St. Louis News Blog

photo by Jennifer Silverberg

Former Kinloch police captain Everett James

​In January 2007, Kinloch police captain Everett James shot a suspect after a physical confrontation that left the veteran officer hospitalized with wounds to his face and head. Shortly after he was released from the hospital, the city of Kinloch sent him a bill for nearly $3,000, telling him he had to pay for the injuries he sustained in the line of duty out of his own pocket.

Like nearly two dozen other Kinloch public servants -- the city's six-man police force -- James was working without insurance or a workman's compensation program.

The captain stayed with the Kinloch police force until he was fired by the city's mayor, Keith Conway, in March of this year for organizing a short-lived strike by other officers in the department. In addition to complaints about the lack of insurance, workman's comp, and health benefits, the policemen were upset about unpaid wages and unsafe working conditions in the impoverished and crime-plagued city.

Yesterday, the attorney general's office filed misdemeanor charges on behalf of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations against Mayor Conway for violating the state statute requiring cities to provide insurance and workman's comp.

Milton "Skip" Ohlsen

​Clad in a beige jumpsuit stamped "Co. Jail", Milton "Skip" Ohlsen arrived in federal court this morning for sentencing on guilty pleas to being a felon in possession of firearms and mortgage fraud. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/webhostingreview/ / CC BY 2.0

​This just in from the Columbia Daily Tribune:

In an apparent nod to situational irony, 30-year-old David W. Riley left a convenience store in Columbia Monday night and tried to rob another man of his wallet. That man, however, happened to be an undercover police officer who was about to check up on the shop's liquor sales compliance.

Uh-oh!

The cop pulled out his gun and badge, but Riley apparently wasn't feeling too cooperative. Some other officers arrived and arrested him. He's since been charged with resisting arrest and second-degree robbery, according to the story in the Columbia newspaper.

Photo: Facebook via KSDK

Oh-oh here she comes... Christie Bradley

​This one is going to be hard for Christie Bradley to live down.

Authorities have charged the 39-year-old married mother from Waterloo, Illinois, with sexual coercion and enticement for allegedly propositioning a 13-year-old boy who's recently turned fourteen.

KSDK (Channel 5) broke the story yesterday. And, oh, what a tawdry tale it is.

According to the affidavit (viewable here), Bradley used Facebook and cell phone text messages to arrange meetings with the boy and tell him in explicit terms what she planned to do with him.

"I want to feel ur toung on mine..ur arms around me and feel u ---- me!" Bradley allegedly texted the teen on September 24.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y150/Saltlick/Sub3/Rams_Little.jpg

Leonard Little must have parked in East St. Louis before the game

​Parking around the Edward Jones Dome is a nightmare. The nearby lots all price gouge on game days, many places don't allow tailgating, traffic is a complete clusterf***, and after all that hassle fans get the pleasure of seeing the worst team in football get their helmets handed to them by the opponent du jour.

The obvious solution is to take Metrolink, which stops a mere three blocks from the Dome, but before last week's match-up against the Packers a half-dozen penny-pinching Rams fans got the bright idea to park in East St. Louis and then make their way across the river to the game.

Guess what happened next.

magickriver.blogspot.com

​Ever wonder how a family can be sure that the urn full of ashes they received from the mortuary is actually the remains of their loved one and not just something the funeral home director cleaned out of his fireplace? 

El-Amin

Authorities say Christopher Long gave new meaning to "medical release from prison."

​This isn't the biggest news story of the day, but it certainly put a grin on my face when I read about Christopher Long and his genius criminal scheme.

Yesterday the 29-year-old from Jefferson City (not to be confused with the St. Louis Rams defense end by the same name) was sentenced to nine months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $1,636.00 for admitting that he defrauded Medicaid.

But unlike the thousands of folks who bilk the public health care system each year, Long did it with real panache. How's that?

He billed Medicaid for money to bail himself out of jail!

bnd.com

Donald Aten

​Donald F. Aten of Belleville may have gotten away with the crime if he hadn't lost his cell phone, tried hitchhiking away from the scene with a stolen chainsaw and wasn't so gosh-darned drunk.

But, alas, it was not to be for poor Mr. Aten.

The Belleville News-Democrat reports today that sheriff deputies picked up Aten, 42, around 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning (Sept. 19) as he tried to hitchhike down Illinois 15 while carrying the stolen tree trimmer.

Minutes earlier, the deputies had responded to a call from a Belleville resident reporting "moaning sounds coming from the rear seat" of a vehicle parked in his garage. As the homeowner called 9-1-1, he reportedly witnessed Aten emerge from the garage carrying the chainsaw.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertstown/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Bus(ted)

​The Belleville Township High School District 201 handed down the heaviest punishment allowed under state law last night to two teens caught on video beating another student aboard a school bus.

The students -- age 14 and 15 -- will be expelled from school for the remainder of the 2009-2010 school year and all of the 2010-2011 school year.

In handing down the expulsion, board President Curt Highsmith said: "I hope that this sends a very, very clear message that this type of conduct has never been tolerated and will never be tolerated. Kids deserve the right to get an education, to go to school, to feel safe. ... We will work to the ends of the earth to ensure this."

As the Belleville News-Democrat reports this morning, the board also passed a motion to review the video and discipline "each and every student" who in any way participated, including in egging-on the attack.

Given the name or the victim and the stupidity of the following incident, you'd almost think this story was made up. 

The F.B.I. has charged a police officer from the north St. Louis County suburb of Uplands Park with "willful deprivation of civil rights under color of law" for allegedly sexually violating a woman in the police headquarters.