missouri attorney general eric schmitt Archives

State-federal prosecutor team announces long list of violent crime charges in St. Louis

October 8, 2019 By Ashley Byrd

A specially-formed joint team of state and federal prosecutors announced another wave of charges in the St. Louis area.

In the project called the Safer Streets Initiative, Missouri Assistant Attorneys General are deputized as by the U.S. Attorney’s Office so that the prosecutors can take advantage of harsher federal sentencing guidelines.

Tuesday, Missouri Attorney General Schmidt listed more than 100 charges made since late June:

“Fifty-nine criminal possession of firearms and ammunition, 30 drug trafficking or distribution-related charges, 12 possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking, four carjacking or carjacking resulting in death charges, four supervised release revocations, and three Hobbs Act robberies,” Schmidt listed at a press conference in St. Louis.

Carjackings are at a steady increase in St. Louis –averaging one a day—and pacing higher than last year at this time. In the past few days, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports there were two Sunday morning, one Monday morning and three Monday night. Then a woman and a nine-year-old were victims of a carjacking Tuesday morning.

Two other joint state and federal prosecutors have been tapped in Kansas City and one in Springfield.

Governor Mike Parson has also provided state troopers to team up with local officers to fight violent crime in St. Louis. That began a week ago.

Missouri Attorney General seeks prosecution for 12 former Catholic clergy after statewide investigation

September 13, 2019 By Ashley Byrd

Attorney General Schmitt at press conference in St. Louis September 13, 2019 (photo Jill Enders)

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is referring twelve former clergy members accused of sexual abuse for prosecution. Schmitt’s office has concluded a year-long investigation into the four Catholic dioceses in the state.

In a Friday press conference in St. Louis, Schmitt said, “For decades, faced with credible reports of abuse, the church refused to acknowledge the victims and instead focused their efforts on protecting priests.”

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office must refer the cases to local prosecutors.

“In cases in which local prosecutors should seek our assistance, we stand ready and willing to help, he said Friday. “To the victims: you didn’t deserve any of this. None of what happened to you was your fault. This report, our referrals for criminal prosecution, our aggressive and substantive suggestions for reform, will not change what happened in the past. But, they can change the trajectory of the future and ensure that this never happens again.”

Schmitt, who is also Catholic, also outlined recommendations for church leaders: “Diocese [sic] should assume greater responsibility and oversight over all religious order priests and priest visiting or relocating from other dioceses; number two, the diocese should ensure that their independent review boards are composed entirely of laypeople and that the determinations of credibility and sanctions will be given authoritative weight with respect to the ability of the offending priest and minister in its diocese.”

The investigation, initiated by the previous Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, reports that 163 clergy members were accused of sexual misconduct against minors. Of those, 80 have died, according to previous news reports.

Archbishop Robert Carlson released this statement in response to the investigation:

“The Archdiocese of St. Louis has cooperated in full transparency with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office throughout their investigation and will continue to cooperate fully with civil authorities on cases of clergy abuse of a minor. The Attorney General’s report confirms the progress the archdiocese has made in implementing the protocols to protect our children; and while we cannot predict nor control all human behavior, those protocols have resulted in no acts of physical sexual abuse since the Charter of 2002. We are taking the Attorney General’s recommendations to the Catholic Church into careful consideration and will continue to evaluate and enhance our safe environment programs for the safety of all of our families.”

Steven Spaner of the Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests (SNAP) says the investigation did not go after all of the evidence.

“They say they asked for the documents but they should have asked for subpoena power from the Legislature so that they could truly ask for the documents that are what they call ‘secret archives.'”

Reported by Jill Enders and Ashley Byrd

Schmitt to issue Friday report about clergy abuse in Roman Catholic Church in Missouri

September 12, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s attorney general will release a long-anticipated report Friday morning in St. Louis, regarding allegations of clergy abuse statewide within the Roman Catholic Church.

Then-State Treasurer Eric Schmitt speaks to former House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty on June 11, 2018 in Jefferson City (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R) has called a press conference for Friday at 10 a.m. at the old Post Office in downtown St. Louis.

His report will include all four Missouri dioceses: the Archdiocese of St. Louis, the Diocese of Jefferson City, the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

The investigation has been going on for about a year.

Former Attorney General Josh Hawley’s office told Missourinet in September 2018 that all four Missouri dioceses had agreed to independent reviews conducted by the attorney general’s office.

Hawley resigned as attorney general after his November election to the U.S. Senate, and Schmitt was appointed to the post by the governor.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a Statehouse press conference last September, the same day Hawley’s office spoke to Missourinet about the four dioceses agreeing to independent reviews. SNAP said then that there were at least 113 publicly-accused Catholic priests in Missouri, although SNAP believed the number is higher.

Diocese of Jefferson City Bishop Shawn McKnight briefs reporters in Jefferson City on August 24, 2018 (Brian Hauswirth photo)

SNAP has called on the Missouri attorney general’s office to use subpoenas and to question Missouri Catholic church officials under oath.

Diocese of Jefferson City Bishop Shawn McKnight held a press conference last August, where he said Mr. Hawley had called to express his gratitude for the bishop’s request that the AG’s office review diocese files about clergy abuse.

During that August 2018 press conference, Bishop McKnight was critical of previous Roman Catholic Church leaders.

“Their active cover-up or passive silence when clergy abusers were continued in the ministry or promoted in office gravely compromised the credibility of the hierarchy, and by extension, the whole Church,” McKnight told mid-Missouri reporters that day.

Bishop McKnight described sexual abuse of children as “a crime and a sin,” adding that the Diocese of Jefferson City has no tolerance for those who intentionally harm children.

Missourinet’s Jill Enders is covering General Schmitt’s Friday morning press conference in St. Louis.

Missouri man convicted of killing five grocery employees in 1987 will stay in prison

July 18, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

A southeast Missouri judge has denied a legal effort from a man convicted of killing five people at a St. Louis supermarket almost 32 years ago.

Convicted killer Marvin Jennings is incarcerated in Potosi (2018 file photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Corrections)

Washington County Judge Troy Hyde has denied a petition for a writ of habeas corpus involving Marvin Jennings, who is serving a life sentence without parole for the high-profile 1987 killings at a National supermarket in north St. Louis.

Prosecutors say Jennings and an accomplice, Donnie Blankenship, shot the five supermarket employees to death on September 4, 1987. Two others were injured and survived, and some employees escaped injury by hiding on the roof.

Jennings says he’s innocent. Habeas corpus is an effort to determine whether a prison sentence is lawful.

“Jennings’ allegations in this petition are essentially attacks on evidentiary rulings by the trial court that have already been litigated in the ordinary course of review. He (Jennings) presents nothing new here,” Judge Hyde writes, in part.

Jennings has sought several state habeas actions in the past, and has also alleged prosecutorial misconduct.

“My most important duty as Attorney General is to protect all six million Missourians,” Attorney General Eric Schmitt says in a statement. “That entails prosecuting our state’s most violent offenders, but also ensuring that those offenders who were convicted, like Marvin Jennings, serve their sentence. Assistant Attorneys General in my office undertake important habeas corpus work, often behind the scenes and without recognition – they achieved a great result in this case.”

Jennings was convicted of five counts of first degree murder and eight counts of armed criminal action, along with several other felonies. He’s currently incarcerated at the maximum-security Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point.

Judge Hyde heard the case, because Potosi is located in Washington County.

Blankenship is incarcerated in Charleston.

Prosecutors say the five supermarket employees who were killed were Rose Brown, Michael Marr, Kenneth Bass, Michael Bean and David Spahn.

Offsets near southeast Missouri’s Fredericktown remains closed; owner appealing ruling

July 3, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s attorney general says a popular business and recreational lake in southeast Missouri that’s been the site of several deaths remains closed on this Fourth of July weekend.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt (right) speaks at the St. Louis Clean Sweep event on June 14, 2019 (file photo courtesy of AG’s office)

Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R) says “The Offsets” near Fredericktown is a lead mine turned swimming hole and that at least nine people have died there from drowning or falling off bluffs, since the early 1980’s.

Schmitt says “countless” others have been injured. The quarry is surrounded by 40-foot bluffs, where people have jumped into a lake.

Schmitt says Madison County Circuit Judge Wendy Horn has ordered the “Offsets” to be closed until several safety measures are implemented.

Some of those safety measures are a detailed emergency response plan and frequent staff training, stationing trained lifeguards in specific areas where jumping would be allowed and placing an additional lifeguard in a boat in the water to be able to rescue swimmers. Judge Horn has also ordered the Offsets to require all patrons jumping off bluffs to wear U.S. Coast Guard-approved life vests.

“As Attorney General, my duty is to protect all six million Missourians, and ensuring that people can safely enjoy summer festivities falls under that duty,” Schmitt says.

Online court records indicate Farmington attorney Clinton Roberts, who represents Offsets Recreation LLC, is appealing Judge Horn’s ruling. Counselor Roberts’ appeal has been filed with the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District.

Former Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (R) filed the lawsuit against the Offsets in Madison County Circuit Court in Fredericktown in July 2018.

“And what the common fact pattern here is that they jump from this very high point, they injure themselves upon entry into the water and then they are not able to swim because there’s no dock,” Hawley told Missourinet in a July 2018 interview.

Hawley said all nine people who have died at the quarry/lake were healthy males between the ages of 16 and 21.

The “St. Louis Post-Dispatch” has reported that 19-year-old Cole Duffell of Chesterfield died at the Offsets on the Fourth of July 2018, after jumping off a cliff into the lake.

Missouri Attorney General’s office joins FBI efforts to fight human trafficking, exploiting children

May 21, 2019 By Alisa Nelson

The FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force has added a powerful law enforcement force – Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office. During a press conference Monday in Kansas City, Schmitt says human trafficking is an epidemic.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt

“Human trafficking remains one of the top priorities of my office, and we will continually work to build partnerships and compile resources to combat this horrific practice. Whether you’re aware of it or not, human trafficking is happening in Missouri,” he says. “It’s my duty, as attorney general, to do everything we can to combat this practice – these horrible schemes to profit from our most vulnerable and the defenseless.”

The FBI’s task force is made up of eight departments, including the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office, Joplin Police Department, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Kansas City Missouri Police Department, Overland Park Police Department, Springfield Missouri Police Department, Topeka Police Department and Wichita Police Department.

The Attorney General’s Office also has resources to show citizens how to spot human trafficking and how to report it, as well as hotline numbers. Trafficking reports can be made at Makemofree.com or by calling the FBI.

Parson says soldiers will not fight St. Louis crime: “We can’t take over the law enforcement jobs”

April 12, 2019 By Alisa Nelson

Gov. Mike Parson

St. Louis alderman Brandon Bosley wants Governor Mike Parson to send Missouri National Guard soldiers to his city to fight crime. Parson tells Missourinet affiliate KSSZ in Columbia that’s not going to happen.

“I’ve had the pleasure of serving in the military as a military policeman in my career and also on the law enforcement side for 22 years. Those are two totally different functions of government,” he says. “I get the frustration, but that’s not the function of the (National) Guard.”

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bosley says his strategy is partially motivated because of a large shortage of St. Louis police officers. Bosley goes on to say we are not in Afghanistan and the level of violent crime there is not normal.

St. Louis Alderman Brandon Bosley

“At the end of the day, they’ve got to figure out some solutions up there in their own neighborhoods. We’re here to assist wherever we can but we can’t take over the law enforcement jobs in St. Louis,” says Parson.

During a press conference this week in St. Louis about violent crime, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said Bosley rightly points out that something must be done but Schmitt says the decision is up to the governor. In January, Schmitt launched a collaboration between his office and Missouri’s U.S. Attorney’s Offices to prosecute more violent crime cases. On Thursday, five Assistant U.S. Attorneys were sworn into office to help with the heavy caseload in the St. Louis region.