M 1 WEDNESDAY • 10.10.2018 • A2
WHAT’S ON STLTODAY.COM EASIER PUFF PASTRY
CRIME TRACKER
UPCOMING CHATS
Making your own seems hard, but it doesn’t have to be. Food writer Dan Neman takes you to Prep School and shows you how. stltoday.com/watch
See what crime is happening in St. Louis County and St. Louis — and how it compares with a year ago. stltoday.com/databases
Wednesday Ask the Road Crew, 1 p.m. Jim Thomas talks Blues, 1 p.m. Thursday MU sports with Dave Matter, 11 a.m. Friday Talk STL sports with Jeff Gordon, 1 p.m. Monday Talk Cardinals baseball, 1 p.m. Tuesday Sports columnist Ben Frederickson, 11 a.m.
Counties’ jailing of the poor ‘has got to stop,’ defender says TONY MESSENGER St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Leanne Banderman stole nail polish. It was two years ago in Dent County. Banderman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for shoplifting the $24.29 product at a Walmart. Judge Brandi Baird sentenced her to 30 days in the county jail. Then Baird sent Banderman a bill for $1,400. This is the reality in rural Missouri if you’re poor and find yourself crossways with the law. First you do time in jail because you can’t afford bail, even on minor offenses. In many Missouri counties, more than 60 percent of people in prison are there on nonviolent offenses. Then you get a bill for your jail time. Then things really get tough. Banderman couldn’t afford the “board bill” for her jail time. So Baird put her in jail again. This time the bill was $2,160. For the past couple of years, I’ve been writing about this problem in St. Francois County, where Judge Sandra Martinez has been overturned twice by the Missouri Supreme Court for similar offenses. But the problem is much bigger than one county. It’s happening all over the state, says Matthew Mueller. He’s the senior bond litigation counsel for the Missouri Public Defender’s Office, and his primary job these days is filing lawsuits on behalf of poor people like Banderman who end up in jail because they’re poor, and then the
judicial system buries them in poverty even deeper than they imagined. “The practical reality is that people are being arrested for being poor,” Mueller says. “And there’s nothing they can do about it. They just sit in jail and the bill keeps getting higher.” On Wednesday, Mueller will be in Kansas City to ask the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals to find this practice unlawful. The problem, Mueller says, isn’t just that the rural counties are charging poor people for being in jail. It’s that they’re then treating that jail debt as a “fine” and using the county’s arrest power when people can’t afford to pay the fine. Take John Wright, of Higginsville, Mueller’s client in the Wednesday appeal. Wright, who suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was 19, was charged with stealing for failing to pay for a taxi ride in 2016. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Upon being released, Wright was served with a $1,300 bill for his jail time. Every month thereafter, if the bill wasn’t fully paid, the judge would schedule a show-cause hearing on the debt. If Wright didn’t show up, a warrant would be issued for his arrest. The court never determined whether he had the ability to pay. Wright is indigent and was represented by the public defender. It’s a long-standing constitutional protection in U.S. courts that people can’t be jailed for failure to pay debt. But whether it’s municipal courts in St. Louis County stacking up traffic tickets, or rural counties issuing bills for jail time, the practice is still common in Missouri. “This entire practice is unlawful and
must cease,” Mueller writes. At some point, state lawmakers might want to pay attention to what’s happening in the circuit courts in their jurisdictions. That’s because in many of them, the counties are billing poor people for money they’ve already collected from the state. Under state law, if a person is held in the county jail for a state felony, Missouri taxpayers end up paying about $22 a day of that bill. State law actually allows for more than twice that amount of payment, but the Legislature never provides full funding. Among the biggest recipients of that county money are those rural counties also known for taking extrajudicial steps to keep poor people in jail while they rack up higher costs. In 2017, for instance, St. Francois County was reimbursed nearly $155,000 from the state for “board bill” costs. Franklin County took in $162,000; Caldwell collected $149,000; Camden and Laclede counties both topped $200,000. And in most of those counties, the people in jail were billed even after the state paid. None of this is constitutional, Mueller says. He now has cases before all three appeals courts in the state seeking a determination that would put an end to this practice. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed briefs supporting Mueller’s clients in all three cases. “It’s really scary what’s going on,” Mueller says. “It’s indefinite commitment. These people are totally helpless. This has got to stop.” Tony Messenger • 314-340-8518 @tonymess on Twitter tmessenger@post-dispatch.com
PEOPLE Gunn gets new gig with DC James Gunn may have been fired from Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but DC Comics will welcome him with open arms. Warner Bros. on Tuesday confirmed that Gunn will write the script to the studio’s next installment of “Suicide Squad,” the DC supervillain team-up franchise. In July, Disney fired Gunn after jokes involving rape and pedophilia he wrote years earlier on Twitter resurfaced. The creative force behind the popular “Guardians” films, Gunn’s firing prompted its own backlash. The cast issued a statement of support for Gunn, who grew up in St. Louis. But instead, Gunn will take over “Suicide Squad,” the franchise led by Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Jared Leto. The first film, written and directed by David Ayer, earned $747 million in 2016 but drew withering reviews. Gunn is expected to take a new approach and potentially direct. Rockers nominated • Stevie Nicks, who’s already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Fleetwood Mac, has been nominated for inclusion as a solo artist next year, along with other first-time nominees Def Leppard, Todd Rundgren, Devo, John Prine and Roxy Music. Nine other artists are returning to the ballot for another try, including Janet Jackson, Radiohead and the Cure. Generally, about five to seven nominees each year are voted into the hall. Winners are announced in December. Perry seeks break • You might not hear Katy Perry roar for a little while. The pop star says she’s taking a break from making music after releasing her fifth studio album last year and completing her latest drawn-out world tour over the summer. “I’ve been on the road for like 10 years, so I’m just going to chill,” she told Footwear News. “I’m not going to go straight into making another record. I feel like I’ve done a lot. I feel like I’ve rung the bell of being a pop star very loudly, and I’m very grateful for that.”
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Flooding closes roads, threatens to top levees BY JIM SALTER Associated Press
ST. LOUIS • Heavy rain across northern Missouri has caused river levels to spike, shutting down roads and threatening some homes and businesses in low-lying areas. The Missouri River and other waterways are already flooding in the state’s northwest, and the Mississippi River’s levels are rising fast, especially in the northeast of the state. Parts of Missouri could get thunderstorms through Wednesday, which would add water to the river basins. But storms that might dump up to 2 inches of rain in parts of Wisconsin and Iowa could further swell rivers downstream and be of greater concern in Missouri,
Mark Fuchs, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service, said Tuesday. He said the additional water would likely extend the duration of flooding, not worsen the crests. “This is not an historic flood, at least not yet,” Fuchs said. That doesn’t mean it isn’t causing trouble. Nearly 70 Missouri roads were closed due to high water, mostly in northwestern Missouri. The closures include stretches of U.S. Highway 24 and Missouri Highway 48. The Missouri River will crest Thursday in St. Joseph at nearly 9 feet above flood stage, threatening a residential area, the weather service said. The Missouri also is expected to overflow agricultural levees near Glasgow on Friday, which could flood some homes.
Stretches of the Katy Trail hiking and biking path in central Missouri are expected to flood. The worst is yet to come along the Mississippi River. Towns such as Hannibal, Louisiana and Clarksville are expected to face significant flooding by the weekend. Buyouts since the historically bad 1993 flood have mitigated potential damage, but the high water could get into scattered homes and businesses. In Hannibal, flood gates were installed to protect the Mark Twain sites and the rest of downtown, and a popular high school marching band festival was pushed back a week. The Mississippi is expected to reach flood stage Thursday in St. Louis and crest nearly 6 feet above flood stage on Monday.
Victims identified in 3 fatal shootings in city FROM STAFF REPORTS
ST. LOUIS • Authorities on Tuesday identified three people killed in separate shootings centered on one St. Louis neighborhood Monday night. The shootings happened in a fivehour span in or on the edge of the Hamilton Heights neighborhood. The first shooting Monday was about 5:15 p.m. in the 5900 block of Martin Luther King Drive, near Hodiamont Avenue. Responding officers found Antonio Neely, 30, unconscious and not breathing. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Neely lived in
the 5900 block of Horton Place. Police arrested a man, 30, in connection with Neely’s death. Police did not identify the suspect or announce whether he had been charged. The shooting scene on Martin Luther King was on the border of the Hamilton Heights and Wells-Goodfellow neighborhoods. About 6:45 p.m. Monday, officers found Robert Lamont Lee, 25, shot to death in the 1400 block of Belt Avenue, about a mile southeast of the first shooting scene. He lived in the same block of Belt. Police had no suspects. Later, shortly after 10 p.m. Monday,
a man was fatally shot in the 1300 block of Blackstone Avenue, police said. The scene is about midway between the other two shooting locations. Police say Jordan Bradshaw, 24, was killed in an encounter with another man. Police haven’t said what happened in the encounter. Bradshaw and the other man, 30, knew each other, police said. Bradshaw lived in the 1700 block of South Fifth Street. Authorities asked anyone with information to contact CrimeStoppers at 1-866-371-8477. Tipsters can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward.
Actor Peter Coyote is 77. Actor-dancer Ben Vereen is 72. Singer Cyril Neville is 70. Actress Jessica Harper is 69. Country singer Tanya Tucker is 60. Actress Julia Sweeney is 59. Actor Bradley Whitford is 59. Actress Wendi McLendon-Covey is 49. Actor Mario Lopez is 45. Singer Mya is 39. Actor Dan Stevens is 36. R&B singer Cherie is 34. From news services
LOTTERY MULTISTATE GAMES MEGA MILLIONS Tuesday: 20-22-39-54-60 Mega ball: 18 Megaplier: 3 Estimated jackpot: $470 million POWERBALL Wednesday’s estimated jackpot: $282 million
MISSOURI LOTTERIES LOTTO Wednesday’s estimated jackpot: $4.2 million SHOW ME CASH Tuesday: 02-10-23-29-30 Wednesday’s estimated jackpot: $142,000 PICK-3 Tuesday Midday: 565 Evening: 269 PICK-4 Tuesday Midday: 8223 Evening: 7779
ILLINOIS LOTTERIES LUCKY DAY LOTTO Tuesday Midday: 27-33-34-39-43 Evening: 04-12-29-35-45 LOTTO Monday: 11-19-29-34-35-44 Extra shot: 11 Thursday’s estimated jackpot: $17 million PICK-3 Tuesday Midday: 777 FB: 9 Evening: 454 FB: 3 PICK-4 Tuesday Midday: 2812 FB: 2 Evening: 6902 FB: 1
STLTODAY.COM/LOTTERY Current and past numbers, plus jackpots from state lotteries around the country.
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