St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts is reportedly no fan of Corrections Commissioner Jenifer Clemons-Abdullah, yet he’s following her playbook this week after taking flak for a photo of a detainee left in horrendous conditions.
On Monday, the RFT reported on the photo that attorney Susan McGraugh snapped of her client, Lamarr Pearson, who was lying on the floor of a jail cell in his own excrement. Pearson is paralyzed, with no control of his bowels. He told McGraugh he’d been lying there in that state for two or three days.
At the time of the photo, Pearson was in a holding area of the jail for people who have been arrested but not yet formally booked into the City Justice Center.
As other outlets covered the photo, the city’s Department of Public Safety told KMOV’s Justin Andrews that Pearson had not been officially booked into the City Justice Center at the time the photo was taken, implying he was in that holding area controlled by Sheriff Betts.
That was a slightly more detailed statement than the one previously given to the RFT, and Betts insisted to the TV station that Pearson was not in an area controlled by his department when the photo was taken.
But nevertheless, Betts has now taken steps to ban phones in the part of the jail that he controls.
A letter signed by Betts and posted at the courthouse downtown and addressed to attorneys and other court personnel, reads in full: “Prior to entering the Justice Center, all attorneys and court personnel must securely store their cell phones, electronic devices, and any other contraband items. Please note that attorneys and court personnel may be subject to searches upon entry to the Justice Center. Please remember that this facility prioritizes security, and it is essential to comply with directives issued by the deputies.”
The letter echoes a similar directive issued by Clemons-Abdullah in January soon after a different attorney photographed a detainee with an untreated, cantaloupe-sized hernia protruding from his stomach.
Not long after the RFT published that photo, a sign went up in the Justice Center, saying, "Beginning January 15, 2024, no cellular devices or any type of recording/photography devices will be allowed inside the facility. All previous authorizations for cellular devices are no longer authorized." It was signed by Clemons-Abdullah.
The RFT has previously described the relationship between the corrections commissioner and the sheriff as frosty. Betts previously said of her: “Somebody has told that lady that Vernon Betts wants to take over the jail…She's got this wild hair up her butt that I want to run the jail."
According to one attorney, jail staff continued to allow attorneys to bring phones into the jail after Clemons-Abdullah’s directive, though they have to fill out a form first.
To McGraugh’s mind, the bans on attorneys’ phones miss what should be the point of photos that show maltreatment of jail detainees.
“I don’t know why everyone is acting like the problem is the camera,” she said.
McGraugh isn’t the only defense attorney taken aback by Betts’ order.
“Sheriff Betts is the best evidence for why the judges should take control of the sheriff's department,” said attorney Terry Niehoff. “When he is not forcing his deputies to campaign for him he is coming up with these idiotic ideas.”
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