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ON CAMERA, IN THE DARK Uber, Lyft driver livestreams video of unwitting passengers, as his followers chime in online

> Ride-hailing companies note one-party consent recording is legal in Missouri > Man defends practice, saying car is a public space and he ‘loves doing it’

BY ERIN HEFFERNAN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • On a recent SaturSCREEN CAPTURE VIA TWITCH

Jason Gargac, of Florissant, livestreams videos of his rides as an Uber and Lyft driver without his customers’ knowledge. He lights the interior of his pickup purple to better show his passengers. In this image from Gargac’s channel on the website Twitch, the Post-Dispatch has added black boxes to obscure the faces of the passengers.

day night, two women in their early 20s called an Uber from Ballpark Village in downtown St. Louis.

Within minutes “Jason” arrived driving a black Chevrolet

Silverado. They climbed into the pickup’s back seat, illuminated by purple lights.

The driver, a bearded man in his 30s, was friendly. The women asked where he went to high school. They joked about friends they were going to meet at a bar across town.

But there was something the

women didn’t know: Their driver was streaming a live video of them to the internet, and comments from viewers were pouring in.

The blonde is a 7, the brunette a 5, someone with the username “DrunkenEric” commented.

See DRIVER • Page A8

In Branson, a mix of mourning, moving on

STOLEN FUTURE

FIGHTING BACK

BY SPEAKING OUT

Victims’ friend ‘didn’t even sleep’; investigation, tourism both continue

Former professor finds purpose sharing story of early-onset dementia to dispel stigma, raise funds and push for legislation

BY KURT ERICKSON St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BRANSON, MO. • Up early on a sundrenched parking lot in this southern Missouri resort town, Russell McKay was paying his respects Saturday morning to his good friends.

Mixing happy memories with tears, McKay stood next to the SUV owned by Bill Asher, one of 17 victims of Thursday’s deadly amphibious vehicle accident on nearby Table Rock Lake.

“I didn’t even sleep,” said McKay, who drove from his home in south St. Louis County soon after hearing about the mishap. “What a gracious, articulate, wonderful man he was.”

Asher and his girlfriend, Rose Hamann, were among 31 people on the World War II-era duck boat when it went down amid whitecap waves as a strong thunderstorm See LAKE • Page A4

CHRISTIAN GOODEN • cgooden@post-dispatch.com

Cardinals, Cubs split Saturday doubleheader

In a soft glow of purple, the color for Alzheimer’s awareness, Lonni Schicker is recognized at the annual Alzheimer’s Association fundraiser gala in April. Those attending had just seen a video in which Lonni described her experience with dementia.

BY MICHELE MUNZ St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third part in an occasional series about dementia.

LONNI’S STORY: Catch up on the series at stltoday.com/ dementia

TODAY

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veryone at the annual black-tie gala for the Alzheimer’s Association Greater Missouri Chapter seemed to know her. They stopped to take pictures with her, told her she looked beautiful. § She and her son, Dan, wearing a bow tie and cummerbund with hints of the Alzheimer’s awareness color purple, made their way to a large circular bar. Waiters handed out champagne

glasses of sparkling drinks with crystal-like sticks of rock candy. § Tom Carmody, 65, with Edward Jones, a major sponsor for the Alzheimer’s Association, approached her: “I heard you on the radio today. You were so good.” § He was particularly touched, he said,

Message is medium in protest banner class

by how she described going from being a busy college professor to nothing. § “You,” Carmody said, “are kind of like the poster girl for what the issues are.”

A&E

See LONNI • Page A6

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Driver’s Twitch channel raises privacy issues DRIVER • FROM A1

“She doesn’t sit like a lady though,” another viewer added.

“This is creepy,” said another.

The women are among hundreds of St. Louis area Uber passengers who have been streamed online without their knowledge by their driver, Jason Gargac, 32, of Florissant.

Gargac has given about 700 rides in the area since March through Uber, plus more with Lyft. Nearly all have been streamed to his channel on Twitch, a live video website popular with video gamers where Gargac goes by the username “JustSmurf.”

Passengers have included children, drunk college students and unwitting public figures such as a local TV news reporter and Jerry Cantrell, lead guitarist with the band Alice in Chains.

First names, and occasionally full names, are revealed. Homes are shown. Passengers have thrown up, kissed, talked trash about relatives and friends and complained about their bosses in Gargac’s truck.

All the while, an unseen online audience watches, evaluating women’s bodies, judging parents and mocking conversations.

Gargac sees nothing wrong with it. To him, it’s a form of virtual people-watching — one that can bring an income.

“I try to capture the natural interactions between myself and the passengers — what a Lyft and Uber ride actually is,” he said in a recent interview with the Post-Dispatch.

But his channel raises legal and ethical questions about privacy as technology allows videos of unsuspecting people to spread online for instant, worldwide viewing.

“I feel violated. I’m embarrassed,” said one passenger tracked down by the PostDispatch. She asked not to be identified to avoid being connected to the footage. “We got in an Uber at 2 a.m. to be safe, and then I find out that because of that, everything I said in that car is online and people are watching me. It makes me sick.”

A SATURDAY NIGHT Gargac, a bearded Army veteran in a baseball hat, speaks into a camera mounted on his windshield while he waits outside Ballpark Village.

He had gone over 30 minutes without passengers and his stream was losing viewers.

“This better be (expletive) content, I swear to God. This better be (expletive) content, that’s all I’m saying,” Gargac says as the two women approach. “I mean, the blond girl looks kind of cute, if they’re together. The blonde is cute. The one who ordered is not.”

His stream shows the women getting in the car. They compliment the purple LED lights, not knowing they serve to illuminate passengers for the camera.

They say they are going to a bar across town, and one of the women tells Gargac she has a crush on a friend she’s going to meet.

“I really have this issue of telling Uber drivers my whole life story,” she says.

“It’s OK,” Gargac replies, laughing.

Soon Gargac’s channel gets a new follower, and viewers pick up. Crass jokes fill the chat.

Someone claims dibs on the blonde.

The women are dropped off, and the night continues. A couple get a ride from a Cardinals game to an upscale suburban neighborhood, as viewers speculate about the value of their home. Later, a seemingly intoxicated young woman slumps over in the back seat as a man prods her to see if she is OK. He probably won’t get lucky now, and if he does, she won’t remember it, a viewer says. In the last ride of the night, a young woman cries in the back seat. The audience notes her bra is showing.

It’s a typical night of streaming for Gargac, who speaks to viewers between rides like a friend, or their host for the evening. He comments on passengers and answers questions from his audience about his life as a driver.

“Love you all, and thank you all for the support,” he tells his fans before signing off.

PASSENGERS SPEAK In dozens of hours of footage reviewed by the Post-Dispatch, very few people seem to notice the camera. A few who asked were told by Gargac that he was recording for safety. He rarely specifies that he is streaming live.

The Post-Dispatch was able to identify about a dozen of Gargac’s passengers using information disclosed in archived

SCREEN CAPTURE VIA TWITCH

In this screen capture from his livestream, Jason Gargac, of Florissant, transports ride-hailing passengers recently. Gargac has given about 700 rides in the St. Louis area since March through Uber, plus more with Lyft. Nearly all have been streamed to his channel on Twitch, a live video website popular with video gamers. The Post-Dispatch has added black boxes to obscure the faces of the passengers.

HAVE YOU BEEN LIVESTREAMED? If you’ve taken Uber or Lyft in the St. Louis area since March, you may have been recorded and livestreamed on Jason Gargac’s Twitch channel. Here is how to check: • Open your Lyft or Uber app and select “your trips” or “ride history.”

• Look for a ride with “Jason” in a Chevrolet Silverado along with a photo of Gargac, who has brown hair and a beard.

• Gargac has been livestreaming rides since mid-March and typically drives on holidays and Friday and Saturday nights.

• If you think you may have been recorded without your consent and would like to speak to a Post-Dispatch reporter, email eheffernan@post-dispatch.com. videos of the livestreams. Passengers from five different rides responded to inquiries from a reporter. None knew they had been livestreamed. All said they would not have consented if they had known.

The passengers reached by the Post-Dispatch did not want to be identified, to avoid connection to the often embarrassing videos, which include insulting and sexual comments made by Twitch viewers.

Gargac says he enlisted a team of other Twitch users, including his wife, to moderate racist, homophobic or aggressively sexual sentiments.

“Saying she was an 8 out of 10 or a 9 out of 10, that’s cringey to a point, but I don’t think it goes over a line,” he said. “But if you go over the line of like: ‘Oh, I’d do such dirty things to her,’ something like that, I don’t want that at all.”

Still, his channel’s chats have been full of sexual content and edgy humor directed at the passengers.

“It’s dehumanizing,” one female passenger said.

Several passengers told the Post-Dispatch that after learning about Gargac’s stream, they complained to Uber. The company gave them a $5 credit, and a promise that they would not be paired with Gargac as a driver.

Lyft and Uber initially released prepared responses to questions from the Post-Dispatch about the livestream, simply noting the practice is legal because in Missouri only one party to a conversation needs to consent to a recording. In this case, that is Gargac.

“Driver partners are responsible for complying with the law when providing trips, including privacy laws,” an Uber spokesman wrote earlier this month.

“Recording passengers without their consent is illegal in some states, but not Missouri.”

A Lyft spokesman echoed that response, saying drivers are required to follow local laws, “including with regard to the use of any recording device.”

The companies did not respond to follow-up questions over the course of a week about the ethics of livestreaming customers without their knowledge. After this story was published online, an Uber spokeswoman said that the company suspended Gargac after reviewing his videos.

“The troubling behavior in the videos is not in line with our Community Guidelines,” the new statement read. “The driver’s access to the app has been removed while we evaluate his partnership with Uber.”

Uber prohibits inappropriate or disrespectful behavior by drivers, including comments on appearance or sexual remarks, the statement said.

Lyft did not respond to questions about Gargac’s current status.

And neither company has answered questions about

whether they have policies about drivers livestreaming.

Twitch, the website that hosts the livestream videos, did not respond to multiple requests for comment until after this story was published online. In a statement Saturday, a spokesman said Twitch would remove content if it received a complaint from someone whose privacy was violated.

Gargac’s Twitch channel disappeared from the website Saturday. The company said it does not comment on specific violations, and it was unclear why the channel it was down. Before it disappeared, his channel had about 4,500 followers and some 100 subscribers who paid $5 a month to support his effort.

Gargac said he earned about $3,500 off Twitch users, including subscriptions, donations and tips called “bits.” That’s on top of about $150 to $300 from fares on an average night.

‘I CAN DO IT, BUT BETTER’ Gargac was not the first to livestream Uber and Lyft rides on Twitch.

The website, which Amazon bought for about $1 billion in 2014, is best known as a place to watch people playing video games live. The site’s average total viewership rivals prime time for cable channels such as CNN and MSNBC, according to reporting in the New York Times. Some of the most popular gaming streamers have made millions of dollars.

Gargac’s videos fit into the newer “IRL,” or “In Real Life,” section that encourages users to stream their life outside of games.

Gargac became a fan of other IRL streams from Uber and Lyft drivers, including Jaystreazy and Cinnabarcorp in California and Eclecticninja in Wisconsin.

He was intrigued by the unexpected interactions and the mystery of who might get into the car next. He decided to try it.

“I like challenges, so I felt like I can do it, but better,” he said.

Gargac began driving for Uber, and occasionally Lyft, in early March. He was livestreaming all of his rides by the end of that month. He typically drove on weekend nights because, he said, the bar crowd makes for the most entertaining rides.

Gargac’s “JustSmurf” channel took a different approach than other Lyft and Uber livestreams.

First, there’s the equipment.

Gargac says he invested about $3,000 in technology for his vehicle. There are two cameras about the size and shape of a deck of cards mounted on the windshield that face both outside and in. A 12-button control panel allows him to toggle between camera views as he drives. A data setup keeps his livestreams connected.

But Gargac points to a bigger difference: Most other Uber and Lyft streamers tell their passengers they are on camera.

Those drivers’ streams show they often lose passengers who refuse to get in the car.

Gargac says that at first he also informed his passengers he was streaming, but he noticed most either refused to speak or acted out for the camera.

“I didn’t like it. It was fake. It felt produced,” he said.

He decided he did not need passengers’ consent.

IS THIS LEGAL? Gargac says he hasn’t broken any laws because Missouri is a oneparty consent state.

There may still be some legal recourse for Gargac’s passengers, but any case would face obstacles, said Chip Stewart, a professor at Texas Christian University who has published research on the privacy implications of livestreaming.

Missouri does not criminalize parties who record their own interactions, unless it includes a photo or video of someone who is nude or partly nude without that person’s consent.

Civil precedent in the state does allow people to sue for their privacy rights if they are recorded without consent when they have what the law calls “a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

It’s not clear whether courts would find the back of an Uber to be a place with a reasonable expectation of privacy, Stewart said.

“This is one of those things that’s certainly a breach of our norms, but the law might not be a great way to take care of that yet,” he said. “That could change if the law evolves, but it’s moving pretty slow when it comes to this technology.”

PRIVACY CONCERNS At times, commenters question his tactics. Gargac responds that passengers are in a public space.

“I have sex in my bedroom. I don’t have sex in strangers’ cars,” he said. “Because I have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the bedroom in my own house.

I don’t have that in a stranger’s car.”

Still, Gargac said he made changes in response to privacy concerns.

About a month ago, his camera captured a momentary view up a woman’s skirt as she slid across his back seat. It was then “clipped” by one of his viewers for later viewing. Gargac says he asked the user to remove it, but it was still online until Saturday, when Gargac’s entire channel disappeared.

After noticing the clip, Gargac created a graphic he could trigger with his control panel to block a portion of the screen with an image of a rooster.

Gargac said he created the graphic to avoid violating Twitch’s terms of service, which forbid sexual content.

“So it’s partly the (terms of service) and partly to respect the people,” Gargac said. “You know, I wouldn’t want my junk out there on camera, so I’m going to try to respect everyone else as

much as I can.”

Gargac also began trying to switch off the street-facing camera a few blocks from passengers’ homes. He muted addresses if he caught them before they were spoken and silenced two conversations: one about drug addiction and another about personal finances.

At some point, Gargac added a sticker, about 4 inches square, on his back passenger window — “Notice: For security this vehicle is equipped with audio and visual recording devices. Consent given by entering vehicle.”

Passengers contacted by the Post-Dispatch said they did not notice it.

Videos were archived on his channel for 60 days after each livestream. In his interview with the Post-Dispatch, he said he would be willing to take down videos sooner if a passenger complained.

WHY DO IT? G a rga c ga ve s o m e t i m e s conflicting reasons for his livestreaming.

He said livestreaming is a convenient stopgap as he seeks a job as a police officer — a career goal he often discussed with passengers.

Gargac graduated from a police academy last year and is looking to be hired by a department. The Missouri Department of Public Safety confirmed that Gargac is a licensed peace officer in the state.

But it was not just about the income. Gargac said his wife is able to financially support him while he looks for a job.

He argued the livestream offered him security during his Uber and Lyft rides.

“That’s really the biggest reason for the camera,” Gargac said. “The livestream and the Twitch and all that is really more secondary than the security that I feel knowing if something happens, immediately there can be a response versus hopefully you’ll find my truck in a ditch three weeks later.”

In the same interview, however, Gargac said he started driving Uber and Lyft for the purpose of creating the livestream. Not the other way around.

“I love doing it,” he said.

The stream built a community of fans who bonded over hours of watching Gargac’s rides. They shared pictures of their dogs and talked about their personal lives. One user even made T-shirts.

Gargac does not acknowledge that the community he created comes at the expense of real people. People who feel violated by the gaze of a hidden online audience. People who don’t want their personal details divulged on the internet.

At the end of a 90-minute inperson interview with the PostDispatch, Gargac asked that his full name not be published in connection with this story.

The Post-Dispatch already knew his name. He said it in one of his own videos, and his identity was later confirmed through public records and social media accounts. He gave a reporter his business card.

“Stick with my first name, if you can, because privacy concerns,” he said. “You know, the internet is a crazy place.”

Erin Heffernan • 314-340-8145 @erinheff on Twitter eheffernan@post-dispatch.com

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25 YEARS AFTER THE FLOOD

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? POST-DISPATCH FILE PHOTO

Martin Sontheimer posted this message with sandbags on his St. Charles County home during the Flood of 1993. The photo was taken July 13, 1993, and ran in newspapers worldwide.

NO EASY ANSWERS TO STOP INVASIVE LIVESTREAMING

BY ERIN HEFFERNAN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • Security cameras are a fact

BY BRYCE GRAY St. Louis Post-Dispatch

of life. In banks, restaurants, stores, parking lots, public streets and parks, cameras record everyone in view.

But in recent months, passengers in a local Uber driver’s truck unwittingly found themselves being recorded and livestreamed to an audience, crossing the line from security into voyeurism.

Jason Gargac’s passengers quickly discovered that protecting their privacy is a daunting task in America today.

Gargac, of Florissant, used his job as an Uber and Lyft driver to livestream videos of about 700 rides without most Videos on the most popular live tool, Facebook Live, have been watched by 2 billion people, Endgadget reported in April.

See PRIVACY • Page A4

ST. LOUIS COUNTY EXECUTIVE RACE

Primary looms amid toxic atmosphere Mark Mantovani has largely targeted Stenger’s ethics. One of his more biting ads likens the Stenger campaign to a vending machine: money in, contract out.

BY JEREMY KOHLER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS COUNTY • Steve Stenger says he wasn’t elected to “get along with people.” He was elected to “fight for residents and taxpayers.”

But the fighting gets all the attention, the county executive laments, as

While events triggered tweaks in policy and preparedness, many say that the area is just as — if not more — vulnerable today

Steve Stenger points to accomplishments, such as spearheading a sales tax that helped fund raises for police officers, as well as the county’s balanced budget.

he pages through a three-ring binder of his accomplishments and makes his case that he deserves a second term.

Under Stenger’s leadership, the county launched a prescription drug monitoring program, and he recently unveiled a plan to improve access to treatment for opioid addictions. He spearheaded Proposition P, a sales

ST. LOUIS • The small town of Valmeyer, Ill., which had hugged the edge of the Mississippi River flood plain for more than 80 years, was essentially wiped off the map — forced to move to higher ground nearby.

Forty miles to the west, the muddy waters of the Missouri River poured into the Chesterfield Valley, inundating some 250 businesses.

Highway 40 (Interstate 64) was closed temporarily by the massive flood; an estimated 4,000 people locally were without jobs for months.

In the region, thousands of homes were flooded; some were swept away entirely.

Twenty-five years ago this week, one of the worst flooding events in U.S. history paralyzed the St. Louis area and much of the Midwest.

In the aftermath of the devastating Flood of 1993, officials vowed to learn from the disaster and reduce future flood risk.

See FLOOD • Page A8

COMING WEDNESDAY The Post-Dispatch looks back and reconnects with some of the people featured in images from our coverage of the Great Flood.

tax approved by county voters in 2017 that helped fund raises for police officers and will help the county police hire more than 100 officers. He has a diverse Cabinet with African-Americans and women in leadership positions. The county has a balanced budget. It has a See EXECUTIVE • Page A4

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Swing voters may decide county executive race

ROBERT COHEN • rcohen@post-dispatch.com

St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger signs an order removing questions about county job applicants’ criminal history at the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis in Ferguson on June 11. Stenger faces fellow Democrat Mark Mantovani in the Aug. 7 primary.

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

EXECUTIVE • FROM A1

AAA bond rating.

Stenger, 46, insists that St. Louis County government is “fully functional” and “providing all the basic services that government provides.” He says he is a better choice than his challenger in the Democratic primary, Ladue businessman Mark Mantovani, 64.

But people who are watching see a government gripped by dysfunction, and a county executive constantly engaged in struggle.

The council passes an ordinance, Stenger vetoes it. The council overrides a veto, Stenger claims the ordinance can’t be enforced anyway. The council cuts $31 million from Stenger’s spending plan, he transfers money out of the council’s account. The council asks Stenger to report on his meeting with the governor and Stenger sips water and leafs through papers for 30 seconds, ignoring them. BiState Development Agency recommends the county refinance a bond, Stenger doesn’t respond.

Mantovani attributes the toxic atmosphere in St. Louis County government to “malevolent” leadership. “If you … look at the way this government was set up, we’ve been lucky that this didn’t happen before. The charter really treats the county executive as a bit of a dictator, and the County Council has essentially existed as kind of a very mild advice and consent body. And I think we’ve been lucky because we’ve had a lot of benevolent people in the county executive’s office until now.”

Despite his accomplishments, could Stenger’s poor relationships with some officials become an election issue? Dave Robertson, chairman of the political science department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis,

PHOTO BY MICHAEL THOMAS

St. Louis County executive candidate Mark Mantovani (center) greets Melvin Erby, 22, at the opening of Mantovani’s North County campaign office on May 5. Mantovani, a retired businessman, will face incumbent Steve Stenger in the Aug. 7 Democratic primary.

Mark Mantovani, 64, Ladue Retired as CEO of Ansira in 2014 Political experience: None Says he will: “Provide more effective, ethical leadership … challenge the status quo, unite the community and guide the region to achieve its full potential.”

Steve Stenger, 46, Clayton St. Louis County executive since 2015; lawyer and accountant Political experience: County councilman, 2009-2015 Says he has: “Focused his first term on improving public safety and bringing new economic investment to all parts of St. Louis County.”

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES Paul Berry III, 40, Maryland Heights Owns a bail bond business and has hosted “Show Me Politics” on KDNL (Channel 30) Says he would: • Consider the constitutionality of any action or bill.

• Seek regular appointments with each member of the County Council.

• Address crime on MetroLink.

• Oppose any political merger between St. Louis and St. Louis County.

• Engage the Legislature to address St. Louis’ failing operations of St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

Daniel Sampson, 35, of south St. Louis County Former county employee who works as a solutions architect for Byrne Software Says he would: • Accept no donations nor actively campaign, and hopes that a lack of yard signs and flyers will be seen as a good indication of how he would safeguard taxpayer money • Make county government more focused on service • Focus on areas of the county that have become eyesores, with an eye toward technology and renewable energy

thinks it could be, although he said Stenger’s position is strong.

People in unions, which have endorsed Stenger across the board, will be motivated to come to the polls to defeat the “right to work” bill on the Aug. 7 ballot.

That will help Stenger, he said.

Mantovani will attract Democrats who don’t like Stenger, he said. And he might appeal to some Republican voters who want to take advantage of Missouri’s open primary format and vote against Stenger, he said.

But Republican voters may feel a stronger pull toward the GOP ballot to support U.S. Senate candidate Josh Hawley, who is facing Austin Petersen for the right to challenge Democrat Claire McCaskill in November.

That leaves the people in the middle.

“The rancor and conflict between members of (the) County Council and (the) executive continue to raise questions among the more independent-minded voters … about the ethics and the activities of Steve Stenger,” Robertson said. “The question is those swing voters. Are they influenced by this? They might be, and you see those questions being raised by the Mantovani campaign. The question is if there are enough of them to make a difference.”

Stenger said he took some of the blame for the poor relationships in county government, and said he would try to do better.

But he said most of it was “inside baseball,” that the tension and strife in county government do not affect the lives of county residents. He said on most of his

quarrels with the council, he has been defending the county charter from attempts by the legislative branch to exceed its power.

For instance, he said, the charter does not allow the council to hire its own lawyers if it is not satisfied by the county’s legal staff.

“One branch of government, including me, is unable by our charter to ever take full control over the government and not have checks and balances that our charter founders wanted to see,” he said.

Mantovani, of Ladue, retired CEO and chairman of the marketing firm Ansira, has taken every opportunity to paint himself as a congenial collaborator who has worked with a board of directors. In a five-minute video addressed to county employees, Mantovani said county employees wanted him to save them from a nightmare boss. He shared a note he said was slipped to him by a county employee at a restaurant. It said, “Save us.”

Mantovani said it was “preposterous” that Stenger was opposing the council on its authority to hire a lawyer. “How can you be a legislative forum from a community of a million people and not have the ability to get your own lawyer?”

Mantovani’s campaign has largely targeted Stenger’s ethics. His ads frequently use PostDispatch headlines from stories exposing county real estate deals and contracts that have helped major Stenger donors. One of his more biting ads likens the Stenger campaign to a vending machine — money in, contract out.

Meanwhile, Stenger claims he is the only real Democrat in the race.

Mantovani supported the GOP in early stages of the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, giving $1,000 to Rudy Giuliani in 2007 and $1,000 to Jon Hunts-

man in 2011. He then gave $2,700 to Hillary Clinton in July 2016.

Stenger hopes Mantovani’s support in 2015-16 for disgraced former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens will turn off Democrats.

In September 2015 after announcing his candidacy for Missouri governor, Greitens released a pamphlet outlining some of his political positions: “defund Planned Parenthood,” “stand up to federal overreach,” “protect our religious liberties” and “sign right-to-work legislation.”

A week after that pamphlet, Mantovani sent an email to about 120 people inviting them to a party at his house in Ladue in October. It said, “We’d like to introduce as many of you as possible to our friend, Eric Greitens, who announced his candidacy for Missouri Governor on Saturday.”

All told, Mantovani and his wife gave Greitens more than $20,000.

Now Mantovani says he opposes right to work. Asked why he supported Greitens, he says he was looking at the whole candidate more closely than any specific issue. He said he thought Greitens would be more of a moderate after the election.

“My opinion of Greitens was that he had the potential to be a transformative leader, based on his resume and achievements,” he said. “Most attractive to me was his Rhodes scholarship and his humanitarian work … I obviously missed it, and I regret it.”

Republican voters will choose Aug. 7 between Paul Berry III and Daniel Sampson. The winners of the Democratic and Republican primaries will be joined on the November ballot by Libertarian candidate Nick Kasoff and Constitution Party candidate Andrew Ostrowski.

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

Smile, you may be on a livestream video – without your consent PRIVACY • FROM A1

passengers knowing, the Post-Dispatch reported last week. Home addresses, personal conversations, a glimpse up a woman’s skirt and complaints about family, friends and bosses were all exposed as an online audience watched and commented.

Passengers who complained to the ridehailing services were offered $5 or $10 credits. Only after the newspaper published the story did Uber and Lyft deactivate Gargac as a driver.

“People don’t like the idea that they could be livestreamed to the world the moment they walk out their front door,” said Chip Stewart, a professor at Texas Christian University who has published research on the privacy implications of livestreaming.

“Livestreaming means we are potentially always on. And if that’s the case there’s very little privacy anymore.”

The format encourages users to set up hours-long streams that are closer to surveillance than traditional video clips — and with a real-time audience. Live video also means even the person recording can’t control what is posted.

And it’s big business. Companies such as Google, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook have all invested in livestreaming. Videos on the most popular live tool, Facebook Live, have been watched by 2 billion people, Endgadget reported in April.

But the rise of live video has highlighted its unpredictable nature. Users have livestreamed murders, suicides and sexual encounters.

There are also less extreme issues.

“When Facebook Live launched, people were encouraged to make every moment of their lives a performance,” said privacy expert Mary Anne Franks, a professor at University of Miami School of Law. “But there was not a consideration for the people around you, whether they consent to being made into a spectacle for an audience. It’s an inherent problem with livestreaming.”

So what options are available to maintain privacy now that anyone can go live

Jason Gargac, of Florissant, is shown in a screen capture from Twitch livestreaming passengers in his vehicle. The PostDispatch covered passengers’ faces with black boxes.

He has since been deactivated as an Uber and Lyft driver.

at any time?

LEGAL OBSTACLES For many people whose privacy is violated through a livestream, the law may not offer much recourse.

Lawsuits require time and money, and they further expose the people who have been violated.

“There’s a paradox of privacy litigation,” Franks said. “If you are suing for something you want to keep private, then it automatically becomes less private.”

Even if someone gets past the financial and emotional burdens, privacy suits are difficult to win because the law has struggled to adapt to modern technology, several legal and media experts said.

“There is established law that says: Acts done in public are automatically open to public scrutiny,” Stewart said. “But those laws were established before an act done on the street or in a restaurant could easily be streamed around the world in realtime by an average person. The law hasn’t adapted to that.”

There has not been a major livestreaming test case, said Stewart.

Laws that do exist don’t offer the protection some people think. For example, laws prohibit using a person’s likeness for commercial gain, but that protection has mostly been applied to celebrities used in commercials and rarely protects average people.

Perhaps surprisingly, people can’t sue websites that host the live videos.

A landmark piece of internet legislation signed into law in 1996, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, created a broad shield for websites against being sued for content that their users post.

The law ensures freedom and growth of the internet, but it also gives websites less incentive to police privacy violations, experts said. Some of Section 230 protections have been eroded by a recently enacted law designed to curtail online sex trafficking, critics of the law say.

All of the major livestreaming tools — Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Twitch and Periscope — have policies that forbid invasion of privacy, but the companies struggle to enforce them, said Don Heider, a specialist in digital ethics with Loyola University of Chicago.

“None of these social media companies can monitor everything that goes up, but you have to see how they respond to complaints,” Heider said. “They need to respond in real time, but there have been cases that have taken a day or two for livestreams of crimes to be taken down even when hundreds of thousands of complaints have poured in.”

Heider suggests that livestreaming websites could create tools to protect privacy, such as adding a time delay to allow users more control over what they stream, or educating users about privacy consid-

erations when they decide to go live.

CHANGES IN LAW There could be legislative solutions to this type of invasion of privacy, but such measures would face opposition, said Franks, of the University of Miami.

One option in Missouri, for example, could be making it a two-party consent state, requiring consent from all parties involved in a conversation to record it, Franks said. Neighboring Illinois already is a two-party consent state.

“The problem with that is every protective law we have can have a chilling effect,” Franks said. “One-party consent laws have been behind some of the most important exposures of wrongdoing by journalists, so any legislation would need to be crafted carefully to make exceptions for information that is in the public interest.”

Any privacy legislation would face resistance from civil liberties groups that say those limit freedom of speech, Franks said.

Franks has advocated for privacy laws banning “revenge porn.” Missouri adopted such a law in May, making the publication of nude photos of someone without their permission a felony.

Shutting down invasions of privacy today may lie more in the court of public opinion.

In Gargac’s case, the outrage in response to publicity caused the businesses he was operating through to shut him down.

“As platforms and companies face more pressure, they’ll start considering ethics more and will be pushed to respond,” Heider said.

And Heider believes that livestreamers may become more ethically aware, in light of stories like Gargac’s.

“Like any technology, livestreaming can be used for good or evil, but I think a lot of people haven’t thought through the ethics of what they’re doing yet,” Heider said.

“As more stories like this come out, maybe that will change.”

Erin Heffernan • 314-340-8145 @erinheff on Twitter eheffernan@post-dispatch.com

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‘BIG AND VICIOUS’

Florence closes in on the Carolinas

BY JONATHAN DREW Associated Press

WILMINGTON, N.C. • Motor-

ists streamed inland on highways converted to one-way evacuation routes Tuesday as about 1.7 million people in three states were warned to get out of the way of Hurricane Florence, a hair-raising storm taking dead aim at the Carolinas with 140 mph winds and potentially ruinous rains.

Florence was expected to blow ashore late Thursday or early

GOES EAST SATELLITE IMAGE PROVIDED BY NOAA

ARENA’S NEW LOOK

See FLORENCE • Page A7

Taxi panel prohibits livestreaming passengers Uber and Lyft don’t fall under the rules

BY ERIN HEFFERNAN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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

The new Enterprise Center sign is installed Tuesday on what used to be the Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis.

A building makeover is still in progress, but officials said everything will be completed by the start of Blues hockey season next month. Training camp starts Friday at the Ice Zone in Hazelwood. The Blues open the season at home Oct. 4 against Winnipeg.

Senate candidates silent on release of their tax returns

Trump leads nation in solemn remembrance

BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press

SHANKSVILLE, PA. • Standing in

JEFFERSON CITY • With less than

two months to go in the 2018 race for a pivotal U.S. Senate seat, the two major party candidates refuse to say whether they will release their tax returns.

Despite a half-dozen separate requests from the Post-Dispatch, neither Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill nor Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley has responded to a request for

See CANDIDATES • Page A4

BY NASSIM BENCHAABANE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

MAPLEWOOD • Officials here will no

longer evict residents for making calls to 911 or define domestic violence reports as nuisances after the City Council voted Tuesday night to approve a $137,000 settlement with the ACLU and a woman who said she was evicted after she was the victim of domestic violence.

The ACLU of Missouri sued the city See VICTIMS • Page A4

See TAXIS • Page A4

ANNIVERSARY OF SEPT. 11 TERRORIST ATTACKS

BY KURT ERICKSON St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Evicting domestic violence victims is out in Maplewood

ST. LOUIS • The controversy over a driver for ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft who livestreamed video of hundreds of St. Louis-area customers to the internet without their knowledge has prompted the St. Louis Metropolitan Taxicab Commission to ban taxi drivers from livestreaming passengers.

The action does not affect Uber or Lyft drivers, whom it does not regulate.

The Post-Dispatch first reported in July that Jason Gargac, 33, of Florissant, had streamed video of his Uber and Lyft rides for months on the website Twitch. The livestreams disclosed customers’ addresses, conversations and embarrassing personal details, and exposed them to ridicule and sexual comments from online viewers watching live.

After the story published, Gargac’s

ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, escorted by Stephen Clark, superintendent of national parks for western Pennsylvania, walk along the September 11th Flight 93 memorial on Tuesday in Shanksville, Pa.

Sodomy conviction overturned in Principia case • A4 Sporlan Valve plant could be added to Superfund sites • A5 Ethiopian food offers a complex melange of flavors • LET’S EAT

the field where the last of the Sept.

11 planes crashed, President Donald Trump praised the “band of brave patriots” who helped bring down the jetliner and saved the lives of countless others in the nation’s capital.

Trump paid his respects Tuesday at a rural Pennsylvania field where the fourth airplane hijacked that day crashed after its 40 passengers and crew learned about attacks in New York and Washington and tried to storm the cockpit.

Terrorists at the controls of Flight 93 planned to fly it into the U.S. Capitol, Trump said. But through the bravery and sacrifice of passengers and crew, he said, “the Forty” spared Washington

See ANNIVERSARY • Page A6

Batten down

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Sodomy conviction overturned in Principia case

BY JOEL CURRIER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

CLAYTON • The state’s highest court

Tuesday reversed a 2016 sodomy conviction of a former Principia School football player over mistakes by a prosecutor and judge, sending the man’s case back to St. Louis County Circuit Court for retrial.

The Missouri Supreme Court’s 5-2 ruling Tuesday cited a St. Louis County Holmsley judge’s failure to tell jurors to disregard a prosecutor’s “improper” statement in a closing argument about the definition of deviate sexual intercourse, an element of the offense of firstdegree sodomy.

Jurors in June 2016 found Maverick Holmsley, now 22, guilty of that crime,

which carried a minimum five-year prison term and the requirement to register as a sex offender.

Holmsley was among five Principia School football players who took part in overnight dorm room raids during a summer sports camp in August 2014.

The players pulled sleeping teammates from their beds, held them down and pushed objects into their anuses through their boxers or shorts.

Prosecutors called the incident a string of deviate sexual assaults meant to terrorize younger students at Principia School, a private Christian Science school in Town and Country. Defense lawyers described it as dorm-room shenanigans among teenagers at a high school summer sports camp.

The four other former Principia students charged in the case reached plea deals for short stints behind bars and

Taxi commission bans livestreaming passengers TAXIS • FROM A1

livestream channel disappeared from Twitch. Uber and Lyft both removed him as a driver, saying he violated policies banning disrespectful behavior and using customer’s information for personal gain.

But neither company currently has specific policies banning livestreaming or saying how recordings drivers take of passengers can be used, deferring to local regulations.

An Uber spokesman told the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday that the company has been evaluating its policy since the exposure of the livestreaming

by Gargac in St. Louis, and it hopes to have an update soon.

A Lyft spokesperson said the company’s policies have not changed.

Local taxicab regulators made their rules clear Tuesday.

“Live Streaming is strictly prohibited with or without patron consent,” a rule instituted by commission executive director Ronald Klein states. The commission has the option to overrule a director’s rule, but it is expected to keep the new policy in place.

Drivers who break the rule would be required to forfeit their taxi driver’s permit and could not reapply for five years.

The commission already had rules in place requiring visible signage notifying customers if the taxi has video or audio recording devices.

“We’ve never had any livestreaming in taxis, but we wanted to get in front of it,” Klein said. “Some recording is necessary for insurance or

security, but there’s really no reason to livestream, and it’s dangerous.”

Klein said the commission hopes to address privacy concerns raised by Gargac’s actions.

“What that Uber driver did was scary stuff,” Klein said.

“We wanted to clarify our rules for the benefit of the cabdrivers and the benefit of the public.”

The commission lost a three-year legislative battle in April 2017 to extend its regulatory authority to app-based ride services.

The Missouri Legislature exempted companies like Uber and Lyft from local regulations, instead setting out statewide rules for the companies. The legislation requires Uber and Lyft drivers to undergo background checks and vehicle inspections and limits who can be a driver based on their driving record, among other rules.

The state law does not regulate whether or how Uber and Lyft drivers can record passengers.

Gargac’s livestream also illustrated the gray areas of the law.

Missouri requires only one party in a conversation to consent to a recording, though Gargac also drove into Illinois, where all parties must legally give their consent.

Gargac could be open to civil litigation from passengers who sue for violation of their privacy rights.

Erin Heffernan • 314-340-8145 @erinheff on Twitter eheffernan@post-dispatch.com

Missouri’s U.S. Senate candidates silent on taxes CANDIDATES • FROM A1

personal tax returns.

While Hawley’s campaign office has asked if McCaskill is releasing her tax returns, McCaskill’s campaign team has been mum on the requests.

That comes after a 2016 survey found that a majority of respondents favor statewide politicians releasing their returns. The Post-Dispatch poll was conducted after former Gov. Eric Greitens decided he would not release his tax information during his successful 2016 run against Democrat Chris Koster.

Koster released his during the hard-fought race and then hammered Greitens on the issue, arguing it showed the former Navy SEAL, author and head of a charity that helps veterans was secretive.

The issue of transparency in Greitens’ personal and political dealings would dog the first-time officeholder until he resigned under the cloud of scandal on June 1.

The poll of 625 registered likely voters by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research found that 68 percent believed candidates should be required to release their returns. By contrast, 21 percent said they should not, with 11 percent not sure, the survey found.

University of Missouri-St. Louis political scientist Dave Robertson said voters are interested in tax returns to help them vet their candidates.

“I think people would like to know whether or not a candidate has received money from controversial sources, made controversial expenditures or accepted controversial tax

breaks,” Robertson said.

There are no state or national requirements for people seeking office to release their tax returns. But it has become commonplace in presidential campaigns, except for Republican Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign for president.

Robertson said Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns may have “legitimized” the practice.

“I think you’re seeing the spread of this,” Robertson said.

Yet, in August, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., posted 10 years of her tax returns online.

An ethics package Warren is pushing would require the IRS to release tax returns for congressional candidates from the previous two years and during each year in office.

McCaskill is listed by Roll Call as the 24th wealthiest member of Congress, with an estimated net worth of almost $27 million — and the wealthiest member who faces a tough campaign fight this fall.

But much of that wealth stems from her husband, housing developer Joseph Shepard, whom she married in 2002.

McCaskill and Shepard file their taxes separately.

Hawley makes $116,000 per year as attorney general. Financial disclosure forms filed with the Senate list him and his wife, Erin Hawley, as having a minimum of about $520,000 in assets. Erin Hawley, also an attorney, also earned more $3,000 in 2017 for three speeches.

Kurt Erickson • 573-556-6181 @KurtEricksonPD on Twitter kerickson@post-dispatch.com

avoided joining Missouri’s sex offender registry.

Tuesday’s majority opinion says the prosecutor, Melissa Price Smith, may have confused jurors in the legal definition of sodomy she provided them. Further, the opinion said, even though the circuit judge, Kristine Kerr, correctly sustained Holmsley’s objection to the prosecutor’s statement, the judge erred by not telling jurors to disregard the prosecutor’s comments.

“The trial court abused its discretion by failing to correct the state’s improper argument regarding the definition of deviate sexual intercourse,” Missouri Supreme Court Judge Patricia Breckenridge wrote.

At Holmsley’s trial, one of the jurors who wrestled with finding Holmsley guilty tried to walk out of deliberations — which could have triggered a mistrial

— calling the system “rigged” toward a conviction. She said she believed the raids amounted to a prank, not a sex act.

Holmsley’s appeal argued that the juror’s conduct should trigger a new trial, but the Supreme Court’s opinion did not address that question.

Holmsley’s defense lawyers said they were pleased with the court’s ruling. A spokesman for St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch declined to comment.

A dissenting opinion written by Supreme Court Judge W. Brent Powell said in the state’s rebuttal argument the prosecutor “was merely trying to explain that ... the charged offenses had nothing to do with sexual gratification but instead were done to terrorize.”

Joel Currier • 314-340-8256 @joelcurrier on Twitter jcurrier@post-dispatch.com

MARCH TO ARCH HONORS LIVES LOST

DAVID CARSON

•

dcarson@post-dispatch.com

Bo Dochelman (right), organizer of the 17th annual March to the Arch 9/11 memorial walk, leads about 100 other people down Clayton Road in Town and Country on Tuesday. The marchers began a little after 9:11 a.m. and had a police and firetruck escort down Clayton Road. The march covered 21 miles.

City settled suit brought on by ordinance for $137,000 VICTIMS • FROM A1

last year over a 2006 ordinance the civil rights group said unfairly targeted victims of violence and people with mental illness.

Under the rule, more than two calls to police within 180 days for an incident of “peace disturbance or domestic violence” could trigger a revocation of the homeowner’s or renter’s occupancy permit for up to six months and bar them from applying for another occupancy permit from the city during that time.

In a unanimous vote, the council approved the settlement reached by the two parties in July. The settlement also stipulated changes to the ordinance. Those changes got initial approval and a final vote could be taken as early as the next council meeting Sept 25.

The revised ordinance, which could take effect Oct. 10, eliminates language that allows officials to fine or evict people who were victims of crimes. It also bars officials from counting domestic violence incidents as nuisances.

The portions of the ordinance that would be taken out cannot be reinstated for five years, under the settlement agreement, City Manager Marty Corcoran said. Any additional changes introduced within that time period would have to be provided to the ACLU, he said.

During discussion of the revised ordinance, Mayor Barry Greenberg asked city staff for clarification on how it would define an “incident” and for how officials would determine whether a person was a victim of a crime.

He said after the meeting that he asked the questions to make sure there were no ambiguities.

“No enforcement action or abatement will be ordered against an individual who was a victim in

nance against Watson based on the four police calls, the suit said.

After a hearing, Watson’s occupancy permit was revoked May 30, 2012.

Neither Watson nor officials with the ACLU could be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Corcoran said he believed the city would have won the suit but decided to settle because it would cost less than going to trial.

Corcoran said he was happy with the resolution.

“It puts this lawsuit behind us and still gives us tools to make our city safe, clean,” Corcoran said.

At least 69 municipalities across the St. Louis region have some type of nuisance ordinance. Some are enforced as fines against landlords, while others, such as Maplewood’s, target the occupancy permit holder.

Maplewood’s ordinance was considered one of the strictest in the U.S. because it specifically defined domestic violence as a nuisance call, the ACLU said.

A review by the St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council of more than 50 cases since the city enforced the rule in 2010 found that more than 20 percent of the evictions were against victims of domestic violence. African-Americans and people with mental health problems were disproportionately represented in the enforcement actions.

The nonprofit also sued Maplewood last year over the nuisance ordinance, calling it “one of the country’s most onerous.” The suit was dismissed on a legal technicality, a staff attorney for the nonprofit said in July.

Officials have denied that the city took any nuisance violation actions based on race, religion, age or gender.

whole or in part of the incidents that formed the basis of the nuisance enforcement action,” according to the new ordinance.

“No occupancy permit revocation or other abatement measure against an individual will be predicated upon the fact such an individual called for police or emergency services.”

The revised ordinance removes a stipulation that allowed officials to consider the number of times public safety officers were dispatched to the property in determining what makes a nuisance.

But Corcoran said the ordinance never allowed for the number of times a resident called 911 to be a consideration.

“That was never a factor in the old ordinance or the new ordinance,” he said.

Before officials will be allowed to enforce fines or eviction, they will have to first assess whether the person was a victim of a crime. Notices of upcoming nuisance hearings will be required to include notice that crime victims cannot be fined or evicted.

The new ordinance also cuts in half, to 90 days, the window of time during which more than two violations of state or local laws can be grounds for eviction or fines.

The city can still revoke and deny occupancy permits for up to six months.

Rosetta Watson, the woman named in the ACLU suit, first rented a home in the city in June 2010 with her rent subsidized by a Section 8 voucher, according to the lawsuit.

She was repeatedly attacked by an ex-boyfriend while living there, the suit says. From September 2011 to February 2012, Maplewood police went to Watson’s home four times for domestic violence calls. Maplewood then enforced the nuisance ordi-

Nassim Benchaabane • 314-340-8167 @NassimBnchabane on Twitter nbenchaabane@post-dispatch.com

of Aldermen voted Tuesday night to pre-emptively end a contract with the North County Police Cooperative and approve a contract with the St. Ann Police Department.

City officials said they were concerned that their city of about 1,300 may not have been receiving 24-hour service from the co-op.

The three-year contract with the co-op was set to end on Oct. 15, Mayor Mark Chamberlain said, but said city officials now hope to get St. Ann patrols started immediately.

City Attorney Edward Sluys said the city was facing “very serious safety issues” under the contract

with the North County Police Cooperative.

“We need adequate police protection,” Chamberlain said Tuesday evening. “There’s supposed to be a (patrol) car highly visible out here 24/7, and we don’t think that’s happening.”

The North County Police Cooperative, based in Vinita Park, has been patrolling Charlack, Wellston, Velda Village Hills, Pine Lawn, Beverly Hills, Uplands Park and Dellwood. Its chief, Tim Swope, was recently suspended, and public officials have been reticent to discuss why.

DIGEST ‌ DES PERES > Property tax again set at zero • For the 24th consecutive year, Des Peres annual tax levy for real and personal property has been set at zero.

The assessed value of real property increased by 1.27 percent over the prior year, officials said at the Board of Aldermen meeting Monday night The city’s main source of income is sales tax revenue, which represents about 60 percent of revenue.

CHARLACK > City switches police contract • The Charlack Board

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‘A HORRIFIC SCENE’ FORMER MARINE KILLS 12 IN CALIFORNIA BAR SHOOTING • Gunman apparently took his own life • Handgun used in attack purchased legally • Deadliest U.S. mass shooting since Parkland

BY KRYSTA FAURIA AND JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press

THOUSAND OAKS, CALIF. •

ASSOCIATED PRESS

People comfort each other as they stand near the scene Thursday in Thousand Oaks, Calif., where a gunman opened fire late Wednesday inside a country dance bar crowded with people on “college night.”

Terrified patrons hurled barstools through windows to escape or threw their bodies protectively on top of friends as a Marine combat veteran killed 12 people at a country music bar in an attack that added Thousand Oaks to the tragic roster of American cities traumatized by mass shootings.

Dressed all in black with his hood pulled up, the gunman apparently took his own life as scores of police converged on the Borderline Bar and Grill in Southern California.

The motive for the rampage late Wednesday was under investigation.

The killer, Ian David Long, 28, was a former machine gunner and

Afghanistan war veteran who was interviewed by police at his home in the spring after an episode of agitated behavior that authorities were told might be post-traumatic stress disorder.

Opening fire with a handgun with an illegal, extra-capacity magazine, Long shot a security guard outside the bar and then went in and took aim at employees and customers, authorities said. He also used a smoke bomb, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The dead included a man who had survived last year’s massacre in Las Vegas, a veteran sheriff’s deputy who rushed in to confront the gunman, a 22-year-old man who planned to join the Army, a freshman at nearby Pepperdine See SHOOTING • Page A7

Duck boat captain is indicted on 17 federal counts

BLAZE OF AUTUMN

BY ROBERT PATRICK St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Kenneth Scott McKee, the captain of the duck boat that sank in Table Rock Lake in July — killing 17 — with 17 counts of misconduct, negligence, or inattention to duty by a ship’s officer.

The indictment accuses McKee, 51, of Verona, Mo., of a series of failures that “contributed to and caused the destruction of” the lives of those on board on July 19, during a severe storm with wind speeds more than double the maximums for safe operation of the boat.

Killed in the accident were a family of nine from Indianapolis and others from Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas, including 69-yearold Bill Asher and his girlfriend,

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

Brilliant fall colors have painted the St. Louis area this season. Canada geese fly low across Simpson Lake in Valley Park on Oct. 27. Between the wind and rain — and now some snow — the foliage is falling fast in St. Louis, but Post-Dispatch photographers captured the colors while they could. More photos • Page A6

Trump administration tightens asylum rules ahead of caravans

BY NICK MIROFF Washington Post

WASHINGTON • President Donald

Trump’s administration introduced new measures Thursday to deny asylum to migrants who enter the country illegally, invoking national security powers to curb long-standing humanitarian protections for foreigners arriving on American soil.

TODAY

Fall’s fleeting

41°/20°

The restrictions will invoke authority used by Trump to implement his “travel ban” in early 2017, according to senior administration officials who outlined them, and apply indefinitely.

The measures are expected to face swift legal challenges. Immigrant advocacy groups insist that U.S. laws clearly extend asylum protections to anyone See ASYLUM • Page A11

‘Graphic Revolution’

CLOUDY, FLURRIES

See BOAT • Page A4

Uber bars drivers with dashcams from broadcasting recordings the men recorded without their consent were professional athletes, hockey players for the Ottawa Senators.

A dashcam video of the players badmouthing their coaching staff during the ride quickly spread online this week. And though it happened some 1,400 miles from St. Louis, the story highlights what Uber has changed after a similar story

BY ERIN HEFFERNAN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • A group of men piled into an Uber SUV late last month. They started complaining about work and their bosses. They had no idea a camera was rolling, and didn’t realize their candid conversations would soon be posted online.

This time it happened in Phoenix, and

Diocese names 33 in abuse inquiry

See UBER • Page A4

• A2

Tale of 2 Trumps and Missouri’s vote

• A10

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Justice Ginsburg in hospital after fall

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Captain of duck boat on which 17 died is accused of misconduct, negligence BOAT • FROM A1

Rose Hamann, 68, both of the Affton area. The ages of those killed ranged from 1 to 76.

The indictment Thursday says McKee failed to “properly assess” a severe storm both as it was approaching and when it arrived, entered the lake despite the storm, and failed to turn for the nearest shore when the storm hit. It also claims that he “caused or allowed” the boat’s side curtains to be lowered.

Those curtains protect passengers from rain and wind but have been blamed for hampering an escape if the boat sinks.

The indictment says McKee failed to raise the curtains and tell passengers to don life vests during the storm and when the boat’s bilge alarm sounded twice. He also failed to prepare to abandon ship both times the bilge alarm sounded and when there was “an unacceptable loss of freeboard on the vessel,” the indictment says.

Freeboard is the distance from the water to the top of the deck, and decreases as a boat takes on water.

McKee’s lawyer, J.R. Hobbs, wrote in an email that McKee would surrender himself and plead not guilty. Hobbs declined to comment on the allegations against McKee. U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison said in a news conference that the charge is sometimes known as seaman’s manslaughter. He said both the wind speeds and wave heights exceeded those for which the boat was rated. Court documents say that maximum wind speed was 35 mph and maximum wave height was two feet.

Garrison said that McKee’s failures “individually or cumulatively” contributed to the deaths.

“Our entire community was shocked and saddened by the loss of 17 lives in this tragic event last summer,” Garrison said in a statement announcing the indictment.

Garrison said he was unable to discuss the status of the investigation, other than it was ongoing, and warned reporters that he wouldn’t comment on the potential for charges against “any other person or entity.”

“This indictment represents the beginning, not the end of our efforts in this matter. We’re strongly committed to bringing this investigation to a conclusion as quickly as we can without sacrificing or compromising the integrity of this investigation. We owe that to the victims and the surviving family members of this tragedy,” and to the public, he continued.

He said that prosecutors were in “constant communication” with the families of the victims.

broke in the Post-Dispatch this summer.

In July, the paper reported that Jason Gargac, a driver with ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft, streamed some 700 of his rides live online without his passengers’ consent.

Gargac exposed addresses, names and personal conversations about his customers’ bosses, spouses and children, all while an online audience watched on the website Twitch and commented in real time. Some viewers focused their comments on female riders and their bodies, and sometimes Gargac joined in.

After Gargac was exposed, an Uber spokesman told the Post-Dispatch that the company would examine its policies, which at the time did not specifically ban the practice. On Wednesday, a spokesman said the company has changed its official guidelines for drivers recording passengers.

An earlier policy stated only that drivers could record rides for safety, but should follow local privacy laws. The new guideline adds: “Broadcasting a person’s image, audio or video recording is a violation of (Uber’s) terms and may result in loss of account access.”

The company also added that drivers are not allowed to use customers’ personal data for any reason other than transportation, and that disrespectful or unsafe conduct can result in revocation of their access. The new policy went into effect at the end of September, a spokesman said.

The policy does not prevent drivers from continuing to use cameras for security purposes.

JEFFERSON CITY • The senator who champi-

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

The duck boat on which 17 died is brought to the surface of the water on July 23 at Table Rock Lake in Branson, Mo., next to the Showboat Branson Belle.

In a statement on behalf of her siblings, Asher’s daughter Jennifer Asher wrote that her family was relieved to learn of the indictment.

“While it is tough to be reminded of the tragic ordeal, my brother, sister and I believe the government is taking its responsibility seriously to protect the public from these dangerous boats. My family does not want anyone to experience this sort of tragedy ever again. We believe there is more than one person responsible for the reckless decision to put the boat on the water that day.

We believe the ongoing investigation is moving in the right direction and appreciate the government’s effort in seeking justice for our dad.”

The seaman’s manslaughter charge says it also can be used against a boat’s owners and executive officers of a corporation if the corporation owns the boat. But Gregory F. Linsin, a Washington lawyer with experience in marine casualty investigations, said in an email that “would require the government to prove that he was at the time of the casualty responsible for the operation of the vessel and that he knowingly and willfully caused the misconduct that resulted in the death. This is a high intent standard which would require the government to prove that the executive officer acted knowingly and intentionally, with a specific intent to violate the law.”

Perhaps the statute’s best known recent use was after a fatal 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash that killed 11 and injured dozens. The pilot who fell asleep before the crash was sentenced in 2006 to 18 months in federal prison on 11 counts of seaman’s manslaughter. The ferry’s director of operations received 366 days in prison on one seaman’s

manslaughter count and one count of making false statements to the Coast Guard after admitting that he failed to enforce a rule that required two pilots in the wheelhouse when underway.

The Stretch Duck 7 case was referred to federal prosecutors by the U.S. Coast Guard in August.

Also in August, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley sued boat owner Branson Duck Vehicles and Ripley Entertainment, which owned the Ride the Ducks attraction. The suit claims the boat was lacking foam or airtight compartments that could have kept it afloat and a bilge pump of sufficient strength.

The suit also claims employees were aware of a severe thunderstorm warning, with potential 60 mph winds, and told McKee to skip the land portion of the duck boat tour so ticket holders couldn’t get a refund.

Hawley’s suit says wind speeds reached 73 mph during the storm.

In a court filing, company lawyers rejected Hawley’s claims, calling them “littered with factual inaccuracies and innuendo.”

The accident also sparked lawsuits in state and federal court.

Among the claims in the suits are that the owners and operators ignored the inherent danger of an amphibious vehicle, disregarded the safety of passengers, failed to train employees on safety procedures and failed to warn its passengers of the danger.

The companies named in the suits and their lawyers have declined to comment on past suits. The lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Robert Patrick • 314-621-5154 @rxpatrick on Twitter RPatrick@post-dispatch.com

“Driver partners are responsible for complying with the law when providing trips, including privacy laws,” an Uber spokesman wrote in an initial statement. “Recording passengers without their consent is illegal in some states, but not Missouri.”

The company ignored follow-up questions over the course of that week.

It wasn’t until the day after the story was published online that the company removed Gargac and condemned his actions as a violation of company policies. Uber did not ban livestreaming or recording of passengers without their consent at that time. Instead, the company cited a part of its policies that prohibits inappropriate or disrespectful behavior by drivers, including comments on appearance or sexual remarks.

The reaction to the video of the hockey players in Arizona stands in contrast. Shortly after the video began to circulate, Rob Khazzam, general manager of Uber Canada, posted a message to Twitter saying that the recording was a clear violation of Uber’s policies.

“Filming or recording passengers without their consent is totally unacceptable and if reported/detected we will investigate and take action to preserve our communities privacy and integrity,” Khazzam posted. “In this specific case, we made efforts to have the video taken down.”

An Uber spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the driver in the Phoenix recording has been removed from Uber.

An Uber spokesman said the company did not send alerts to all drivers about the change to the policy, but posted the change to the driver guidelines online.

This week, the controversy over the hockey players’ ride put Uber’s new rules to the test.

The video, which appears to have been taken by a driver using a dashcam, was posted online on both YouTube and Twitter, according to media reports. The original video has been removed, but it was copied and widely reposted by social media users and some media outlets.

The footage from Oct. 29 quickly gained attention in sports and Canadian media for the players’ comments, including center Matt Duchene griping about team meetings.

“We don’t change anything, ever,” he said. “So why do we even have a meeting? I haven’t paid attention in three weeks.”

The players released a statement after the video began to spread online, and apologized to their coach.

“Our private conversation was recorded without our knowledge or consent,” the statement said.

Uber’s public response to the recording stands in contrast to how the company initially handled Gargac’s livestreams around St. Louis.

Customers who learned they were being recorded had complained to the company. Some got $5 credits, but Gargac continued to work for Uber. When the Post-Dispatch first contacted Uber with questions about Gargac’s actions, the company released a prepared response simply noting the recording appeared to be legal in Missouri.

Erin Heffernan • 314-340-8145 @erinheff on Twitter eheffernan@post-dispatch.com

The Humane Society was contacted by the Harrison County sheriff’s office and visited the property early this week, finding 11 horses dead and in various stages of decay, the group said.

Live but malnourished animals were in paddocks and pastures barren of vegetation, sometimes alongside dead animals.

One living horse was in such poor condition that it was euthanized.

The owner surrendered 16 horses in the worst condition to the Missouri Humane Society. She kept three others, agreeing to provide them adequate food and care. It was not immediately clear whether she would face criminal charges.

The horses taken by the Humane Society of Missouri will likely require lengthy rehabilitation before being made available for adoption, the group said.

DIGEST ST. LOUIS > Malnourished horses rescued • The Humane Society of Missouri said it rescued 16 malnourished horses Thursday from a property in the northern part of the state, where 11 dead and decaying horses were also found.

The rescued horses, ranging in age from foals to 12 years old, will be brought to the animal welfare group’s Longmeadow Rescue Ranch, about 50 miles west of St. Louis in Franklin County.

GOP selects next leader of Missouri Senate‌

BY KURT ERICKSON St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Uber bars drivers from broadcasting recordings, months after St. Louis driver was exposed UBER • FROM A1

M 1 • Friday • 11.09.2018

oned Tuesday’s failed effort to raise Missouri’s gasoline tax is poised become the top-ranking officer in the state Senate in January.

Sen. Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, emerged Thursday as the Republican choice to replace Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, R-Joplin, who is term limited.

Schatz, 54, a businessman, will be formally named to the post in January when the new Legislature is sworn in.

Schatz was first elected to the House in 2010.

He moved to the Senate in 2014 and was reelected in Tuesday’s balloting with 64 percent of the vote over Democrat John Kiehne.

During the spring legislative session, Schatz sponsored the legislation that put the gasoline tax increase on the ballot. The proposal, which failed, would have phased in a 10-cent increase in the state’s 17-cent per gallon fuel tax to help finance road construction and bridge improvements.

As the leader of the Senate, Schatz said he hopes to work with Gov. Mike Parson on his agenda of workforce development and infrastructure improvement.

The failure of the gas tax, he said, presents a problem for the latter.

“We’re going to have to address that,” Schatz said.

He also said he anticipates no significant changes in the procedures used in the Senate, which encourage debate and negotiation.

“We want to make sure we maintain the traditions of the Senate,” Schatz said. “We hope to have great working relationships with both sides of the aisle.”

Others vying for the top post included Republican Sens. Bob Onder of Lake Saint Louis, Ed Emery of Lamar and Mike Cunningham of Rogersville.

Schatz said it took three ballots to pick a winner.

After Tuesday’s election, the partisan makeup of the Senate and the House remained unchanged, with Republicans holding a 24-10 advantage in the Senate and a 116-47 majority in the House.

Sen. Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, was named to the No. 2 post in the Senate. Rowden, who is in his first term as senator after serving in the House, will take over as Senate majority floor leader replacing Mike Kehoe, who left to become lieutenant governor. Kehoe also was term-limited.

Republicans in the House earlier nominated their leadership team, which includes Speaker Elijah Haahr of Springfield and Majority Floor Leader Rob Vescovo of Arnold.

Rep. John Wiemann of O’Fallon succeeds Haahr in the position of House speaker pro tem.

Wiemann, an insurance broker, is in his third term in the House.

Kurt Erickson • 573-556-6181 @KurtEricksonPD on Twitter kerickson@post-dispatch.com

3rd man sentenced in murder of cabdriver

BY JOEL CURRIER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • The last of three defendants

charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a cabdriver during a robbery in the Central West End was sentenced Thursday to prison.

Shakur Ellis, 20, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for seconddegree murder, first-degree robbery and armed criminal action

by St. Louis Circuit Judge David Dowd. The judge accepted a plea Ellis deal in August between the state and defense in the Sept. 14, 2016, shooting death of cabdriver Timothy Grice.

A co-defendant, Jerry Reese, shot and killed Grice, 38, in his cab between 2 and 3 a.m. in the 4900 block of Laclede Avenue near Forest Park, according to court documents. His body was discovered in the taxi seven or eight hours later when someone reported to police that the vehicle had been parked there for a long time.

Prosecutors said Ellis cooperated with homicide detectives and agreed to testify against Reese, who was sentenced by Dowd on Wednesday to 25 years in prison. Reese, 21, pleaded guilty to five felonies, including second-degree murder and first-degree robbery.

Reese admitted pulling up behind Grice’s taxi, approaching the car and shooting the taxi driver in the neck before taking an iPhone and other items.

In May, the judge gave Savion Smith, 24, a 15-year prison term after a jury found him guilty of receiving stolen property in a related crime.

Grice’s father, Jim Grice, spoke at the sentencing hearings Wednesday and Thursday.

He praised police, prosecutors and a victim’s advocate for their work but criticized Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner for spending more than $115,000 on what he described as weak cases against former Gov. Eric Greitens instead of focusing on the gun violence problem in St. Louis.

He also mentioned the unrelated shooting of his son’s friend, Corey Hall, who was killed at Ballpark Village in April.

“I think there needs to be a stand when it comes to gun violence,” Jim Grice said.

On Thursday in court, Grice brought up Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards’ recent proposal to increase mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes. Gardner has expressed concerns about the proposal. She also has defended her decision to prosecute Greitens.

Joel Currier • 314-621-5804 @joelcurrier on Twitter jcurrier@post-dispatch.com