwoman Moore was the subject of a 2018 profile written by the Post-Dispatch’s Jesse Bogan, who described Moore as one of “the longest-serving elected officials in the region.” The piece includes anecdotes about Moore’s adversarial relationship with the media, her chastising a police officer on overnight shift for briefly leaving Hillsdale village limits to get a pizza, and her winning a $3.5 million lottery jackpot.

The story explained that, in the wake of Moore’s lottery win, it wasn’t immediately clear if the Dorothy Moore who won the jackpot was Dorothy Moore, the leader of Hillsdale. The tight-tipped Moore wouldn’t say either way. Hillsdale’s police chief told Bogan that if Moore won the lottery, “Hillsdale would not want for anything ever again.”

Bogan later did confirm that the Hillsdale leader had won the jackpot. However, in the five years since, Hillsdale has continued to lose population and around a quarter of its population lives below the poverty line.

The news has lately been rife with stories of public officials reacting poorly to journalists attempting to cover them. Earlier this month in Marion, Kansas, the offices of the Marion County Record were raided in response to reporters there investigating the police chief and other high profile individuals. Last October, a reporter for the McCurtain Gazette in Oklahoma secretly recorded a closed-door meeting of the McCurtain County Board of Commissioners, revealing that officials there were plotting to kill him.

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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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