Crime and Law

Billy Little: Pastor and Pyschologist Accused of Dusty Sex Scandal

A retired Baptist minister and licensed psychologist who, according to his biography, once hosted a counseling program on KMOX and worked as a sports psychologist for the baseball Cardinals, stands accused today of taking advantage of a female patient. And the plaintiffs and their attorney believe m ... More >>

Joseph Millard Arrested on Child Pornography Charges

Belleville man Joseph Millard, 49, was arrested Wednesday on multiple charges of downloading and distributing child pornography. He's being held on a $500,000 bond, and faces six to thirty years per charge in prison if found guilty.Those are big numbers, but check this out.

Tracy D. Jones: St. Louis Homicide No. 23; Shot in A Car

Tracy D. Jones, 47, was inside a car with an unidentified 56-year-old black woman in the 1500 block of Whittier Avenue last night when unknown suspects opened fire on them. Jones was shot in the chest and back, and was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was shot in the thigh, and was treated an ... More >>

Two Separate Shootings Friday Night

​The Delmar Loop was not the only part of the city where shots were shots were fired  this weekend. Just around 9:30 p.m. Friday night, an unidentified 20-year-old black man was dropped off at an area hospital with multiple gunshot injuries. Witnesses tell police the victim was shot by two bl ... More >>

The Columbine Effect: Thirteen years and a hundred school shootings later, why is Hollywood obsessed with this one?

Three Shootings in the City Sunday Night

​St. Louis Metropolitan Police were kept busy Sunday night with three separate shooting incidents in just more than six hours. Fortunately, no one was killed. But there's a numbing similarity in all three cases that doesn't portend well for this summer; if the shootings jump up on the first warm n ... More >>

Victim Fatally Felled By Police Bullet

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has reported that police officers and at least one suspect exchanged gunfire over the weekend, resulting in a man's death. On Friday evening St. Louis police shot dead Jordan Walls, nineteen, of the 4900 block of Terry Avenue. In addition the police sho ... More >>

Creve Coeur's Red-Light Cameras Win Another Legal Battle

​A St. Louis County judge this week upheld Creve Coeur's red-light camera system, dismissing a class-action suit challenging the legality of the cameras. Attorneys Ryan Keane and John Campbell with the Simon Law Firm filed the suit last year on behalf of four people who'd received tickets from the ... More >>

Strip Club Tax Supporters Drop Research Bomb

​Some resent the implication at the heart of the "skin tax" bill: That strip clubs somehow foster sexual assault, and thus should have to pay $5-per-patron fee to fund aid to rape victims. However, as the bill wends its way through the Illinois senate, supporters of the bill are arguing -- now wit ... More >>

Scott Solovic: Thrice Convicted of Raping Children, Contends Current Accuser is "Too Young" for Him

​Scott Solovic, 38, is currently serving his third stint in jail for sexually assaulting underage girls. A fourth victim of his depredations came forward only after he was sentenced to prison this most recent time, because she felt she was safe enough to do so with him out of her life. Authorities ... More >>

Dominic Johnson: St. Louis Homicide No. 17; Shot Outside Sports Bar

​Dominic Johnson, a 27-year-old black male, was found shot to death outside the Starz Sports Bar and Grill (8700 block of Goodfellow Boulevard; pictured above) in the North Pointe neighborhood Monday night just after midnight.According to police documents, St. Louis Police responded to a report of ... More >>

Maurice Leon Wiggins Gets 16 Months in Jail for Southern Illinois University Bomb Threat

​Maurice Leon Wiggins, 23, the Chicago man who threatened to bomb three dormitories at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and then rape and kill 30 women, was sentenced to 16 months in prison, three years supervised release and a $100 fine plus court costs. He could have been sentenced to ten ... More >>

Missouri Meth Lab Seizures Hit New Record; State Leads Nation Again

Confiscated meth equipment.​Once again, Missouri has the dubious distinction of leading the nation in the number of meth labs seized in 2011. Law enforcement uncovered 2,096 labs in Missouri last year, an increase of six percent over the 1,960 discovered in 2010. Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and O ... More >>

Club-Goers Sue Blackmon's for Last Year's Infamous Ruckus

Five plaintiffs have filed suit against an East St. Louis nightclub after claiming to have suffered injuries during a no-holds-barred melee made infamous last April after video footage emerged and circulated across YouTube. The fracas, which lasted several minutes, included pistol whippings, body sl ... More >>

Lawsuit Filed Over Brawl at Blackmon's Webbie Concert

​Five plaintiffs have filed suit against an East St. Louis nightclub after claiming to have suffered injuries during a no-holds-barred melee made infamous last April after video footage emerged and circulated across YouTube. The fracas, which lasted several minutes, included pistol whippings, body ... More >>

Missouri's Prison Population Getting Older

In Missouri, the percentage of state prisoners age 50 and over has doubled in the past ten years, rising to 15.3 percent of all inmates in fiscal year 2010, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch, titled "Old Behind Bars: The Aging Prison Population in the United States." That change repr ... More >>

Supreme Court Decision on Missouri Sex Offender Carries Implications Across U.S.

A sex case that began in Missouri and passed through Pennsylvania continued its path all the way to Washington, where this week U.S. Supreme Court released an opinion that poses just as many questions as answers when it comes to sex-offender registration laws. In a 7-2 ruling announced January 23, ... More >>

Iraq War Vet Sentenced for Smuggling Cigarettes Into Prison

A local military veteran who more recently spent his working days on one side of the iron bars will soon be living on the other side of them. Yesterday a U.S. district judge punished a federal correctional officer who previously served in Iraq for smuggling cigarettes into the prison where he worked ... More >>

St. Louis Homicides Drop 20 Percent Thanks to Slow 4th Quarter

​St. Louis had 21 percent fewer homicides in 2011 compared to 2010, according to preliminary crime figures from the police department. That's great news, though it isn't the first time in recent history that the city's murder rate has plunged inexplicably. The early 2000s saw a huge drop in homici ... More >>

Inmates More Likely to Die in Missouri Jails Than in 42* Other States

John Gotti died of throat cancer while incarcerated at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.​The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics released a bunch of numbers yesterday offering an exhaustive demographic account of inmates who are dying in p ... More >>

Beware of Fashion-Conscious "Logo Bandit" in West County

​In the St. Louis metropolitan region, there appear to be two types of bank robbers. First, there are the traditional types who hit various branches in the city, clad in pedestrian bank-robbing garb like old-man masks, ski caps and McDonald's uniforms. Then, there is another, higher class o ... More >>

Post-Dispatch Subject of New Lawsuit

Retirees of the cash-strapped Post-Dispatch say they were misled about health benefits​A dozen former employees of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch are suing the local daily for fraudulent inducement and negligent misrepresentation, claiming that the paper's top brass pulled out of a 2007 agreement ... More >>

Perv and Protect: Dozens of teenage Explorers have been sexually molested by cops. Should the Scouting program share the blame?

Five Things To Do if You Are Robbed (According to the St. Louis Circuit Attorney)

​Full disclosure up-front: this is a bit of a let down. There are, in fact, hundreds or thousands of things you could do when getting robbed (the exact number is based on whether you count "turn and run" and "point over the robber's shoulder and say 'what is that?' then turn and run" separately) ... More >>

Brian McCuller: St. Louis Homicide No. 110; Teen Shot on North Grand

Bad weekend for North Grand. Early Saturday morning a woman was gunned down in the 3100 block of north St. Louis thoroughfare. On Sunday morning it was an 18-year-old teen shot to death a few block south in the 2500 block of N. Grand (below). ​According to police, Brian McCuller was with a gr ... More >>

Mizzou Coach Gary Pinkel Arrested for DWI

Boone County Sheriff's DepartmentPinkel was pickled, say police.Chrissake, Gary! Has Mizzou's 5-5 season led you to the bottle? Or are you still celebrating Saturday's win over Texas? Either way, this doesn't look good for ​the University of Missouri.Major Tom Reddin of the Boone County Sheri ... More >>

Why Are Hate Crimes Nineteen Times More Likely in Kansas City Than St. Louis?

​The FBI released its annual batch of data on hate crimes earlier this week, offering a breakdown by state and jurisdiction. Here's the most curious thing that jumps out immediately: Number of hate crimes reported last year in Kansas City, population 484,191: 76 Number of hate crimes reporte ... More >>

St. Louis Production Crew StarStrukk Sues Andy Samberg; The Lonely Island

Phenomenal Multimedia​Saturday Night Live star Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island group are at the center of a copyright and royalty lawsuit filed by the St. Louis-based production group StarStrukk.The lawsuit filed in federal court in New York by Aleric "Rick Tha Ruler" Banks and Monique Hine ... More >>

Stealing from the rich to...oh, whatever. Funny is the message in Tower Heist.

Fair Sentencing Act Expected to Cut Prison Stints of More Than 300 Missourians

​UPDATE WITH INFO FROM EASTERN MISSOURI PROBATION OFFICE The Fair Sentencing Act passed by Congress in 2010 kicked in earlier this week, affecting thousands of inmates who the federal government believes were unjustly sentenced following crack-related offenses. During the 1980s and '90s, a ... More >>

Cigarette Mistrial Boiled Down to Smokers v. Nonsmokers on Jury

Smokers in the jury stood apart from the non-smoking colleagues.​A lawsuit that finally went to trial last month after wending its way though court for 11 years ended yesterday in a mistrial when the jury failed to deliver a verdict. The class-action lawsuit accused tobacco giant Phillip Morris of ... More >>

BZP the New Ecstasy? In the Eyes of Federal Judges, Yes

​Let's say you're a drug dealer, but the particular pills you peddle aren't exactly mainstream; in fact they're not even included in the U.S. Sentencing Commission's Drug Quantity Table, even though they're illegal. Now let's say you get busted. How is a judge supposed to sentence you? The ... More >>

Willie Perkins: St. Louis Man Shot Point-Blank in Head During Armed Robbery

A 63-year-old man is dead and his 64-year-old friend recovering today after both were injured during a brazen armed robbery last night in the the 2900 block of North Jefferson (below). ​

Daniel Hughes: Ritz-Carlton Sexual Assault Suspect Sued By Home Insurer

Daniel Hughes' insurance company bristles at paying for his legal defense.​The company that holds the home insurance policy for Daniel Hughes, the Pennsylvania man accused of sexually assaulting a pre-teen in the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton this past March, has found himself in yet another legal battl ... More >>

Confederate Shrine Vandalized in Missouri; Southern Nationalists Outraged

The Southern Nationalist Network would have the vandal know: Them fightin' words.​The Civil War ended nearly 150 years ago but North-South animosity evidently remains in Cape Girardeau where a vandal this week defaced a monument to Confederate soldiers. As the Southeast Missourian reports, someone ... More >>

Q & A: Local Author Breaks Down New Book About Mexican Drug War

A few years ago while living out West, Sylvia Longmire, a retired U.S. Air Force captain and former special agent with the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations, noticed that the news media often bollixed its coverage of the Mexican drug war -- a topic she'd been tracking closely for Californ ... More >>

Plastic Surgeon Posted Nude Pics Online, Patients Claim in Lawsuits

If this was your body, would you feel violated?​Five women who hired St. Louis physician Dr. Michele Koo to perform plastic surgery on them say they got a nasty surprise -- pictures of their naked torsos were posted on Dr. Koo's website.And that's not all. The pictures came up in an Internet searc ... More >>

Jailbreak Timeline: Suspended Correction Commissioner's Memos Warned of Jails' Vulnerability for Months

Image via"We have a major public safety responsibility and jails can become a dangerous place to live and work without an appropriate managerial staffing pattern," Stubblefield told Bryson in April.​It's easy to understand why Division of Corrections Commissioner Gene Stubblefield wants the public ... More >>

New Allegations Against Corrupt St. Louis Cops

Man claims cops stole his casino winnings and planted drugs on him when he complained.​New allegations have emerged against three former St. Louis police officers sentenced to prison in 2009 on charges of planting evidence and stealing money during drug raids and then covering up their crimes.&nbs ... More >>

Facebook Seeks to Dismiss Illinois Class-Action; Mothers Claim Children Exploited

​Facebook has asked a federal judge in southern Illinois to dismiss a class-action lawsuit filed in June on behalf of two Granite City moms. The suit filed on behalf of the children of Melissa Dawes and Jennifer DeYoung alleges that Facebook inappropriately uses its "like" feature to monitor the ... More >>

Court of Appeals: Prison Employees Aren't Liable for Inmate's Attack

​Let's say an inmate is attacked by fellow inmates wearing masks, then put in an isolated environment for a 30-day period, presumably for protection while the matter is sorted out. The inmate pleads to correctional officers to be kept in protective custody, claiming that his assailants warned ... More >>

St. Louis Police: Wigged Out Suspect Wanted for Three Robberies

​St. Louis police are seeking the public's help in identifying a man (right) believed to have robbed at least three area businesses. In each case the suspect has worn a wig, either a large Afro or gold dreadlocks. The latest robbery occurred July 29 when he held up the Penn Station East Coast Subs ... More >>

Michael Brown: St. Louis Homicide No. 79; Teenager Murdered in Penrose

​Sixteen-year-old Michael Brown of the 5000 block of St. Louis Avenue was found shot to death in the Penrose Neighborhood of north city early yesterday morning. St. Louis police report that they arrived to the 4500 block of Margaretta to find Wilson lying dead in the middle of the street from guns ... More >>

Reginald Griffin, Convicted Murderer, Gets Sentence Overturned -- 25 Years Later

It was a different inmate -- with a screwdriver, argued Reginald Griffin. Today, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that he deserves another trial.​Twenty-five years after he was convicted of murdering a fellow inmate in a Missouri prison, Reginald Griffin has gotten a major reprieve from the Missou ... More >>

LaRon Williams: St. Louis Man Guilty of Kidnapping, Terrorizing Girlfriend

courtesy of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police DepartmentLaRon Wiliams: Previously convicted of bribery, he was found guilty of kidnapping in a trial last week.​At St. Louis jury found LaRon Williams, 33, guilty last week of kidnapping, domestic assault and armed criminal action after a brutal atta ... More >>

Guns Claim Two More Children in St. Louis Region

"From an infant's cold, dead hands!"​A ten-year-old Belleville boy accidentally shot and killed his five-year-old brother yesterday while playing with a shotgun kept in the home. An "extremely tragic accident" is how Belleville police chief William Clay described the incident. A day earlier -- Tu ... More >>

Twelve Years for a DWI? Too Much, Says Missouri Appellate Court

Twelve years for drunk driving? Not unless you're a "chronic" offender -- and the judge crosses every T, the appeals court finds.​A Jefferson City man wasn't speeding when he got arrested for drunk driving. Nor did he hit anyone (or anything). In fact, he wasn't even, technically, driving. When po ... More >>

Man Shot in Broad Daylight in North City

The 2800 block of Sarah, where a 42-year-old man was shot after an attempted mugging yesterday.​A 42-year-old man was shot around 4:30 p.m. yesterday in the 2800 block of Sarah, which is near Vandeventer and St. Louis Avenue in north city.He told police that he was heading north on Sarah when thre ... More >>

Gunfire Strikes University City -- Again

For the third time in the past month, gunfire has disrupted innocent lives in University City. The latest incident occurred Wednesday night when unknown gunmen exchanged as many as twenty shots in the University Commons apartment complex in the 1400 block of North Drive (below).​The gunfire left c ... More >>