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SUNDAY • 03.15.2015 • $2.50 • FINAL EDITION

Sheltered from scrutiny, the municipal courts are a system run by municipalities and lawyers that enriches municipalities and lawyers.

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JEFFERSON CITY • When

bars, bowling alleys and other businesses in St. Joseph, Mo., mobilized to fight a smoking ban on last April’s ballot, they formed a political action committee and gave it a wholesome-sounding name: Citizens for Fairness in Missouri.

The businesses argued that the anti-smoking proposal was unfair because it affected their establishments but not the local casino. Still, the ordinance passed. So the committee went dormant, its treasury dwindling to $2,062 as of Dec. 31.

Then last month, the committee resurfaced. Citizens for Fairness sponsored a radio ad that aired across the state. The ad belittled Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich’s appearance,

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People wait this month for the doors to open for the municipal courts at Dellwood City Hall.

MUNICIPAL COURTS WORK IN SECRET, TRY HARD TO KEEP IT THAT WAY

BY JENNIFER S. MANN AND STEPHEN DEERE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • Some of the best deals

that are made in the region’s municipal courts never see the light of day.

When prosecutors dismiss a citation it is often done at a whisper, in a side room, or out of court altogether.

Then the record is sealed under a state law that is ostensibly to protect the falsely accused but in reality often hides favors.

It’s just one example of how the region’s municipal courts operate in secret, keeping uneven treatment private and using laws and court rules to justify it.

See SECRECY • Page A12

BY JEREMY KOHLER, JENNIFER S. MANN AND STEPHEN DEERE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

T

he email in Keith Cheung’s inbox was from a judge asking for a favor.

The subject line: “Help!!!”

The sender was Wes Dalton, then an associate circuit court judge in Warren County. It was about a case in Frontenac Municipal Court, where Cheung was prosecuting attorney. The defendant was Dana Baker, 18, one of three teens who had been written summonses for illegal possession of alcohol.

Dalton’s email said that the 18-year-old was the daughter of “our connection” to Porto Cima, a private golf club at the Lake of the Ozarks, the resort area where the annual Missouri Bar Association conference is held.

“Her Dad is Wayne Baker (owner of Warrenton Oil and a ----load of other stuff),” Dalton wrote. “Can we make this one go away??? By the way, we’re hooked up for golf at Porto Cima at the Conference!!! (is no cost okay???)!!”

See COURTS • Page A10

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MUNICIPAL COURTS

M 1 • SUNDAY • 03.15.2015

MUCH OF SYSTEM IS SECRET COURTS • FROM A1

The email was dated May 2.

The police report indicates that a disposition of “nolle prosequi” was entered on the case the next day. It meant the daughter would not be prosecuted. The other two teens pleaded guilty to amended charges, paid fines and were ordered to take a three-day alcohol course.

That was 2006, but favors are still traded just as freely today in St. Louis County’s municipal courtrooms.

Sheltered from the scrutiny of the state courts, the municipal courts are a system run by municipalities and lawyers that often serve to enrich municipalities and lawyers.

Those in power hand out favors and ensure the municipalities and lawyers stay in business by using the state’s point system for drivers as leverage.

People who can afford lawyers can get even serious cases amended to minor infractions.

People who can’t afford lawyers are stuck with answering to the original charge, and sometimes end up in jail if they miss court appearances because they cannot pay.

A blistering report released by the Department of Justice on March 4 called Ferguson’s police department a collection agency for a “constitutionally deficient” court. The report said city officials were dismissing tickets for friends and family while blaming AfricanAmericans’ lack of “personal responsibility” for their woes in court.

After the report, Ferguson’s city manager, police chief and municipal judge resigned; the city court clerk was fired; and the Missouri Supreme Court took the extraordinary step of assigning all pending Ferguson cases to the circuit court.

The government report noted that Ferguson was not alone in its practices. The Justice Department said it was a case study for how other municipal police departments and courts are run.

The municipal court system delivered more than $52 million to St. Louis County municipalities last year.

Cheung is one of the most prominent figures in the system. He is the prosecutor in Frontenac, St. Ann and Normandy, and the judge in Ladue. He has worked as prosecutor in Ballwin, Town and Country and Hazelwood.

Cheung and his colleagues at the Clayton law firm Curtis, Heinz, Garrett & O’Keefe are the judges, prosecutors or city attorneys in more than 20 municipalities in St. Louis County. Those positions, typically part time, paid more than $1 million combined last year.

The Justice Department report criticized one of the firm’s lawyers, Ferguson prosecuting attorney Stephanie Karr, for fixing a ticket in Hazelwood, another city where she is the prosecuting attorney, at the request of Ferguson judge Ronald Brockmeyer.

Some lawyers in the firm are among the major players who are involved in just about all aspects of the courts’ operations throughout the region — advising on charges, deciding charges and in some cases, working by day to defend people facing traffic charges.

After Post-Dispatch reporters opened a wide-ranging inquiry into municipal courts late last year, records showed several lawyers communicated behind the scenes about why the records should not be released.

A Post-Dispatch investigation found: • The system has become divorced from public safety. Missouri set up a point system in 1961 to flag the licenses of dangerous drivers.

But municipalities use the point system as currency, converting license points to cash by amending almost any kind of ticket to a nonmoving violation.

• Municipal courts are streamlined to direct business to lawyers. At least one direct-marketing firm gets bulk ticket data and generates letters to defendants on behalf of lawyers seeking clients. While people with lawyers are usually guaranteed to get deals, people representing themselves in municipal courts generally can’t.

• Much of the system is secret. Prosecutors and judges — many of them defense lawyers working part time at night — are free to dismiss cases without explanation. Most hearings are actually whispered meetings at the judge’s bench between attorneys. Several courts wouldn’t share their most basic document — a docket — with reporters who requested them.

St. Louis County’s municipal courts are part of an automated, money-hungry system that directly feeds the municipalities and the lawyers who can make the deals. At the top of the food chain are people with connections.

Cheung and Dalton at first said they didn’t remember the Frontenac case. Cheung did not answer questions about the Dalton email.

Asked to explain his decision not to prosecute, Cheung said last week he reviewed the police report, and it appeared to him that the Frontenac police had failed to present a prosecutable case. Noting that the officer found a beer in the teenager’s purse, he questioned what right the officer had to search the teen and whether the observation would have been admissible in court.

Neither Wayne Baker nor his daughter responded to requests for comment.

Dalton, now the presiding circuit judge in Warren County, acknowledged that he plays golf with Wayne Baker. But he said he would never ask a court official to throw out a criminal case for a friend.

“I don’t remember, but I’m sure I probably

did not do that,” he said. “I don’t remember.”

Qiana Williams, 36, of St. Louis, the mother of a 9-year-old girl, shrugs when she hears how cases can be handled for people with connections. She spent two weeks in jail in Pine Lawn last summer after being arrested as a fugitive for unpaid traffic tickets.

Her father doesn’t have connections at any golf courses.

“Nobody made a call like that for me,” she said.

ONE BIG SPEED TRAP Most people who get a speeding ticket or are cited with a minor infraction hire a lawyer to take care of it.

And police in the St. Louis area make sure there are a lot to take care of.

Getting tickets — and getting them fixed — are two actions that define living in the St. Louis area.

Look no further than a billboard on eastbound Interstate 70 near St. Ann, the region’s

“I don’t remember, but I’m sure I probably did not do that.”

— Warren County Presiding Judge Wes Dalton, in response to questions about why he asked a prosecutor to drop a case against a friend’s daughter

“Nobody made a call like that for me.”

— Qiana Williams (below), who spent two weeks in jail in Pine Lawn after being arrested as a fugitive for unpaid traffic tickets

Chief Gordon Brock griped about a bill moving through the state Legislature that would cap a municipality’s traffic fine revenue at 10 percent of its general operating revenue. He said many municipalities won’t be able to survive. Pointing to the wealthier suburbs of Maryland Heights and St. Charles, he said, “They’re not hurting for nothing, they don’t have to write a single ticket.”

But many caught in the St. Louis County ticket trap are hurting.

Erwin Rush, 50, of St. Louis, has been trying to climb out of traffic-court debt for 20 years. Right now he owes more than $4,500 to six municipalities for traffic tickets and missed court appearances. It started when he couldn’t afford car insurance, then snowballed when he avoided court because he couldn’t pay in full, as many courts required.

Only after he hired an attorney, who got some of the fines waived, could he see a way out.

“I feel like they treat us like idiots, they

DAVID CARSON • dcarson@post-dispatch.com

HUY MACH • hmach@post-dispatch.com

most prominent speed trap. The billboard, advertising a traffic law firm, reads: “No points, no court, no hassle.”

Curious about Beverly Hills? Its home page makes it clear what that city is about: “Welcome to the online home of the City of Beverly Hills, Missouri. Here you can find information on how to take care of traffic citations, red light violations, city ordinances and other city news!”

St. Ann police have aimed radar guns at I-70 from a hotel room. Edmundson set ticket quotas for its police officers. Bel-Ridge manipulated a traffic light to trick drivers into running red signals. Charlack painted stripes on Interstate 170 for its speed cameras and had to remove them when the state said it never got permission.

The Post-Dispatch reported last Sunday that according to the best data available, Missouri has the second-highest rate of traffic cases per capita in the United States. And St. Louis County’s rate is twice that of the state.

The Department of Justice report showed that Ferguson in recent years relied increasingly on revenue from its traffic court. With other sources of income in decline, the city’s municipal court grew from $1.4 million in fines and fees in 2010 to a projected $3.1 million this year, according to the report.

Brockmeyer, as judge, did his part by creating additional fees, such as charging defendants $50 when an arrest warrant was cleared and a fine that increased each time an individual failed to appear in court, according to the federal report.

Ferguson is hardly the only city that needs court income to survive. Bel-Ridge Police

“If you don’t have the money for an attorney, you’re screwed.”

— Erwin Rush (above), who has been trying to climb out of court debt for 20 years.

“If you represent yourself, you always do so at your own peril in the criminal justice system. Is it fair? I think it’s reasonable.”

— Jennifer Fisher, Moline Acres judge

“I make a mistake, and all of a sudden I get points on my license?”

— St. Ann City Administrator Matt Conley, on how the public would revolt if prosecutors could not amend traffic tickets

don’t treat us like we’re humans,” he said.

“It’s all about the fine.

“If you don’t have the money for an attorney you’re screwed.”

DIVORCED FROM PUBLIC SAFETY It’s a totally different experience if you do have the money.

Almost anyone who hires a lawyer can get a municipal court case — even on a serious charge — amended to a generic charge such as littering or illegal parking. Usually it’s a matter of paying a surcharge to the municipality.

With so many tickets clogging the system, court officials don’t have time to weigh the merits of individual cases. To keep cases flowing, they depend on defense lawyers to accept deals for guilty pleas to automatically downgraded charges.

Prosecutors have plenty of leverage in these cases. Drivers try to avoid pleading guilty to moving violations that can put points on their license, which can raise their insurance rates and result in a license suspension.

In a good week, lawyer David Hocking said his firm, Hocking & Dulle, of Bellerive Acres, handles about 150 traffic cases. The vast majority are adjudicated through plea agreements, Hocking said. He tries only about three traffic cases a year.

Some cities have even designated a catchall charge for amended tickets. For example, of the 279 cases concluded in November in Ladue’s court, 145 — ranging from speeding to careless and imprudent driving — were amended to “illegal parking in a park.” In See COURTS • Page A11

municipal courts

03.15.2015 • Sunday • M 1

2014County per capita collections 2014 per capita St. Louis has a reputation for being a speed trap – and fortraffic goodcases reason. $100 $200 $300 $400 $500 $600 $700 1 2 3 4 Some municipalities far outstrip state averages for number 5 6 7 Bella Villa 8.93 Pine Lawn $691.10 $691.10 of municipal court cases filed andBeverly fines collected.

Hills Edmundson $599.89 $599.89

Bella Villa $589.03 $589.03 Vinita Terrace $450.36 Beverly Hills $385.35 2014 per capita collections Bellerive Acres $381.97 $100 $200 $300 $400 $500 $600 $700 Calverton Park $310.13 Pine Lawn $691.10 $691.10 Normandy $285.06 Edmundson $599.89 $599.89 St. Ann $252.99 Bella Villa $589.03 $589.03 Velda City $224.86 Vinita Terrace $450.36 Flordell Hills $222.71 Beverly Hills $385.35 Charlack $219.69 Bellerive Acres $381.97 Moline Acres $214.25 Calverton Park $310.13 Breckenridge $211.74 Normandy $285.06 Cool Valley $196.74 St. Ann $252.99 Country Club Hills $192.96 Velda City $224.86 Bel-Ridge $187.68 Flordell Hills $222.71 Frontenac $154.47 Charlack $219.69 Northwoods $147.23 Moline Acres $214.25 Wellston $145.21 Breckenridge $211.74 Berkeley $143.09 Cool Valley $196.74 Maplewood $134.61 Country Club Hills $192.96 Pagedale $131.53 Bel-Ridge $187.68 Rock Hill $130.08 Frontenac $154.47 Vinita Park $126.76 Northwoods $147.23 Town and Country $126.67 Wellston $145.21 Kinloch $126.53 Berkeley $143.09 St. John $124.54 Maplewood $134.61 Fenton $123.41 Pagedale $131.53 Bellefontaine Neighbors $117.88 Rock Hill $130.08 Uplands Park $115.34 Vinita Park $126.76 Hillsdale $114.06 Town and Country $126.67 Creve Coeur $95.25 Kinloch $126.53 Ferguson $94.28 St. John $124.54 Richmond Heights $91.77 Fenton $123.41 Greendale $80.84 Bellefontaine Neighbors $117.88 Jennings $80.39 Uplands Park $115.34 Shrewsbury $76.88 Hillsdale $114.06 Maryland Heights $75.69 Creve Coeur $95.25 Ladue $75.11 Ferguson $94.28 Dellwood $73.01 Richmond Heights $91.77 Clayton $71.18 Greendale $80.84 Oakland $67.29 Jennings $80.39 Hazelwood $62.01 Shrewsbury $76.88 Riverview $60.48 Maryland Heights $75.69 Woodson Terrace $57.72 Ladue $75.11 Clarkson Valley $56.58 Dellwood $73.01 Des Peres $52.85 Clayton $71.18 Ellisville $52.07 Oakland $67.29 Brentwood $51.88 Hazelwood $62.01 Florissant $49.00 Riverview $60.48 Velda Village Hills $48.96 Woodson Terrace $57.72 Sycamore Hills $47.55 Clarkson Valley $56.58 Bel-Nor $47.20 Des Peres $52.85 Marlborough $45.53 Ellisville $52.07 Sunset Hills $43.67 Brentwood $51.88 Hanley Hills $43.24 Florissant $49.00 Olivette $40.89 Velda Village Hills $48.96 Webster Groves $40.21 Sycamore Hills $47.55 Bridgeton $38.53 Bel-Nor $47.20 Glendale $36.66 Marlborough $45.53 Ballwin $34.29 Sunset Hills $43.67 Overland $32.88 Hanley Hills $43.24 Winchester $29.47 Olivette $40.89 Chesterfield $27.29 Webster Groves $40.21 Manchester $26.87 Bridgeton $38.53 Valley Park $24.99 Glendale $36.66 Kirkwood $22.63 Ballwin $34.29 Crestwood $21.46 Overland $32.88 Unincorporated STL Co. $20.83 Winchester $29.47 Eureka $18.22 Chesterfield $27.29 Warson Woods $17.61 Manchester $26.87 Wildwood $16.94 Valley Park $24.99 Black Jack $16.30 Kirkwood $22.63 Lakeshire $15.92 Crestwood $21.46 University City $15.65 Unincorporated STL Co. $20.83 Pasadena Park $14.08 Eureka $18.22 Grantwood Village $5.62 Warson Woods $17.61 Wildwood $52.56 St. Louis County $16.94 Black Jack $16.30 Missouri** $25.29 Lakeshire $15.92 University City $15.65 Pasadena Park $14.08 Grantwood Village $5.62 St. Louis County Missouri**

$52.56 $25.29

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A11

2014 percent of traffic prosecutors Prosecutors cancases enterdismissed a “nollebyprosequi” 8

9

8.93 7.40

Pine Lawn 6.05 Edmundson 5.20 Calverton2014 Park per capita traffic 3.66cases Velda City 3.38 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Flordell Hills 2.93 Bella Villa 8.93 8.93 Country Club Hills 2.91 Beverly Hills 7.40 Vinita Terrace 2.63 Pine Lawn 6.05 Hillsdale 2.61 Edmundson 5.20 Charlack 2.51 Calverton Park 3.66 Bel-Ridge 2.21 Velda City 3.38 St. Ann 1.97 Flordell Hills 2.93 Kinloch 1.87 Country Club Hills 2.91 Wellston 1.66 Vinita Terrace 2.63 Bellerive Acres 1.38 Hillsdale 2.61 Rock Hill 1.32 Charlack 2.51 Vinita Park 1.30 Bel-Ridge 2.21 Fenton 1.22 St. Ann 1.97 Normandy 1.22 Kinloch 1.87 Cool Valley 1.20 Wellston 1.66 Maplewood 1.09 Bellerive Acres 1.38 St. John 1.08 Rock Hill 1.32 Breckenridge 1.07 Vinita Park 1.30 Northwoods 1.06 Fenton 1.22 Frontenac 1.02 Normandy 1.22 Pagedale 1.00 Cool Valley 1.20 Berkeley 0.98 Maplewood 1.09 Bellefontaine Neighbors 0.93 St. John 1.08 Riverview 0.89 Breckenridge 1.07 Creve Coeur 0.81 Northwoods 1.06 Shrewsbury 0.81 Frontenac 1.02 Richmond Heights 0.78 Pagedale 1.00 Greendale 0.73 Berkeley 0.98 Jennings 0.61 Bellefontaine Neighbors 0.93 Brentwood 0.60 Riverview 0.89 Florissant 0.57 Creve Coeur 0.81 Ladue 0.57 Shrewsbury 0.81 Bel-Nor 0.57 Richmond Heights 0.78 Ferguson 0.56 Greendale 0.73 Town and Country 0.56 Jennings 0.61 Clarkson Valley 0.51 Brentwood 0.60 Hazelwood 0.50 Florissant 0.57 Oakland 0.49 Ladue 0.57 Ellisville 0.48 Bel-Nor 0.57 Olivette 0.44 Ferguson 0.56 Velda Village Hills 0.44 Town and Country 0.56 Clayton 0.40 Clarkson Valley 0.51 Glendale 0.38 Hazelwood 0.50 Sunset Hills 0.37 Oakland 0.49 Woodson Terrace 0.36 Ellisville 0.48 Des Peres 0.35 Olivette 0.44 Maryland Heights 0.35 Velda Village Hills 0.44 Webster Groves 0.34 Clayton Sycamore Hills 0.40 0.34 Glendale 0.38 Dellwood 0.32 Sunset Hills 0.37 Ballwin 0.27 Woodson Terrace 0.36 Marlborough 0.27 Des Peres 0.35 Winchester 0.27 Maryland Heights 0.35 Hanley Hills 0.26 Webster Groves 0.34 Bridgeton 0.25 Sycamore Hills 0.34 Chesterfield 0.24 Dellwood Black Jack 0.32 0.21 Ballwin Warson Woods 0.27 0.21 Marlborough 0.27 Valley Park 0.19 Winchester Manchester 0.27 0.19 Hanley Hills 0.26 Overland 0.17 Bridgeton Unincorporated STL Co. 0.25 0.15 Chesterfield 0.24 Crestwood 0.14 Black Jack 0.21 Wildwood 0.14 Warson Woods 0.21 Lakeshire 0.13 Valley Park 0.19 Kirkwood 0.13 Manchester 0.19 Eureka 0.13 Overland Uplands Park 0.17 0.10 Unincorporated STL Co. 0.15 University City 0.10 Crestwood Pasadena Park 0.14 0.07 Wildwood Grantwood Village 0.14 0.03 Lakeshire Moline Acres* 0.13 NA Kirkwood 0.13 * Traffic case data for Moline Acres was incomplete. Pasadena Hills did not provide Eureka court data to the state.

St. Louis County 0.13 0.42 Uplands Park 0.10 **A small number of municipalities failed to Missouri** 0.21 report data to the state.

University City 0.10 Pasadena Park 0.07 Grantwood Village 0.03 Moline Acres* NA St. Louis County Missouri**

0.42 0.21

* Traffic case data for Moline Acres was incomplete. Pasadena Hills did not provide court data to the state. **A small number of municipalities failed to report data to the state.

10% 15% 20% 25% disposition in a5%municipal court case,30% Normandy 32.9% 32.9% which closes and seals the case. 32.2% Black Jack 32.2%

29.8% Beverly Hills 29.8% Dellwood 27.5% Flordell Hills 25.3% 2014 percent of traffic cases dismissed by prosecutors Charlack 24.0%30% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% Bel-Ridge 19.5% Normandy 32.9% 32.9% 17.5% Manchester 32.2% Black Jack 32.2% 15.8% Berkeley 29.8% Beverly Hills 29.8% 15.8% Winchester Dellwood 27.5% 15.6% Vinita Park Flordell Hills 25.3% 15.6% Clayton Charlack 24.0% 15.3% Shrewsbury Bel-Ridge 19.5% 15.1% Wellston 17.5% Manchester 13.9% Ferguson 15.8% Berkeley 13.5% Bella Villa 15.8% Winchester 13.4% Des Peres 15.6% Vinita Park 12.4% Uplands Park 15.6% Clayton 12.0% Pasadena Park 15.3% Shrewsbury 11.7% Edmundson 15.1% Wellston 11.7% Richmond Heights 13.9% Ferguson 11.6% Bel-Nor 13.5% Bella Villa 11.1% Rock Hill 13.4% Des Peres 11.1% Florissant 12.4% Uplands Park 10.8% Velda City 12.0% Pasadena Park 10.8% Ladue 11.7% Edmundson 10.4% Breckenridge 11.7% Richmond Heights 10.0% Greendale 11.6% Bel-Nor 9.7% Eureka 11.1% Rock Hill 9.6% Clarkson Valley 11.1% Florissant 9.6% Velda Village Hills 10.8% Velda City 9.4% Maplewood 10.8% Ladue 9.4% Maryland Heights 10.4% Breckenridge 9.0% Webster Groves 10.0% Greendale 8.9% Fenton 9.7% Eureka 8.7% Moline Acres 9.6% Clarkson Valley 8.7% Warson Woods 9.6% Velda Village Hills 8.7% Wildwood 9.4% Maplewood 8.6% St. Ann 9.4% Maryland Heights 8.5% Riverview 9.0% Webster Groves 8.5% Overland 8.9% Fenton 8.4% Kinloch 8.7% Moline Acres 8.3% Bellerive Acres 8.7% Warson Woods 7.9% Chesterfield 8.7% Wildwood 7.7% Glendale 8.6% St. Ann 7.5% Sycamore Hills 8.5% Riverview 7.4% St. John 8.5% Overland 6.8% Woodson Terrace 8.4% Kinloch 5.8% Crestwood 8.3% Bellerive Acres 5.6% Northwoods 7.9% Chesterfield 5.6% Bellefontaine Neighbors 7.7% Glendale 5.5% Valley Park 7.5% Sycamore Hills 5.2% Hillsdale 7.4% St. John 5.2% Creve Coeur 6.8% Woodson Terrace 5.1% Kirkwood 5.8% Crestwood 5.0% Sunset Hills 5.6% Northwoods 4.9% Hazelwood 5.6% Bellefontaine Neighbors 4.8% Cool Valley 5.5% Valley Park 4.7% Country Club Hills 5.2% Hillsdale 4.6% Frontenac 5.2% Creve Coeur 4.5% Vinita Terrace 5.1% Kirkwood 4.3% Town and Country 5.0% Sunset Hills 4.3% University City 4.9% Hazelwood 3.9% Ballwin 4.8% Cool Valley 3.8% Pagedale 4.7% Country Club Hills 3.6% Bridgeton 4.6% Frontenac 3.4% Jennings 4.5% Vinita Terrace 3.2% Hanley Hills 4.3% Town and Country 3.1% Oakland 4.3% University City 3.1% Olivette 3.9% Ballwin 2.7% Marlborough 3.8% Pagedale 2.4% Pine Lawn 3.6% Bridgeton 2.3% Ellisville 3.4% Jennings Lakeshire 1.5% 3.2% Hanley Hills Calverton Park 1.1% 3.1% Oakland Brentwood 0.7% 3.1% Olivette Grantwood Village 0.0% 2.7% Marlborough 2.4%population data and figures provided by Pinederived Lawnfrom Census SOURCE: Calculations municipalities to theEllisville Office of State Courts 2.3%Administrator for the 2014 fiscal year, which ended on June 30. Figures include bond forfeitures. Some collections are dispersed 1.5% Lakeshire outside of the municipality.

Some municipalities will dismiss older cases in bulk, which can inflate the share of cases dismissed. | Post-Dispatch 1.1% Calverton Parkthat are Brentwood 0.7% Grantwood Village 0.0% SOURCE: Calculations derived from Census population data and figures provided by municipalities to the Office of State Courts Administrator for the 2014 fiscal year, which ended on June 30. Figures include bond forfeitures. Some collections are dispersed outside of the municipality. Some municipalities will dismiss older cases in bulk, which can inflate the share of cases that are dismissed. | Post-Dispatch

citations rarely amended without an attorney COURTS • from A10

Wildwood, all but four of 144 citations concluded in November were amended to nonmoving violations such as illegal parking.

Tim Engelmeyer, a judge in Creve Coeur and prosecutor in Chesterfield, Des Peres and Valley Park, said amending charges to nonpoint violations is “a necessary evil” because of the volume of cases and the limited number of prosecutors.

“With only a certain amount of time, you have to decide which ones need to be tried and which ones you have to work out via a plea or amendment,” he said. “If you don’t, you will be trying cases all night and into the next day.”

He said trials on municipal charges can be costly, because it means paying overtime to an officer and hourly fees to a prosecutor.

The deals aren’t as generous where people can’t afford lawyers. On a recent court date in Moline Acres, there were only 26 traffic citations amended down to illegal parking among 562 citations overall. An attorney was involved in all but one of those 26 cases.

Those without attorneys usually had to plead to the original charge, which often included license points.

Jennifer Fisher, a defense attorney who is also the judge there, acknowledged that if an attorney has entered on the case “the vast majority of the time” the charge will be amended to a nonmoving violation.

When asked about the fairness of a system that tends to treat people with lawyers more favorably, Fisher pointed to criminal charges at the state level: “If I go rob the Walgreens and I get an attorney, the chances of me getting a better result are vastly improved over me representing myself,” she said. “If you represent yourself, you always do so at your own peril in the criminal justice system. Is it fair? I think it’s reasonable.”

THE DEAL MACHINE Lawyers often don’t have to do much work in municipal court cases.

First, people who get traffic tickets in St. Louis County often receive letters within a few days from multiple law firms offering to fix their ticket for as little as $45.

Every day, a Labadie-based company called Direct Marketing receives a list of cases from several cities and the Regional Justice Information Service, or REJIS, a quasi-governmental body that serves as a warehouse of court information. Direct Marketing then sends out advertisements on behalf of lawyers to ticket recipients.

Then a company called LawSourceLive gives attorneys online access to nearly 60 St. Louis area municipal courts, allowing them to enter an appearance, and request and receive a recommendation for an amended charge from a prosecutor. Each transaction costs the lawyer $3.

Engelmeyer said he and several other prosecutors came up with the idea for the company 12 years ago during a discussion about the paperwork in municipal courts. They partnered with the local IT company Method Technologies, which went live around 2004.

Engelmeyer said he isn’t involved in the company’s operations and doesn’t make money from it.

Larry J. Smith of St. Charles is a former St. Louis police officer who was stopped by a Pine Lawn officer last spring for speeding on the highway. Smith says the officer was wrong and he wasn’t speeding.

He called his insurance agent, who advised him the cheapest option was to hire an attorney to get the charge amended.

For $40, an attorney said he could have the municipality amend the charge from speeding to illegal parking, but that the fine would double from $150 to $300. Smith said he agreed to that because he didn’t have time to fight the charge.

But he wonders why cities are so freely amending speeding cases to parking tickets:

“With only a certain amount of time, you have to decide which ones need to be tried and which ones you have to work out via a plea or amendment.”

— Tim Engelmeyer, judge in Creve Coeur and prosecutor in Chesterfield, Des Peres and Valley Park

“They’re not hurting for nothing, they don’t have to write a single ticket.”

— Bel-Ridge Col. Gordon Brock, about wealthier suburbs such as Maryland Heights and St. Charles

“If they’re not in that for the money, then explain that to me like I’m a 3-year-old.”

Matt Conley, the city administrator for St. Ann, said he doesn’t see any problem with cutting out the point system. Fines deter speeders, he said. And the money generated is better off going to a municipality, where it can be used to pay for traffic enforcement, than to an insurance company.

Conley said if the practice changed, the public would revolt: “I make a mistake, and all of a sudden I get points on my license?”

But where do you draw the line on deals?

Nancy Fox, 50, a photographer who lives in Clayton, has a driving history that includes three drunken-driving arrests and three license suspensions. In October, she rear-ended a vehicle on Highway 40 (Interstate 64) in Ladue, causing a three-car collision. She said she had been distracted by her phone ringing. Alcohol was not listed as a factor in the crash.

The officer wrote her a ticket for careless and imprudent driving. Fox’s brother, Richard Fox, a lawyer, wrote a letter to prosecutor James Towey requesting a recommendation for an amended charge. She got the standard deal: Illegal parking in a park, a $252 ticket.

Fox had mixed feelings about the outcome.

“I even thought to myself, ‘Wow, that doesn’t sound very fair, or legal, but it’s to my benefit.’”

Towey did not respond to a request for comment.

Mike Right,a vice president with AAA in St. Louis, the auto club and insurance company, said the deal sounded outrageous.

Cities often claim their traffic enforcement is about public safety, but their courts amend cases to nonpoint violations, undermining the state’s ability to flag dangerous drivers.

You’ve got people who shouldn’t be driving, he said, but they are “driving without any constraint other than you extract money” from them every once in a while.

Jeremy Kohler • 314-340-8337 @jeremykohler on Twitter jkohler@post-dispatch.com

municipal courts

A12 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Point system designed to punish dangerous drivers

By Jeremy Kohler St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Like many states, Missouri has a point system for flagging dangerous drivers.

A speeding conviction is two or three points; a conviction for careless and imprudent driving is up to four. Driving a car with a suspended or revoked license is a dozen points.

A license is suspended after eight or more points in 18 months. A license is revoked for a year if a driver gets 12 points in 12 months, 18 points in 24 months, or 24 points in 36 months.

Moreover, there are consequences for insurance. On average, a conviction on a threepoint speeding ticket will increase a Missouri driver’s insurance by 22 percent; a second conviction will raise rates 53 percent, according to research for the Post-Dispatch by insurance.com, a comparison shopping site for car insurance.

When Missouri started using license points in 1961, the change was cheered by a St. Louis

judge.

“Habitually careless drivers will now discover that they face loss of driving privileges on a state-wide basis, in addition to courtimposed penalties for individual offenses,” judge Morris Rosenthal told the Post-Dispatch then.

But municipal courts in St. Louis County are undermining that system by amending virtually any traffic case when the defendant is represented by a lawyer.

“It’s a subversion of the intent of the point system,” said Mike Right, vice president of public affairs for AAA in St. Louis, an auto club and insurance company that pushed for the point system.

“It’s great for the drivers, who avoid having points on licenses and suffering consequences on their insurance,” he said. “But it’s not allowing the point system to do what it was supposed to do.”

Jeremy Kohler • 314-340-8337 @jeremykohler on Twitter jkohler@post-dispatch.com

M 1 • Sunday • 03.15.2015

with less incentive, Illinois cities write fewer tickets‌

By Jeremy Kohler • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

What happens when municipalities have no financial incentive to write tickets?

They don’t write many.

Consider Madison County. In the Land of Lincoln, speeding and other traffic infractions are state violations. Municipalities get very little revenue from the tickets.

In 2013, police in Madison County wrote just 17 tickets per 100 residents, about half the rate of Missouri and about one-quarter of the rate of St. Louis County.

Consider Ferguson, population 21,111, which wrote 11,822 tickets last year.

Or Creve Coeur, population 17,865, which wrote 14,382 tickets.

Compare that to cities of similar size in Madison County: Alton, population 27,690, where officers wrote 6,653 traffic tickets in 2013, the last full year reported.

Or Edwardsville, population 24,663, where officers wrote 3,128 tickets in 2013.

Edwardsville Police Chief Jay Keevan likes it that way.

“None of us want an officer to have a financial incentive to write citations,” he said.

Without that financial incentive, Highland Police Lt. Christopher Conrad said, “Money is not something that enters in the thought process of an officer making an arrest.”

A billboard along eastbound Interstate 70 near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport advertises a traffic ticket handling service.

Chris Lee Post-Dispatch

Courts balk at document request SECRECY • from A1

A Post-Dispatch investigation into the courts found a pervasive lack of transparency.

Court hearings are conducted in assemblyline fashion and in hushed tones, without any way for the public to learn what is happening with each case. Public records are sparse — viewing a single case file can often take days of waiting and require permission from a city attorney. Then there are the side deals, which are hidden but prolific.

Even in court sessions that are theoretically open, judges often speak in whispers at the bench, making it impossible to hear exchanges with defendants who don’t have attorneys. It’s here where they quietly discuss what a person can pay and when.

The prosecutor often sits in a side room, ready to make deals. Attorneys file in and out, if they show in court at all. Many attorneys will both enter on a case and seek a recommendation from the prosecutor all at once by way of a fax machine, mail or an online service. These are the agreements that result in points staying off someone’s driving record.

Plea bargains are frequent in any court system, and are usually done out of earshot of both the judge and the public. But if there is a plea deal involving a felony in state court, there will ultimately be a plea hearing before a judge, and it will be transcribed for appeal purposes.

Traffic cases are different — in part, because of the sheer numbers. With no hearing or public discussion, agreements get tucked away into individual case files, apparent only to those who know to look for them. The courts don’t keep a list of amended charges and aren’t required to report these deals to the state.

The sweetest deals, those that wipe out a case altogether, are completely hidden from the public. These are the phone calls and emails that often only happen if you know someone who knows someone. While the courts do report these numbers to the state, that’s all it is — just numbers, with no way of identifying the types of cases or individuals who benefit.

Some municipal courts dismiss up to onethird of their traffic cases, a Post-Dispatch analysis of data from the Office of State Courts Administrator shows. And while court officials say there are plenty of legitimate reasons for dropping a case, the public has to take their word for it, because all related records are closed.

Court officials say the sealing of dismissed traffic cases is required under a provision of the state’s Sunshine Law. It applies to all state courts, but its impact is more pronounced in the municipal courts, where a person’s experience can hinge on whether they are poor or connected.

Though municipal court officials say sealing is required under the statue, the statute itself refers only to cases where there has been an arrest. A 1981 decision by the Missouri Court of Appeals in Springfield says an arrest requires physical detention, and a traffic ticket, or summons, is not an arrest.

Because court officials will not release information about cases that have been dismissed, all of the ticket-fixing that was cited in a recent Department of Justice report — involving Ferguson’s mayor, judge, court clerk, police chief, collector of revenue and more, both in that city’s court and others — would not have been known if civil rights investi-

gators hadn’t been able to pore through the trove of emails in which the deals were made.

Nor would Ferguson Prosecutor Stephanie Karr’s practice of dismissing all red-light camera tickets for cases with attorneys (unless “the attorney goes off on all of the constitutional stuff,” in which case she would make them come to court, argue and pay a fine, according to an August 2012 email cited in the report).

LITTLE TRANSPARENCY In an attempt to learn which attorneys were getting the most favorable deals — and for whom — the Post-Dispatch requested a series of documents from the area’s municipal courts, starting with the most basic: the court docket.

The docket is a list of cases scheduled for any given court session. It’s something courts everywhere have and make public. Not so in many of St. Louis County’s municipal courts.

Two courts contacted by the newspaper said they didn’t keep a list of scheduled cases. Ferguson’s court would provide it only if a formal request was made under the state’s Sunshine Law. No courts could provide it immediately, several took longer than a month, and some never responded. Several courts charged upward of $100 to produce the docket.

A group of courts represented by the Clayton law firm Curtis, Heinz, Garrett & O’Keefe — whose attorneys serve as judge, prosecutor or city attorney in more than 20 St. Louis County municipalities — sent the request to Regional Justice Information Service, which coordinates a regional database of criminal information, including the electronic records for about 50 area municipal courts.

REJIS is led by a seven-member board that includes the St. Louis and St. Louis County police chiefs. It is a quasi-public entity subject to the Sunshine Law. The newspaper was charged $85 for each REJIS report.

Steven Garrett, a principal with the law firm, said REJIS was enlisted for the sake of expediency and because it would be able to remove cases that had since been dismissed by the court.

It took nearly a month to receive the dockets. Among them: a blank page from Bellerive Acres, and a list of three cases each from Greendale and Pasadena Park — the latter which the newspaper didn’t request.

The newspaper also tried to obtain two reports that would show citations that had been amended or dismissed (the Sunshine Law says the final disposition of a dismissed case is public). While individual courts do not keep a record of amended charges, REJIS said it could provide a list for each municipality, but only with their permission. Both reports would list the defendant’s name and citation, and the REJIS report could also provide the name of the defense attorney.

After the requests were sent out, Sam Alton — prosecutor in Olivette, city attorney in Pagedale and judge in Edmundson — sent an email to 64 court officials and attorneys calling the requests “repetitive” and “creating an undue burden” on the courts, and telling them why he would recommend they withhold the information.

The next day, in a wave of emails that mostly used the same language, the courts said they were bound by Supreme Court rules, not the Sunshine Law. The Supreme Court rules say court records

“Clearly most of the municipalities don’t want this information released.”

— David Pudlowski, director of client services for Regional Justice Information Service

“We aren’t trying to hide anything. But we are erring on the side of caution with respect to privacy without an opinion from the Supreme Court.”

— Sam Alton, local lawyer and judge

“I usually dismiss (red-light camera tickets) if the attorney merely requests a recommendation.

If the attorney goes off on all the constitutional stuff, then I tell the attorney to come … and argue in front (of) the judge — after that, his client can pay the ticket.”

— Stephanie Karr, prosecuting attorney for Ferguson as quoted in Department of Justice report

are presumed open and should be provided at a reasonable cost.

But 28 courts denied the REJIS request citing two other provisions of the court rules: one that says the courts are not required to compile information from existing records, and another that says case information that identifies a person will be provided only by individual case or by a public index. The courts maintained they do not keep a public index of amended or dismissed cases.

While the state and federal courts have electronic databases where the public can view case listings, most of the municipal courts here keep their databases private.

Of the dozen courts contacted for dismissed cases, five responded, again in unison. Their denials cited Supreme Court rules that prohibit the release of “bulk records” for commercial purposes or without permission of a state judicial records committee. The court rules define bulk distribution of records as “the distribution of all, or a significant subset, of the information in court records, as is and without modification or compilation.”

In an interview, Alton said he wrote the email because he was concerned about the potential release of private information. He noted the newspaper could appeal the decision to the state judicial records committee, which meets quarterly to consider denied requests.

“I think everybody agrees that the records should be open to the public to the extent that we have the power to do so. We aren’t trying to hide anything,” he said. “But we are erring on the side of caution with respect to privacy without an opinion from the Supreme Court.”

When asked what he thought of the dearth of public records available in the municipal courts, Alton responded: “I certainly believe that our records should be open to the extent that they are in St. Louis County or anywhere else — provided that we don’t sacrifice privacy concerns and provided we are capable of doing it.”

Only a small group of courts, including St. Louis city, consented to having REJIS provide the report on amended cases. But then REJIS refused to run it. David Pudlowski, director of client services for REJIS, said “clearly most of the municipalities don’t want this information released,” and without more buy-in, “I don’t even think it’s worth our effort …. it just doesn’t make it a high priority for us.”

He said if REJIS were to run the report, it would cost the newspaper a minimum of $800.

REJIS does provide a daily list of traffic citations to a private company called Direct Marketing that uses the information for commercial purposes, sending out mailers to people who have received tickets from traffic attorneys seeking clients. REJIS creates the report, which lists names and addresses, from court records daily. Pudlowski said REJIS found that worth its time because enough courts — about 50 of them — agreed to release the information. In January, Direct Marketing paid REJIS $2,442 for the records.

“We don’t want to be the obstruction in this process,” Pudlowski said, “but on the other hand, we try to run this like a business and make the best use of our staff time.”

Jennifer Mann • 314-621-5804 @j_s_mann on Twitter jmann@post-dispatch.com

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ST. LOUIS COUNTY MUNICIPAL COURTS

A WEB OF INFLUENCE in the county’s 81 municipal courts hold roles in multiple courts while also working as private defense attorneys.

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There’s an elite club of lawyers who swap roles from city to city

BY JENNIFER S. MANN, JEREMY KOHLER AND STEPHEN DEERE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Nathaniel Slate was in the crosswalk when the car hit him from behind, sending him tumbling over the hood and onto the pavement.

“Where did you come from?” asked the driver, Thomas R. Battreal Sr., who according to a police

report, slowed just long enough to ask the question after ignoring the pedestrian crossing sign. Battreal then took off down Emma Avenue in Jennings. It was Feb. 20, 2014, a sunny, dry day.

Battreal, 86, later told police that he made a right turn and “all of a sudden there was a black guy on my hood.” They charged him in municipal with•failure to yield for a Seecourt COURTS Page A1

Cities with antsy NFL teams are ‘in the fourth quarter’

BY DAVID HUNN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

PHOENIX • The face of St. Louis foot-

ball walked the gilded halls of the Arizona Biltmore hotel last week, in double-buckled loafers, a blue plaid suit, aviator sunglasses and a grin.

At the close of last week’s annual meeting of National Football League owners, there was no longer any doubt: Stan Kroenke wants to move the Rams to Los Angeles.

On Monday, a league executive

briefed teams on Kroenke’s plans for a glamorous, 80,000-seat, $1.86 billion stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

Afterward, a group of key owners and league executives made another thing clear: Moving the Rams will be difficult if St. Louis planners nail down a proposal to build a new football stadium downtown.

And that shifts the fate of St. Louis football out of the enigmatic owner’s hands and — temporarily — into those See STADIUM • Page A11

INSIDE

Clayton firm specializing in municipal law is now coming under increased scrutiny.

Page A10

pedestrian in a crosswalk and leaving the scene of an accident.

Battreal hired an attorney and just over a month later, the prosecutor recommended one charge be dismissed and the other be amended to “illegal parking.” Battreal paid $250 plus court costs and was done with it, never having to worry about the accident going on his driving record.

His defense attorney was Ronald

Tweens left without their own devices Parkway sixth-graders ‘rough it’ at camp, leave the phones at home HOME & AWAY • H1

Brockmeyer — then one of the more prolific players in St. Louis County’s municipal court system and the judge in Ferguson.

Brockmeyer resigned from all five municipalities where he was either prosecutor or judge after a Department of Justice report March 4 accused him and other court officials See COURTS • Page A8

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Municipal courts

A8 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Lawyers playing different roles in multiple courts A limited selection of dockets from 21 cities obtained by the PostDispatch showed lawyers with an array of roles in the municipal courts. Some hold five or more municipal court positions. Others may only hold one municipal role but show up frequently in others’ courts in their roles as private defense attorneys. The attorneys here had overlapping roles in the dockets studied.

M 1 • Sunday • 03.29.2015

SAM ALTON

PHILIP AYERS

ALAN BAKER

Prosecutor • Breckenridge Hills* City attorney • Breckenridge Hills Judge • Edmundson Prosecutor • Olivette City attorney • Pagedale Private practice • Business and commercial litigation, employment discrimination, municipal law, and criminal defense at Stone, Leyton & Gershman

Judge • Calverton Park Prosecutor • Greendale City attorney • Greendale Private practice • General practice

Prosecutor • Hillsdale City attorney • Hillsdale Private practice • Real estate law

ETHAN CORLIJA

PAUL D’AGROSA

TIMOTHY ENGELMEYER

JENNIFER H. FISHER

BOB HORAN

CHARLES KIRKSEY

Prosecutor • Jennings Private practice • Criminal defense

Judge • Olivette Judge • University City Private practice • Criminal defense at Wolff & D’Agrosa

Prosecutor • Chesterfield Judge • Creve Coeur Prosecutor • Des Peres Prosecutor • Valley Park Private practice • Personal injury and criminal defense at Engelmeyer & Pezzani

Judge • Berkeley Judge • Moline Acres Private practice • Real estate and business law and development at MacArthur Moten

Prosecutor • Bellerive Acres Private practice • Personal injury and traffic at Horan Law Office

Judge • Bellerive Acres* Judge • Normandy* Judge • Wellston* Private practice • General practice

Lawyers involved say they see no conflict COURTS • from A1

of acting more as moneymakers for Ferguson than an impartial court. The report criticized Brockmeyer and court officials for seeking dismissal of tickets they and their friends obtained there and elsewhere, while being unforgiving with the people who came before the Ferguson court.

Brockmeyer’s influence extended far beyond Ferguson. He was one of an elite club — the lawyers who both help run and profit from the region’s 81 municipal courts.

In courts where they have no official status, they often work as traffic attorneys whose success lies in their ability to get a charge amended to a nonmoving violation — a leniency that many courts will afford only to lawyers, as long as the offender is willing to pay a higher fine. They also work as city attorneys, paid to represent municipalities in lawsuits and to craft ordinances that feed the municipal revenue stream. Sometimes they do both.

These dual, or in some cases triple and quadruple roles — judge in one place; prosecutor or city attorney in another; and private lawyer representing defendants in still another — mean the lawyers regularly appear before each other, switching places in court. On a recent court date in Berkeley, for instance, 20 of the defense attorneys who were scheduled to appear before Judge Jennifer Fisher were fellow municipal prosecutors and judges.

It’s a practice that wouldn’t fly at the state court level — and which critics say raises questions about how justice is served in these small communities.

“If you’re in front of a judge or you’re talking to the prosecutor and you know two days later you’re going to be the judge and that person is going to be in front of you as a defense attorney, that knowledge impacts the negotiations,” said St. Louis University Law professor Brendan Roediger, who is part of a legal team behind several lawsuits alleging constitutional abuses in the area’s municipal courts.

The main players in this system insist that they treat everyone equally.

But several lawyers who have knowledge of the inner workings describe the ultimate good old boys club. Favors are traded behind the scenes between lawyers who frequently appear before one another. The same lawyers are simultaneously charging clients to get the same types of deals.

It doesn’t seem fair to people such as Slate who are on the other end of the arrangements.

Slate sued Battreal and the case settled out of court. Slate said the settlement covered the costs of his doctor’s visits and physical therapy for the pain. But he’s angry the police citations were downgraded.

“He ends up with illegal parking for hitting a person who was walking? How is that possible?”

Slate said. “It should be more than parking. It should be what it was — he hit me!”

WEARING MANY HATS In Missouri’s state courts, judges are generally prohibited from practicing law and prosecutors can be charged with a misdemeanor if they practice in any other criminal capacity.

Judges and prosecutors in the

Laurie Skrivan • lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Members of the media tape the live broadcast of the opening remarks of Missouri Court of Appeals Judge Roy Richter as he presides over the session of the Ferguson Municipal Courts on March 19.

municipal courts work part time and do not face the same restrictions.

This allows Donnell Smith to hold nine different taxpayerfunded positions— prosecutor in Berkeley and Moline Acres, judge in Greendale and Dellwood, and city attorney in Beverly Hills, Berkeley, Moline Acres, Pine Lawn and Velda Village Hills — all while holding down a municipal law and criminal defense practice.

On his firm’s website, Smith highlights that experience. Four other lawyers who hold down five or more municipal positions in St. Louis County also point out their roles when soliciting clients on their firm’s websites.

The numerous roles create a web of connections that is never more apparent than when all the lawyers gather in one courtroom.

Smith was one of about 50 attorneys at a Dec. 11 St. Louis County Circuit Court session in Clayton, where the circuit court hears municipal court cases that have been appealed or moved.

One minute he was the prosecutor, representing Berkeley on a traffic case. The next, he was a private defense attorney for a Hazelwood traffic offender.

After Smith concluded his Berkeley case with the judge, there was brief confusion when the judge called the name of the Hazelwood defendant, apparently presuming Smith was the prosecutor of that case too.

“No, that’s my client,” Smith corrected him.

Smith ended up dropping the Berkeley case, which involved charges of failure to register a vehicle, a seat belt violation and operating a vehicle without insurance. Smith said the driver presented proof he had been carrying insurance, and it wasn’t worth having the city clerk and a police officer make the round trip to Clayton for the other charges.

In the Hazelwood case, Smith accepted the recommendation of the Hazelwood prosecutor, Stephanie Karr, for about $300 in fines for his client, who was charged with a miscellaneous ordinance violation, failure to register his car, driving without insurance and failure to appear in court. Two of the charges were dropped; the other two were amended to illegal parking.

Smith said he didn’t see any problem with his dual roles because he considers each case separately.

“As a prosecutor you are a seeker of justice, and as a defense attorney you represent the interest of your client,” he said.

Karr is in the same law firm as Keith Cheung, who had worked out a deal with Smith, prosecutor in Berkeley, the previous month.

In that case a woman’s child endangerment and drug citations were amended to littering, and she was fined $450.

Cheung, who is prosecutor in St. Ann, Crystal Lake Park, Frontenac and Normandy, and judge in Ladue, was also in circuit court Dec. 11 — for 14 cases from Normandy and St. Ann. He acknowledged many in the room served as prosecutors or judges in municipalities where he defends clients. The private criminal defense work is in addition to his larger personal injury and civil practices. “There is no quid pro quo, if that’s what you are asking,” he said. “Each case is its own case.”

Nancy Greenwood, a former Chesterfield mayor and current City Council member, said she’s had concerns for years about prosecutors who serve as judges in other municipalities and vice versa. She was the lone vote against reappointing Timothy Engelmeyer as the city prosecutor two years ago. Engelmeyer is also a judge in Creve Coeur and prosecutor in Des Peres.

“I feel each court should be independent,” she said, “and I don’t think our current system allows for that … I have an ethical problem with it.”

Sometimes the lawyers represent each other. When Cheung was caught passing a note to a circuit court judge in a 2010 trial, Paul D’Agrosa — currently the judge in Olivette and University City and prosecutor in Arnold — represented him in his disciplinary proceedings before the Missouri Supreme Court.

“Judge, you need to convict this guy. I’ll explain later. Keith Cheung,” the note read.

The defendant was Bella Villa Police Chief Edward J. Locke Jr., who was accused of employing an unqualified officer. Cheung formerly worked as prosecutor for Bella Villa, but he had no role

in Locke’s trial. After the judge called a mistrial, Cheung apologized and self-reported his misconduct, which resulted in a reprimand.

PERCEPTIONS OF FAVORS A month after the driver who hit Slate paid his fines on the deal that Brockmeyer, as private defense attorney, worked out with Ethan Corlija, the prosecutor in Jennings, Corlija as private defense attorney entered his appearance on a case in front of Brockmeyer, then judge in Ferguson.

His client had faced two driving while suspended charges, several failures to appear, no proof of insurance and other charges. Ultimately, all were amended to nonmoving violations — some before Corlija entered his appearance, and some after — for $1,639 in fines.

Brockmeyer did not return a phone call seeking comment on the Ferguson case.

In the Jennings case, Corlija said because Battreal slowed and briefly conversed with Slate “it really wasn’t textbook leaving the scene.” And he said even though there was a witness to the accident, without the officer seeing it himself, “it was basically hearsay” on the failure to yield charge.

“Whether it was Ron Brockmeyer or John Doe lawyer that came in to see me, I would have made the same recommendations if I thought the case merited that disposition,” he said.

The benefit of working as a defense attorney by day, Corlija said, is he was able to spot holes in the case.

“I looked at it from the perspective of a defense lawyer, not just a municipal prosecuting attorney,” he said. He said Slate had declined medical treatment and had a civil remedy, and that’s where Corlija thought the case belonged.

Battreal, who had been sued unsuccessfully over another accident two years earlier when he allegedly struck a vehicle while making a left turn on the same road, could not be reached for comment. No citation was issued in that accident.

Thomas Harvey, from Arch­ City Defenders, said the example illustrates many problems with the municipal courts. Corlija and Brockmeyer know each other not only as judge and prosecutor but

also as private attorneys.

“Regardless of whether or not there were favors being traded, it gives the impression that there may well be,” Harvey said. “If we are ever to have a credible, functioning system that calls itself justice, these kinds of conflicts have to be eliminated.”

The Post-Dispatch found multiple examples like this in just a small sampling of court dockets that were made available by the courts. While a few courts have freely shared records with the newspaper, the vast majority have conducted their business in secret, citing what they claim are protections under Supreme Court operating rules.

Two other examples: • As a defense attorney, Smith represented a client in Ferguson while Brockmeyer was judge.

Around the same time, Brockmeyer was defending a client in Berkeley, where Smith is prosecutor. The two men also served together in Dellwood, where Smith is judge and Brockmeyer was prosecutor.

Smith said he didn’t see a conflict because most of his requests for plea bargains are sent to the court without him appearing. If he must appear before a judge, he switches the venue to St. Louis County Circuit Court. Smith said as a prosecutor, he doesn’t look at the attorneys’ names on requests he gets. “I’m really torn why others see it as a conflict,” he said, noting lawyers roles routinely vary. “It’s been that way since the beginning of lawyering. We are sort of like chameleons. We take on the interest of whomever we are representing at the time.”

• In Hillsdale, Raphael Morris defended clients on resisting arrest, speeding, driving with a suspended license and other violations, all of which were dismissed or amended to nonmoving violations for hundreds of dollars in fines each. The judge and prosecutor in Hillsdale, Victor Thompson and Alan Baker, each defended clients in Pagedale, where Morris is judge. Those charges were also dismissed or amended upon payment. Baker said the cases were treated the same as any other, and a defense attorney’s municipal position “just doesn’t come into play. What the prosecutor would do for one, the prosecutor is going to do for another.” When conflicts do arise, he said, you “absolutely have to recuse yourself.”

‘MAKE THAT GO AWAY’ In one case, a municipal court official streamlined a deal for another court figure by combining his roles as judge and prosecutor.

In May 2009, D’Agrosa wrote an email to Cheung about a client D’Agrosa was defending.

Jason Carrington, of Clayton, was on probation after pleading guilty to drunken driving in 2007 in Frontenac, where Cheung is prosecutor. If Carrington avoided another DWI arrest during two years of probation, the case would be wiped from the public record without a conviction.

But Carrington was arrested for another DWI in 2009 in Ladue, where Cheung is the judge.

D’Agrosa worked out a deal with the Ladue prosecutor, James Towey for Carrington to plead guilty to excessive blood-alcohol content, a charge akin to DWI, but involving fewer points assessed against the driver’s license.

See COURTS • Page A9

Municipal courts

03.29.2015 • Sunday • M 1

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A9

CHARLES H. BILLINGS

DAN BOYLE

RONALD BROCKMEYER

WILLIAM BUCHHOLZ

KEITH CHEUNG

STEVEN CLARK

Judge • Des Peres Judge • Fenton Judge • Overland Private practice • Criminal and DWI defense, personal injury and business law at Bruntrager & Billings

Judge • Florissant Private practice • Civil litigation, the Boyle Law Firm

Judge • Breckenridge Hills* Prosecutor • Dellwood* Judge • Ferguson* Prosecutor • Florissant* Prosecutor • Vinita Park* Private practice • Criminal and DWI defense, traffic, municipal and family law at Brockmeyer Law

Judge • Bella Villa Judge • Country Club Hills Judge • St. Ann Private practice • Criminal, traffic, family law at William G. Buchholz

Prosecutor • Crystal Lake Park Prosecutor • Frontenac Judge • Ladue Prosecutor • Normandy Prosecutor • St. Ann Private practice • Criminal defense, personal injury and civil litigation at Curtis, Heinz, Garrett & O’Keefe

Prosecutor • Country Club Hills Judge • Hanley Hills Judge • Valley Park Prosecutor • Velda Village Hills Private practice • Criminal and municipal law at Clark, Connon, Pisarkiewicz, Tolin & Wines

RAPHAEL MORRIS

JOHN NEWSHAM

Judge • Northwoods Judge • Pagedale Private practice • Criminal defense and personal injury at the Morris Firm, traffic at Traffic Matters

Judge • Crestwood Private practice • Criminal defense at Dill, Bamvakais & Newsham

COURTS • from A8

But the Frontenac court sent Carrington a notice that he had violated his probation. It meant Carrington was facing two alcohol-related driving convictions, and a likely loss of driving privileges for five years.

In an email, D’Agrosa reminded Cheung that as part of the deal in Carrington’s case in Ladue, where Cheung is the judge, Cheung had promised not to revoke Carrington’s probation in Frontenac, where he was prosecutor.

D’Agrosa wrote: “You told me you would not move to revoke probation (in the Frontenac case) so he could avoid two convictions. Make that go away.”

Records show that Frontenac, in fact, did make it go away.

“Mr. D’Agrosa separately proposed to me, as the prosecutor in Frontenac, that if his client took a conviction on his Ladue offense, I would then make a recommendation to the judge in Frontenac to not revoke his probation,” Cheung said this month in an email.

“This is a common request, one made by many attorneys advocating for their clients in similar situations. Consistent with such other cases, I made my recommendation to the judge in Frontenac and she ultimately decided not to revoke the probation as there was only a few weeks left before Mr. Carrington’s probation was due to expire.”

D’Agrosa said it would have been better to ask that a provisional judge be assigned to the Ladue case. But he said the disposition was appropriate.

D’Agrosa said what happens in one court can carry over to another court, but it is always for a good reason.

“It did in this case,” he said. “I advised my client to plead guilty to the BAC conviction and suffer the consequences of that conviction as opposed to advocating for another (suspended imposition of sentence), which would not have been impossible. I’m not saying I would have got it, but I negotiated the conviction because that consequence helped me convince Frontenac not to revoke his original probation.”

Carrington lost his license for a year, and went another year without driving by choice. He said he “stopped being stupid” and has avoided more DWIs. Roediger, of SLU, called it “a perfect real life example of the conflicts that we talk about in theory.”

“Cheung absolutely had an affirmative duty to recuse himself as judge on the second charge,” Roediger said. “Once he failed to do so, he had a further duty to withdraw as prosecutor on the first. His promise, while acting as judge, to effectively ‘fix’ the probation issue was also unethical.

“The whole thing is just flat embarrassing as is the insistence on defending it,” Roediger said.

In reality, the best deals go to those who don’t even have to hire lawyers.

The Department of Justice report found more than a dozen examples where top officials in Ferguson, including Brockmeyer, had charges erased there and elsewhere as favors to others. The report said the practice appeared widespread across the court system. The Post-Dispatch reported two weeks ago on one such example involving Cheung, as Frontenac’s prosecuting attorney, and Wes Dalton, then an associate circuit court judge in Warren County. Other lawyers say ticket fixing happens regularly.

Still, court officials insist it doesn’t.

DONNELL SMITH City attorney • Berkeley Prosecutor • Berkeley City attorney • Beverly Hills Judge • Dellwood Judge • Greendale Prosecutor • Moline Acres City attorney • Moline Acres

“The only thing we have is credibility of the court,” said Stuart O’Brien, prosecutor in Beverly Hills. “That’s an uphill climb, and it always has been ... that’s why one of the items in the judicial canon of ethics is to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”

Beverly Hills dismissed 30 percent of its traffic cases in the fiscal year that ended in June 2014.

When a charge is dismissed municipal courts seal the record, citing the state’s public record law.

Asked how the public can be reassured of fairness if all dismissed cases are sealed, O’Brien responded, “I believe in the current climate there’s nothing I’m going to say that’s going to reassure the public of anything.”

“Is there at times maybe an isolated occurrence? I’d be silly to argue there isn’t,” Corlija said.

“But I can tell you this much: Any prosecutor or any judge worth their salt isn’t doing it.”

ETHICAL ISSUES? Michael Downey, a St. Louis attorney who advises other lawyers on ethics and disciplinary issues, said judges are expected to be able to consider each case on its merits, without outside influence.

Judges are supposed to recuse themselves if they have a personal bias or prejudice against a party or a party’s lawyer, or if they have an economic interest in the matter of controversy.

In their role as private attorney, he said, they have to be careful not to suggest that their judicial position will help them secure better deals for their clients.

In a November report, the civic and business group Better Together called upon Missouri lawmakers to prohibit role swapping.

“This study does not contend that the attorneys serving as judges and prosecutors in these municipalities are biased or unprofessional. However, perception matters greatly in the justice system,” it noted.

Some states have drawn strict lines.

In New Jersey, municipal judges are part of single court system, and report to a presiding municipal judge. Municipal judges can practice law, but not criminal law. Municipal prosecutors can take on clients for a criminal defense practice, but not in the county where they work as prosecutor.

Similar prohibitions exist for part-time judges in Arkansas and Michigan, where traffic cases are handled by district courts.

A bill in the Missouri House would prohibit full-time prosecutors from serving as municipal judge, and would keep judges, prosecutors and city attorneys from serving simultaneously in different municipal roles (although one could be judge in several municipalities). It would also prohibit a municipal judge, prosecutor or city attorney from working as a criminal defense attorney.

Daniel K. Knight, the Boone County prosecuting attorney and president of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, told a Senate subcommittee recently that the association doesn’t believe municipal prosecutors should also do defense work. And he thinks the Legislature should evaluate whether municipal prosecutors should represent drunken-driving defendants fighting drivers license suspensions in state court.

“I just believe,” he said in a later interview, “that this doesn’t look like a fair system.”

Jennifer Mann • 314-621-5804 @j_s_mann on Twitter jmann@post-dispatch.com

City attorney • Pine Lawn City attorney • Velda Village Hills Private practice • Municipal law and criminal defense at Smith & Associates

VICTOR THOMPSON

* All municipal positions are based on the 2014-2015 directory of the St. Louis County Municipal League.

Some positions may have changed since that directory was published. If the newspaper was able to confirm an attorney no longer holds that position, it is marked with an asterisk.

Private practice listings are based on the attorneys’ websites and online legal directories.

Judge • Hillsdale Private practice • General practice

Trading places: lawyers swap roles

2 case studies: you be the judge

In St. Louis County’s municipal courts, the main players frequently trade roles as judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys. From just a small sampling of dockets made available by the courts, the newspaper was able to identify multiple overlapping connections between the different attorneys. Here are a few examples:

A judge defends DWI defendant arrested in judge’s town

SAM ALTON, RONALD BROCKMEYER AND KEITH CHEUNG

The issue • How can the Chesterfield judge defend a DWI defendant arrested in his own city?

Phillips “could have been charged in Chesterfield,” says John Hoffmann, who publishes a newsletter that chronicles municipal court cases in west St. Louis County.

“He was driving drunk in Chesterfield. He was violating Chesterfield’s ordinance ... It’s not right.”

These three court officials worked as prosecutor, judge or city attorney in a combined 14 courts.

Cheung is also part of the same law firm as Stephanie Karr, who is prosecutor in Ferguson where Brockmeyer was judge.

According to November 2014 dockets, Cheung represented a client in Breckenridge Hills, where Brockmeyer was judge and Alton was prosecutor.

Alton represented a client in Ladue, where Cheung was judge.

Brockmeyer represented a client in Edmundson, where Alton was judge.

Brockmeyer also represented a client on a speeding ticket in St. Ann, where Cheung was prosecutor.

DONNELL SMITH and RONALD BROCKMEYER

These two lawyers worked together in Dellwood, with Brockmeyer as prosecutor and Smith as judge. But they also represented clients in each other’s courts.

According to a November 2014 docket, Brockmeyer represented a client in Berkeley, where Smith was prosecutor.

Brockmeyer’s son, a member of his firm, also defended a client there. Smith, according to an August 2014 docket, represented a client in Ferguson, where Brockmeyer was the judge. Smith in January 2015 asked that the case be transferred to circuit court.

VICTOR THOMPSON, ALAN BAKER AND RAPHAEL MORRIS

Victor Thompson is the judge in Hillsdale, where Alan Baker is the prosecutor.

Morris defended clients in their court on resisting arrest, speeding, driving with a suspended license and other violations, all of which were dismissed or amended to nonmoving violations for hundreds of dollars in fines each.

Both Thompson and Baker also represented clients in Pagedale, where Morris was judge. Those charges were also dismissed or amended upon payment.

The defendant • Samuel Phillips, 23. A Town and Country police officer clocks him driving 85 mph on westbound Highway 40 (Interstate 64) and pulls him over in adjacent Chesterfield.

Phillip’s blood-alcohol content is 0.171 percent.

The lawyer • For the Town and Country case, Phillips hires a lawyer who knows the system inside and out: Chesterfield Municipal Court Judge Richard Brunk. Phillips is fined $500 and sentenced to 90 days in jail. But he won’t have to serve the time as long as he successfully completes two years of probation.

The explanation • Brunk did not return phone calls. The prosecutor in Chesterfield, Tim Engelmeyer, says it’s natural for an attorney to take on roles that seem contrary. He also represents people accused of driving drunk.

“Each day and each court appearance presents a different case with a different set of facts and relevant law,” he said. “When I am hired by a client, my job is to listen to what the issue is, give advice and recommendations, and then follow their instructions.”

A prosecutor helps a motorist accused of repeat drunken driving The defendant • Ryan Elking, 36, of St. Ann. He is arrested under suspicion of drunken driving in St. John for the second time in six years.

In both cases, Elking fails sobriety tests and refuses a breath test.

The lawyer • He hires as his defense attorney the prosecutor in his home city of St. Ann just a half-mile away: Keith Cheung.

On behalf of Elking, Cheung files a motion in circuit court to stay the suspension of his license. Cheung seeks and is granted continuances for Elking in the municipal and state cases for nearly a year. Elking’s license remains valid.

The issue • Isn’t Cheung supposed to be protecting St. Ann residents from drunken drivers?

Patricia Gay-Smith, who lives in St. Ann, is a member of Mothers Against Drunk Driving who says her daughter was injured by a drunken driver in 1998.

“I don’t like it at all,” she says. “Don’t like it at all. It makes me feel unsafe. And I don’t think it’s a good thing for my community to have. I know they’re out there, but I just don’t understand why the prosecuting attorney would represent him.”

The response • Cheung writes: “I do not believe that there is any conflicting interest in representing clients in other municipal or state courts if the arresting agency is not a client we represent. Nor do I believe it is a conflict for me to prosecute someone in a city and then sometime later separately represent them in a case in a different city or jurisdiction we do not represent.”

— Jeremy Kohler and Stephen Deere

— Jennifer Mann and Jeremy Kohler

> Critics see firm as profiting from county’s fragmentation. A10 > Read our special online Ferguson presentation. stltoday.com/ferguson

S E RV I N G T H E P U B L I C S I N C E 1 878 • W I N N E R O F 1 8 P U L I TZ E R P R I Z E S

TUESDAY • 05.12.2015 • $1.50

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Workers survey the damage as cleanup begins Monday in the aftermath of a tornado that moved through Van, Texas, the night before. Wind was estimated between 135 and 140 mph.

Tornadoes kill at least 5 in Texas, Arkansas Crews searching for the missing ASSOCIATED PRESS

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. •

Emergency responders searched through splintered wreckage Monday after a line of tornadoes battered several small communities in Texas and Arkansas, killing at least five people, including a young couple who died trying to shield their daughter from the storm.

Three people were still missing in a rural East Texas town. Scores of others were hurt, some critically.

The couple, in their late 20s, died when a twister hit their mobile home late Sunday in the Arkansas town of Nashville.

Michael and Melissa Mooneyhan were trying to protect their daughter when the parents’ trailer flipped over and “exploded,” Howard County Coroner John Gray said.

“I had wondered if they were in an enclosed space like a hallway or a bathroom just sheltering the little girl when it hit,” Gray

Former wrestler on trial over HIV

Without authority, multiple municipal courts are found to improperly suspend licenses for ordinance violations.

DRIVERS LICENSES TAKEN HOSTAGE

He is charged with exposing partners to virus

BY SUSAN WEICH St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. CHARLES COUNTY •

A former college wrestler accused of exposing multiple sex partners to the virus that causes AIDS without the victims’ knowledge goes on trial Tuesday.

Michael L. Johnson, 23, who went by the nickname “Tiger Mandingo” on social media sites, Johnson was initially charged in October 2013 with just one felony count.

But after Johnson’s case was publicized, several other men who said they had been victims stepped forward and authorities added five more felony charges. The encounters, with six different men, J.B. FORBES • jforbes@post-dispatch.com

See STORMS • Page A9

CIA leaker is sentenced to 3½ years Sterling team says judge got it right

BY MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, VA. • A

former CIA officer was sentenced Monday to 3½ years in prison for leaking details of a secret mission to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a sentence that was received with a measure of relief from his legal team Sterling and paled in comparison to the decades-long term that had been on the table.

Jeffrey Sterling, 47, of O’Fallon, Mo., had faced federal sentencing guidelines calling for 20 years or

Angela Ross sweeps her driveway Sunday next to the car that has gotten her in trouble because of the expired Northwoods city sticker on her windshield. “They just want to harass us and take our money,” said Ross. She hasn’t decided whether she is going to get a new sticker or not.

BY JEREMY KOHLER AND JENNIFER S. MANN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

NORTHWOODS • Police in this

north St. Louis County municipality issued a ticket to Angela Ross in 2010 for failing to display a City of Northwoods sticker on her vehicle.

When she ignored the citation, the municipal court told the Missouri Department of Revenue to hold her drivers license “in lieu of bail” until she made good on the ticket.

The court had no such authority, but Ross didn’t know that.

When she went to renew her license before it expired on her 54th birthday in March, a clerk at the license office told her she had to pay Northwoods first. The

Kerry

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SUNNY

Suspended In the wake of Deflategate, the Patriots’ Tom Brady is out for 4 games. The team also is fined and loses draft picks.

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city refused to release the hold on her license until Ross paid up. By then, she had city sticker violations for 2010, 2012 and 2014 and two other nontraffic offenses.

Her bill: $650.

Webster U. adjuncts reject union

“It’s not like I didn’t pay my personal property tax, because I did,” said Ross, a manager at a behavioral health center who has lived in Northwoods for 13 years.

She said she called several city officials but no one would listen.

“The mayor said the chief of police would work something out, but nobody worked anything out.”

Ross was the victim of another case of overreach by a secretive, self-policing municipal court system designed to pump revenue into many cities. Municipal courts can take action against defendants’ drivers licenses — but only when defendants skip out on moving violations such as speeding, not for violating

Vote is setback to organizers

BY KORAN ADDO St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Adjunct faculty at Webster University have voted against forming a union, marking a significant defeat for union organizers who have targeted area universities as ripe for collective bargaining.

Out of 668 eligible voters at Webster’s four St. Louis-area campuses, 212 voted for collective bargaining, while 268 voted against.

An additional 53 votes were challenged and nine voided.

Leonard Perez, an administrator with the National Labor Relations Board for the St. Louis region, explained that ballots

See LICENSES • Page A4

Kerry heads to Russia to hold talks about Ukraine

See CIA • Page A9

TODAY

Hear more about Angela Ross’ struggle over a sticker violation.

See HIV • Page A4

Putin

WORLD • A16

Unattended cooking leads to fire

See UNION • Page A4

• A2

Sheeran captivates in 1-man show

• A9

Can Anderson, Mizzou rebound?

• B1

Carpenter set to rejoin Cardinals

• B5

1 M Vol. 137, No. 132 ©2015

news

A4 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • Tuesday • 05.12.2015

Missouri’s high court gets Ferguson study Conflicts of interest, chain of command cited as problems

By Jennifer S. Mann St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • Ferguson’s munici-

pal court does not have checks and balances to prevent conflicts of interest nor does it properly safeguard its data, says a new re-

port that will be considered by the Missouri Supreme Court as it considers reforms there and elsewhere.

The report, released Monday, comes three months after the state’s top court wrested control of the court from the city. The move was prompted by a Justice Department investigation that found deep problems within Ferguson’s police and court systems.

Judge Roy L. Richter of the

Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, who has been handling the court’s caseload, and the Office of State Courts Administrator discovered the following problems, the report said: • Ferguson’s court staff no longer report to the police chief, but now report to the city finance manager, which “poses another potential conflict of interest” because the finance manager is part of the executive branch and

could put pressure on the court staff to focus on revenue rather than fairness and due process of law. They suggest having an outside expert recommend changes.

• Court staff handle cases in their initial stages and the prosecutor sees them only during court when the defendant is represented by an attorney. But Supreme Court rules require ordinance violations to begin with an information signed by the prosecutor, who determines whether

City attorney plans to audit court records Licenses • from A1

License holds or suspensions

municipal ordinances like failing to buy city stickers.

A Post-Dispatch reporter asked the Missouri Department of Revenue last week why Ross could not get her license renewed. A department spokeswoman responded within hours.

“This appears to be an error,” spokeswoman Michelle Gleba said in an email. “It has been corrected.”

Gleba said the department didn’t know why it had allowed Northwoods to put a hold on the license or how many cases like Ross’ there could be.

“The department follows the judgment and direction of the court,” she wrote.

Northwoods is not alone in using drivers licenses to coerce payments to municipal courts.

A Post-Dispatch investigation found it has been common for municipalities to take action against drivers licenses in nontraffic cases.

Northwoods Judge Raphael Morris at first said the hold on Ross’ license “definitely should not have been done” but he said he thought it was an isolated incident.

He said the Northwoods court clerk, who went on maternity leave last week, “is a very experienced court clerk and she knows you can’t put a hold on a nonmoving violation.”

But the interim clerk said Monday the city did actually hold licenses for nonmoving violations.

Under Missouri law, license holds or suspensions for failing to appear in court are limited to moving violations. But some municipalities have been flouting that rule, putting holds on people for failure to appear on a variety of other infractions, or threatening people with suspension if they fail to appear.

OTHER LICENSE ACTIONS Hanley Hills also frequently made improper actions against drivers licenses, the Post-Dispatch found.

The newspaper’s review of court records found that it sent out hold notices to people who have received tickets for an array of nontraffic related offenses, including not having an occupancy permit, trespassing and making harassing telephone calls.

The notices go back at least as far as 2004 and were sent out as recently as November 2014.

Anthony Gray, the city attorney for Hanley Hills who also works as prosecutor or city attorney in several other municipalities, acknowledged that area municipal courts commonly believed they could hold licenses for failing to appear in court for any reason.

He said he learned that was wrong about a year or two ago, when the revenue department sent a letter to municipalities explaining when a license could be suspended or held.

Even then, the city didn’t stop sending notices that it would hold drivers licenses for nontraffic cases. Gray said that could be due to court staff turnover.

Gray said he didn’t know how

J.B. Forbes • jforbes@post-dispatch.com

Angela Ross works on her flowers Sunday morning at her home in Northwoods. “It’s really a nice neighborhood,” said Ross. “There is not a lot of gunfire or drugs,” she said, even though she said someone kicked in her front door and stole from her right after she moved in.

many licenses were improperly held, but he acknowledged it could be thousands.

He said he is going to audit the court records in Hanley Hills and everywhere else he works “and make sure that any ... holds that were sent out on cases that did not qualify will be immediately lifted.”

The Post-Dispatch found that court officials in one municipality threatened nontraffic defendants with license suspensions even when they knew they had no such authority.

When Thomas Spencer, 42, failed to appear in Breckenridge Hills on an assault citation, the court sent out a notice informing him that if he didn’t pay his $209 fine in full or appear in court at his next scheduled date, his license would be immediately suspended and a warrant would be issued for his arrest.

The court’s November 2014 notice to him included a form that seemingly would be sent “to notify the Department of Revenue that the Court has ordered the suspension of the defendant’s drivers license and privileges until an order of compliance is received from this court.”

Breckenridge Hills court clerk Kathy Palladino acknowledged that for the last 18 months she has issued license-suspension warnings even though she knew they were bogus. It was “to open up their eyes, to say, ‘Hey, you didn’t take care of this — you need to come to court.’”

When asked why she would send defendants empty threats or exaggerate her court’s powers, she replied, “I really, really don’t know. I’m trying to do everything properly now.”

John Ammann, a supervisor at the legal clinic of St. Louis University, said the Post-Dispatch findings amplified one of the Department of Justice findings about Ferguson: Court clerks, who lack the legal training of judges or prosecutors, have great power that can go unchecked.

“The judge is there eight hours a month and the clerks are there 160 hours a month,” he said.

“The judges really don’t have a good handle on what is going on.”

Sam Alton, formerly both the city attorney and prosecutor for Breckenridge Hills, said that not only was he unaware about license-suspension threats from the court, he didn’t realize there was anything wrong with them.

He did some research after the Post-Dispatch brought the problem to his attention and concluded: “Generally speaking, if that went on or goes on, it is wrong and needs to stop.”

Palladino said Breckenridge Hills’ new judge, William Buchholz, told her to stop using the forms after the newspaper started asking about it.

“I didn’t know, and now I know, and it won’t be happening anymore,” she said.

Moline Acres court officials have been sending license-suspension notices to every defendant who failed to appear in court, but only notifying the revenue department about traffic cases.

Mayor Michelle DeShay said she had been unaware of the error until now and the city would start using a form that clarifies that license suspensions are only for moving violations.

“We’re not trying to scare people into coming into court,” she said.

Frank Vatterott, the Overland judge who is leading a judges’ committee considering reforms to the courts, said he didn’t know municipalities were threatening nontraffic defendants with losing their driving privileges.

“That is horrible,” he said.

“I never heard of it, but if it is widespread we will look into it.”

her home on Nelson Drive.

During that time, she saved $2,500 to pay for the repairs.

Meanwhile, her husband had a knee replacement, and she had carpal tunnel surgery in both wrists. Her broken vehicle was not foremost on her mind.

Her Missouri plates expired in August, but she had no pressing reason to renew them. Her car was immobile in her driveway.

And it wasn’t like she was being irresponsible. Her personal property taxes were paid. She had insurance.

“What can I do?” she asked.

“We’re barely making it. Barely able to keep this house.”

That fall, her son brought inside three tickets that had been left on her windshield while the car was parked in her driveway.

Northwoods police cited her in September for the expired plates, then in October for expired plates and failure to purchase a 2014 city sticker.

She feels wronged. Why would a police officer come on her property to cite her for an expired plate? She understands Northwoods needs money. A flier in her mailbox told her the city is facing tough choices because the state wants to limit the amount cities can raise through municipal courts.

Northwoods Police Chief Earl Heitzenroeder did not respond to a request for comment.

Ross finally saved enough for the repairs in February. Her vehicle could be driven again, but now her drivers license was about to expire.

That’s when she found out about the hold on her license. It meant two more months of taking the bus to work.

The state removed the hold Thursday, and Ross showed up at the license office Friday morning to renew her license.

As she waited for her number to be called, she was giddy but also full of questions.

“How many other people have this problem right now?” she asked.

Jeremy Kohler • 314-340-8337 @jeremykohler on Twitter jkohler@post-dispatch.com

DRIVING AGAIN Ross said she was driving her 2010 Saturn Vue in August when the engine died. For six months, the SUV sat in the driveway of

At Webster, adjunct pay is based on experience Union • from A1

can be challenged for a number of reasons including an improperly filled out form or a questionable signature.

While the union has seven days to file objections to the vote, the outcome will not change.

The effort to form a union would still be three votes fewer than needed, even if all 53 of the challenged ballots were deemed necessary and pro-union.

“We are hopeful and confident this outcome will stand,” Webster spokesman Patrick Giblin said.

That statement is the most forceful to come out of the university in the months leading up to the vote. University leaders have refused to publicly take a stance on unionization, except for a few sentences on a special website the university set up and promoted as “information only.”

“After careful consideration and consultations with many, we firmly believe that unioniza-

tion is not in the best interest of our university or our faculty,” the statement said.

Pro-union faculty described the university’s informational website as blatantly anti-union.

“Today’s vote count is a setback, but it doesn’t change the course we’re on,” said Jeffrey Maret, an adjunct anthropology professor at Webster.

The vote slows some of the momentum gained by the Service Employees International Union which negotiated a 22 percent raise and better job security in October for adjunct faculty at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

The SEIU won another victory in January when adjunct faculty at Washington University voted to unionize.

Monday’s vote could be interpreted as a sign that unionization efforts in St. Louis will be heavily contested, campus by campus.

The SEIU has also reached out to adjunct faculty at Linden-

wood University, St. Louis Community College at Meramec and St. Louis University.

In the past two years, faculty at 25 schools around the country, including Georgetown and Howard universities, have teamed with SEIU to form unions.

The recent votes are part of the SEIU’s nationwide Adjunct Action campaign.

The premise is that universities are having it both ways — charging students more in tuition, while increasingly relying on adjuncts as a cheap source of labor.

Considered the working class of the academic community, adjuncts are typically the would-be professors who cannot find more secure jobs in an oversaturated job market.

Forced to accept part-time positions, they don’t enjoy benefits or the job security of fulltime professors.

They are generally assigned as fill-in teachers when full-time professors are bogged down

with heavy course loads. They typically work on semester-long contracts, not knowing if they will be asked to continue beyond the current semester.

The Adjunct Action campaign made waves earlier this year when union leaders announced their goal of $15,000 per course for adjunct faculty across the country.

It’s an ambitious goal considering the pay adjuncts are getting currently, which ranges generally from $2,000 to $4,000 per course.

At Webster, adjuncts are paid based on their years of experience. The university reports that average pay for adjuncts is $3,000 for a three-credit course.

They are also eligible to contribute to a retirement plan and enroll themselves or family members in a limited number of courses tuition-free, once they have met certain benchmarks.

Koran Addo • 314-340-8305 @KoranAddo on Twitter kaddo@post-dispatch.com

there is sufficient evidence to bring charges.

• Ferguson has contracted with an outside vendor for an electronic case management system for court records. This violates court operating rules because there is no way to safeguard unauthorized access to the files and no backup copies of the data are kept.

Jennifer S. Mann • 314-621-5804 @j_s_mann on Twitter jmann@post-dispatch.com

Two of man’s sex partners tested positive for HIV HIV • from A1

happened between Jan. 26, 2013, and Sept. 29, 2013, police said.

In addition, police discovered 32 videos of Johnson engaging in unprotected sex, many of them filmed in his room on campus, prosecutors said. It was unclear how many different men were depicted on the tapes.

Some gay rights activists and legal reform groups say Johnson’s case highlights outdated laws. They say such laws in Missouri and more than 30 states criminalize a medical condition and deter those at risk of infection from seeking help.

But local prosecutors say Johnson’s actions exhibit rash behavior and are criminal.

The first victim, identified as “DTL” in court papers, told police he had engaged in oral and anal sex with Johnson on Jan. 26, 2013, in Johnson’s dorm room at Lindenwood University.

Before engaging in any sex, DTL told police he asked Johnson if he was “disease-free,” and Johnson replied yes. Johnson did not wear a condom during the encounter.

Approximately a month later, DTL sought medical treatment at Mercy Hospital, according to courts documents, where he was diagnosed with gonorrhea and HIV. Police obtained Johnson’s medical records, which showed he had tested positive for HIV three weeks before having sex with DTL. During a interview with detectives, Johnson allegedly admitted that he had engaged in unprotected sex despite the fact that he knew he had HIV and could infect DTL. Authorities say one of the other victims also contracted HIV. The other victims told police they had oral and anal sex with Johnson in Johnson’s dorm room. They said he did not wear a condom and did not tell them about his diagnosis.

Police say Johnson may have met his sex partners through social media or through his activities as a student at the university, where he was a member of the wrestling team.

Johnson is originally from Indiana, where he was the state wrestling champion in 2010. Before Lindenwood, he wrestled at Lincoln College in Illinois and was a junior college All-American and national champion while there.

Johnson was expelled from Lindenwood after he was charged in the case. He has remained in the St. Charles County Jail since then in lieu of $100,000 cash bail.

The charge of recklessly infecting another with HIV is fairly uncommon in St. Charles County.

In 2005, Aaron Sindelar of St. Peters was sentenced to 20 years in prison on seven counts of recklessly risking another with HIV infection after pleading no contest to the charges.

In 2006, Angela D. Harris of St. Charles was initially thought to have put more than 100 men at risk after keeping her positive diagnosis secret for 12 years. She eventually pleaded guilty to just two counts and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

If Johnson is convicted of the charges involving the two men who contracted HIV, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. The maximum sentence on each of the other four counts is 15 years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Susan Weich • 636-493-9674 @susan_weich on Twitter sweich@post-dispatch.com

S e rv i n g t h e p u b l i c s i n c e 1 878 • W i n n e r o f 1 8 P u l i tz e r P r i z e s

Sunday • 05.24.2015 • $2.50 • final edition ST. LOUIS COUNTY MUNICIPALITIES WITH BIGGEST INCREASE IN NON-TRAFFIC CASES SINCE 2010

Over the municipalities last five years, some municipalities havethe significantly increased increases the number of citations issue for nontraffic matters.

St. Louis County with biggest inthey nontraffic cases since 2010 The Macks Creek law, which sets limits on how much cities can raise from court fines, applies only to traffic violations.

PAGEDALE

FRONTENAC

2,500

2,255

LAKESHIRE

800

FLORDELL HILLS

80

71

631

2,000

600

VELDA VILLAGE HILLS

2,000

1,589 1,500

60

400

150

23

495%

500 0

200

1,000

40

379 2010

increase

’11

’12

’13

’14

200 136

364% increase

0

2010

’11

’12

’13

’14

20 0

209% increase

2010

’11

’12

’13

’14

500 0

300 250

1,500 1,000

339

350

192%

545

increase

2010

’11

’12

’13

’14

100 119

185%

50 0

increase

2010

’11

’12

’13

’14

unlimited tickets ROCK HILL

296

300 250

200

ST. ANN

CALVERTON PARK

3,000

4,000

2,500

2,500

2,000

2,000

1,500

1,500

3,000

3,064

150

100

2,000

105

182%

50

increase

DELLWOOD

5,000

1,000

1,000

179%

1,100

increase

By Jennifer S. Mann 0 2010 ’11 ’12 ’13 St. Louis Post-Dispatch ’14

The law that limits revenue from court fines has a blind spot:

2,704

WELLSTON

3,000

2,502

2,000 1,500

1,000

1,132

842

1,000

1,025

164%

500

increase

1,795

121%

500

500

113%

increase

increase

Municipalities can issue other types of tickets unrestricted,

Pants worn too low 0 or grass grown too 0 ’14 ’11 ’12 ’14 2010 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 high.’13Children riding2010 bikes without hel-’13 SOURCE: Analysis of data from the Office of State Courts Administrator | Post-Dispatch ST. LOUIS COUNTY MUNICIPALITIES WITH BIGGESTmets.

INCREASE INpits NON-TRAFFIC Barbecue or toys in frontCASES yards. SINCE 2010 Basketball hoops of in citations the streets.

• Drive through this working-increased Over the last fivePAGEDALE years, some municipalities have significantly the number they issue for nontraffic matters.

There’s nocourt loitering described city violations. filled with on 1950s cottages The Macksclass Creek suburb law, which sets limits how much cities can raise from fines, — applies only toin traffic and you will see many edged and weeded code as “the concept of spending time expression HILLS ‘hanglawns. You’ll also notice orange sticky idly” or “the colloquial PAGEDALE FRONTENAC LAKESHIRE FLORDELL VELDA VILLAGE HILLS 339 despite a citywide 20 notes on the doors — at least one or two ing around.’” And, 2,500 800 2,000 350 80 2,255 71 mph speed limit, there’s no playing or per street in many parts of town.

1,589 631 300 2,000 They are warnings the city60gives to resi- walking in the street.

1,500 600 250 Faye Millet, one of the aldermen who dents who violate local ordinances. And in 1,500 200 this community of 3,304 residents, the list wrote the newsletter, said the ordinances 400 1,000 40 are aimed at safety and quality of life. of what earns a ticket and fine is long.

150 1,000 23 “closely Pagedale is in the midst of a massive reAmong the things that will be 100 119 200 136 500 aimed at drawing 20 and sumdevelopment effort, monitored” through the spring 500 545 495% 192% 185% 364% 209% 50 mer, according to a newsletter that re379 increase increase increase increase increase 0 0 0 0 A15 cently went out to residents: 0 See TICKETS • Page 0

2010

’11

’12

’13

’14

0 2010

’11

’12

it applies only to traffic cases 2010

’11

’12

’13

’14

ROCK HILL

296

300 250 200

and some are doing just that

2010

’11

’12

’13

ST. ANN

182%

0

increase

2010

’11

’12

’13

’14

’12

’13

’14

2010

CALVERTON PARK 2,500

2,500

2,000

2,000

1,500

1,500

3,064

1,000 0

1,000

179%

1,100 2010

increase

’11

’12

’13

’14

2,704

’12

’13

’14

2010

164%

500

increase

’11

’12

’13

’14

2,502

’12

’13

’14

2,000

1,795

1,500 1,000

1,132

842

121%

500 0

’11

WELLSTON

3,000

1,000

1,025

0 2010

’11

DELLWOOD

4,000

2,000

50

’11

3,000

3,000

105

2010

5,000

150 100

’14

increase

2010

’11

’12

’13

’14

500 0

113% increase

2010

’11

’12

’13

’14

SOURCE: Analysis of data from the Office of State Courts Administrator | Post-Dispatch

A vision for veterans Where others saw a neglected golf course, Andrea Politte saw what could be a therapeutic place for those who serve.

Were wheels greased for Chinese pork deal?

Critics say rewrite of farmland law looks made to order

By Kevin McDermott St. Louis Post-Dispatch

all the best in BRANSON 5 pages of coverage in Lifestyle • H1

Our critic picks summer shows to watch • D1 County takes stake in old Jamestown Mall • E1

J.B. Forbes • jforbes@post-dispatch.com

Andrea Politte, 50, hugs golfers Terry Dunlap, 68, and Toby Cotton, 67, on Thursday at the Deer Creek USA Golf Events Center in House Springs. Both men are Army veterans.

By Dan O’Neill St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Cleveland police officer acquitted in killings • A3 Gay marriage wins OK in Ireland by landslide • A8

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Andrea Politte with her son Zachary in San Diego, after he returned from a deployment to Iraq.

To understand how one small woman, one big golf property and one giant dream fit together, you have to appreciate Andrea Politte’s passion. You have to embrace her conviction. You have to know about her son.

Zachary Politte served three tours of duty in Iraq. He was an electrical engineer and left-side door gunner on a CH-46 helicopter, part of a casualty evacuation unit. Their missions went by the call sign of DUSTOFF, or Dedicated Unhesitating Service To Our Fighting Forces. They operated in the eye of the storm,

Flags are heart of honor at cemetery

See GOLF • Page A4

IN STLSUNDAY • B1

When America’s largest pork producer, Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, was looking to sell itself to a Chinese company a few years ago, it had a problem: Part of its operations were in Missouri, where a state law prohibited foreign ownership of agricultural property.

But by the time that sale was made public in mid-2013, the problem had evaporated like morning dew on farmland.

In what was presented as a coincidence, Missouri legislators — led by recipients of Smithfield Foods’ political donations — pushed through a controversial, last-minute measure to allow up to 1 percent of Missouri’s agricultural land to come under foreign ownership.

That let Smithfield’s new owners, Shuanghui International of Hong Kong, legally See FARMLAND • Page A10

McClellan: The story of the Rojas cousins 2 M Vol. 137, No. 144 ©2015

local

05.24.2015 • Sunday • M 1

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A15

No limits on nontraffic tickets TICKETS • from A1

businesses to its main corridors and restoring a population that has fallen off since the 1960s. “Even I have a letter from the city saying I have to do certain things to my property,� she said, pointing out that nobody wants to be surrounded by derelict homes.

But there’s more to the story.

Pagedale handed out 2,255 citations for these types of offenses last year — or nearly two per household. That’s a nearly 500 percent increase from five years ago, according to an analysis of state court data by the Post-Dispatch.

And yet none of the fines and fees from these offenses count under the Macks Creek Law. The law is the state’s one tool for keeping cash-hungry municipalities from relying too much on court fines for revenue.

But it has a major blind spot: Its revenue limits apply only to traffic cases.

Cities and villages have no restrictions on raising revenue from other types of tickets.

In Pagedale, 40 percent of last year’s citations were from nontraffic matters, according to the newspaper’s analysis. More than half of tickets in Ferguson and four other communities were for nontraffic violations.

A bill awaiting Gov. Jay Nixon’s signature would put stricter caps on how much cities can raise from traffic revenue. But some worry this will only drive communities toward the type of ticketing that has no limits — the kind that has blanketed Pagedale. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that because (the bill) is limited to moving violations it would be very easy for these towns to simply shift to property violations or sagging pants or these other issues,� said Thomas Harvey of ArchCity Defenders, a legal group that has fought for municipal court reforms.

Notable, he said, is these are the types of citations “that actually more directly impact the residents in their community.�

David Carson • dcarson@post-dispatch.com

Valarie Whitner on Thursday displays some of the tickets that have been written to her and her partner, Vincent Blount, by the city of Pagedale. The couple’s tab for violations such as high grass and peeling paint came to more than $1,800.

Top 10 cities for nontraffic cases

TICKETS FOR TREES Vincent Blount, 54, and Valarie Whitner, 55, have lived in Pagedale for 20 years. For at least the last seven, they’ve been battling Pagedale’s municipal court.

The couple say they’ve been ticketed for everything you can think of: high grass and peeling paint, an overgrown tree, not recycling and more. “Every year. Every year,� said Blount, sighing. “They just got me again.�

The latest citation was for a tree limb that fell onto their garage during a winter storm, the couple said. They waited until their insurance company assessed the damage, then placed the chopped up limb on the empty city lot next door. Before a tree service could pick it up, the city’s housing and sanitation inspector arrived.

The couple explained the situation but said it didn’t matter. They received another ticket.

In April, the inspector sent a list of 17 demands for the property.

The couple were given a 30-day deadline to, among other things, add screens and curtains to the windows; remove a dead branch from a tree out back; replace a missing shingle; use weedkiller; finish repairing the garage; install a rear screen door.

The repairs cost money — money the couple have been using to pay the court. They pay $100 a month on a tab that has grown to $1,810. About $1,000 of that was due to nontraffic violations. They still have $800 to pay off.

Blount and Whitner both work full time. “We get by, but we don’t have all this money in the bank,� Blount said.

Each ticket requires a court appearance, because there’s no set fine to be paid by mail. When Blount, fed up, misses court he is charged with failure to appear. Not only has it added to his bill, it has also landed him in a Pagedale holding cell — four times, for a day or two each.

The couple say they can’t afford to move because they are putting two kids through college. Their daughter is studying at the St. Charles Art Institute. Their son is at University of Missouri-St. Louis, pursuing a career in criminal justice. “We work hard to get them through college so they don’t hopefully have to go through this same kind of (stuff),� Blount said.

KEEPING UP A COMMUNITY A review of records in about a dozen courts showed an array of ordinances similar to those in Pagedale. High grass is a common violation, as are fines for not having a city vehicle sticker or an occupancy permit that lists every household member. “We’ve definitely cracked down on code violations,� said Calverton Park Mayor Jim Paunovich, when asked about his city’s 164 percent increase in such tickets since 2010. “We sent about 100 last week. “If you have gutters hanging down, if the grass is too high, if you cut down a tree, and it’s just laying in the yard,� he said, ticking off things that can earn a citation.

But Paunovich said vigilance on property upkeep is something residents want. “We are an older neighborhood and once that cancer hits, you can’t get rid of it,� he said.

Pagedale Mayor Mary Louise Carter said the same goes for her community. The people who complain, she said, are keepers of problem properties the city has been dealing with for years. Millet, the alderman, put it another way: “They’re too damned lazy to do what they’re supposed to do. “Just do one thing off of that list — one thing — and they’re not going to bother you,� she said. “But if you don’t do one thing knowing it could be unsafe to have a splinter in your railing or a big crack in the sidewalk where a high heel could get stuck ...�

Carter disputed any notion that the ticketing is aimed at wrangling more money for Pagedale. “That’s not true, definitely not true,� she said. “If you

City Pct. nontraffic cases Hanley Hills 62.0% Dellwood 60.5% Overland 52.8% Pasadena Park 51.4% Ferguson 50.2% 44.0% Maryland Heights 42.4% Velda Village Hills Pagedale 40.4% Flordell Hills 39.8% University City 39.4% SOURCE: Office of State Courts Administrator

Macks Creek LAW Every county, city, town and village is expected to annually calculate the percentage of its annual general operating revenue received from fines, bond forfeitures and court costs for minor traffic violations, including amended charges for any minor traffic violations, whether the violation was prosecuted in municipal court, associate circuit court, or circuit court, occurring within the county, city, town, or village. If the percentage is more than 30* percent, the excess amount is to be sent to the director of the Department of Revenue. *New law sets cap at 12.5 pct. for St. Louis County and 20 pct. for the rest of the state.

Manner of walking The report by the Justice Department that criticized Ferguson’s police and court practices and resulted in reform efforts has a footnote that finds it notable that only traffic counts toward the state-imposed revenue limits. Woven through the pages that followed were repeated examples of nontraffic ordinance violations that the report suggested are either racist or constitutionally questionable.

One that received the most attention was “manner of walking� — a charge Ferguson issued to black people 95 percent of the time, according to the report. The report also challenges the use of “failure to obey� (issued to blacks 89 percent of the time) and “failure to comply� (issued to blacks 94 percent of the time). “That (Ferguson) officers believe criticism and insolence are grounds for arrest, and that supervisors have condoned such unconstitutional policing, reflects intolerance for even lawful opposition to the exercise of police authority,� the report said.

Court records revealed similar charges in other North County municipalities. Last fall in Breckenridge Hills, a man was arrested and held overnight on a charge of “interference with police� after he refused to give his name to an officer who stopped him on the street while investigating a knife fight. The charge was dismissed after an attorney became involved. “Some of these officers in the county, they take the position, ‘Well, I asked you your name. Why? Well, because I asked you,’� said Travis Noble, the man’s attorney, who now plans to file a civil rights suit against the city. “The guy had literally done nothing wrong other than question his authority.�

get the money and the city goes to pot you haven’t accomplished anything. The ticket is the last resort. It’s not to get the money, it’s to get the violations corrected.�

Carter said she always gives people extensions if they ask. The sticky notes on the doors, she said, are just warnings. People are given several days after that to get

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UNCHECKED REVENUE It’s difficult to tell how much municipalities make off these violations, because until recently the state hadn’t required a breakdown of court revenue. Fines vary case by case on nontraffic matters. But they can be steep.

In Hanley Hills, where 60 percent of cases are the kind that don’t count toward Macks Creek, a man who was arrested in July 2013 on state gun and drug offenses was also cited for a host of ordinance violations.

The prosecutor’s recommendation: $488 for having a home unfit for habitation, $100 for improper trash storage, $250 for having no dog license, $478 for violating minimum housing standards, $478 for having no occupancy permit and $228 for not participating in the city trash program. Each carried court costs. A few could be reduced to $150 if the home was brought into compliance.

Another Hanley Hills woman has a court file several inches thick. She has been cited repeatedly over the last decade for three types of violations: no auto sticker, no license and high grass. Every time she didn’t show in court she would get a failure to appear charge — one for each of her pending violations — causing her fines to balloon. Her total tab in Hanley Hills: $2,986.

In June 2013, the woman wrote a letter to the court. “I know when you look at your records it appears I have willfully ignored my business with you but this is not true,� she wrote.

She told of mental health issues and going broke, losing “everything — my business, my home, my kid in jail, everything but the sanity of my mind.�

On a fixed income and caring for a 93-year-old mother and special needs child, the woman asked to be placed on a payment plan or to do community service.

The court chose the former. By April, she had paid $1,824 off.

Reached by a reporter at her home, a tidy bungalow with a well-maintained lawn, the woman declined to comment and asked that her name not be used. Visibly shaken, she said she just wanted to move forward and put the ordeal behind her.

Jeremy Kohler and Walker Moskop of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Jennifer Mann 314-621-5804 @j_s_mann on Twitter jmann@post-dispatch.com

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But in a quick drive around the city, a reporter found several warnings for high grass that gave people just one day. One woman who received such a warning, Judy Nolen, 42, said the short notice was unfair. She works full time and had to get her brother to help on a moment’s notice. She had heard stories about the city mowing grass that wasn’t tended to and billing the homeowner.

Carter said the city does that only for the most neglected properties.

A friend of Nolen’s, Maria Hill, said she lives in Ferguson, where “they are notorious� for piling on tickets for small lapses. “He’ll get out of the car with his ruler,� she said, of the city inspector measuring grass. “I had a light bulb, it had fallen. All they had to do was knock,� she said.

Instead, they gave her a ticket.

Vernon Virgin, 57, operates a tree-cutting service from the property he owns in Pagedale. He recently received a letter from the city asking him to make 29 fixes within 30 days or he would be forced to vacate. He agrees the place is somewhat run-down but said he is trying to make repairs. “I’ve been arguing back and forth with that mayor for 20 years,� Virgin said. “They go from high grass to now you need a new porch to now you need a new roof and your windows need to be replaced. It just goes on and on and on and on.�

State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, said she could see both sides. Municipalities need to ensure public safety, she said, but she also understands concerns police will start ticketing houses instead of cars.

Reading the list of infractions in Pagedale, she said, “Much of this list appears to be safety-related. But again, if the municipality is being intentionally excessive, I would understand why some people would feel overburdened or bullied.�

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