Eastern District of Missouri

ST. LOUIS – The former owner and chief operating officer of a Clayton, Missouri construction company on Wednesday admitted committing fraud to sidestep St. Louis, Missouri requirements that encourage the participation of minority-owned businesses in city contract opportunities.

Brian Kowert Sr. pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey to two counts of wire fraud. 

Kowert was co-owner and chief operating officer of HBD Construction Inc., a general contracting, construction management and development company. At the time, Kowert was also acting as the project manager for the renovation and redevelopment of a building for Greater Goods LLC on Chouteau Avenue in St. Louis. Kowert and Charles Kirkwood, the owner of Midwestern Construction, a company that was a Minority Business Enterprise, agreed to falsely list Kirkwood’s company as providing materials and performing work on the project. Kowert sought to falsify the information to comply with St. Louis requirements for 25% participation by MBEs to qualify for a 10-year tax abatement.

The MBE participation requirements seek to address historical social and economic disadvantages experienced by minority group members and to reduce minority-based barriers to and foster participation by minority-owned businesses in city contract opportunities.

Kowert used a series of measures to conceal his violations of the city’s MBE guidelines, according to his guilty plea. On April 20, 2020, Kowert issued duplicate HBD subcontracts to Kirkwood’s company for work that was performed and materials that were supplied by two other, non-MBE companies.  Kowert also issued a duplicate HBD purchase order to Kirkwood’s company for materials provided by a third non-MBE company.

On June 22, 2020, Kowert submitted a false chart of projected costs for the redevelopment project to the St. Louis Development Corporation, the city agency charged with reviewing, approving and recommending tax abatements.  The chart falsely listed Kirkwood’s MBE company as providing labor and materials valued at approximately $198,000 on the Greater Goods redevelopment project and falsely omitted the three non-MBE companies which actually did the work and provided the materials.

Beginning on August 4, 2020, Kowert caused 14 HBD checks with a total value of about $220,000 to be issued to Kirkwood’s company for the work performed and materials provided by the three non-MBE companies.  Kirkwood deposited those checks into his company bank account and then issued checks to the three non-MBE companies, at Kowert’s direction. Thus, Kowert used Kirkwood’s company as a fraudulent “pass through” in order to exchange the checks and violate the MBE requirements on the construction project.   

Kirkwood was paid approximately $2,000 by Kowert for his role in acting as the fraudulent “pass through” MBE company.

Kowert admitted being “fully aware” that St. Louis Development Corporation guidelines required that an MBE company “perform a commercially useful function” and that his agreement with Kirkwood violated the city’s published MBE guidelines.   

Between May 2021 and November 2021, Kowert and HBD caused a false application for tax abatement on behalf of Greater Goods for the Chouteau Avenue redevelopment project to be submitted to the St. Louis Development Corporation.  The application falsely represented that Kirkwood’s MBE company had performed about $224,361 in project costs and omitted the three non-MBE companies. The $224,361 comprised approximately 6 ½% of the required 25% MBE participation in the project. 

Greater Goods, which sells and distributes various kitchen, home, fitness, health and wellness products and donates a portion of the sales price to various charitable organizations, had no knowledge of Kowert’s scheme. Nor did its employees.

Kowert is scheduled to be sentenced April 26. Each wire fraud charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both.

The case was investigated by the FBI.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge John A. Ross on Tuesday sentenced a woman who aided a reality show star’s plot to murder his nephew to three years in prison.

Terica Taneisha Ellis helped James Timothy Norman, who appeared on the reality show “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s,” locate his nephew, Andre Montgomery Jr., who also appeared on the show. Norman then passed his nephew’s location to another man, who fatally shot Montgomery, 21, at 3964 Natural Bridge Avenue in St. Louis on March 14, 2016.

Ellis, now 39, pleaded guilty in July to a charge of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. The exotic dancer from Memphis, Tennessee admitted being paid $10,000 to locate Montgomery and lure him outside before the shooting.

Norman, 43, was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in September of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 2, and is facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Norman took out a life insurance policy worth $450,000 on Montgomery, then arranged for Montgomery’s murder, according to testimony and evidence at his trial.

Before announcing the sentence Tuesday, Judge Ross said that without what he called “an incredible effort” by investigators, “This could easily have been just another unsolved killing.”

He also recognized Ellis’ testimony against Norman at trial and said Norman would likely have succeeded in having Montgomery killed, whether Ellis helped or not.

The shooter, Travell Anthony Hill, 31, was sentenced in October to 32 years in prison. Hill pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and one count of murder-for-hire and testified at Norman’s trial.

Waiel Rebhi “Wally” Yaghnam, Norman’s former insurance agent, was sentenced in November to three years in prison on one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Yaghnam, 44, admitted conspiring with Norman to fraudulently obtain a life insurance policy on Montgomery and then helping Norman file a claim after Montgomery’s murder.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Angie Danis and Gwendolyn Carroll are prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Tuesday sentenced a woman to two and one-half years in prison for embezzling $1.2 million from a Ralls County, Missouri agricultural business.

Stephanie D. Carper, 51, was also ordered to repay the money she stole while exploiting her position as secretary of the company. From September 2013 to September 2019, Carper filled in her own name on at least 44 checks that had been pre-signed by the company’s owner and his relatives, Carper admitted in her guilty plea. The checks were intended to be used to pay vendors. Carper then wrote in false explanations on bank deposit slips and the check registry to conceal her thefts.

Carper used the money to buy a 2015 Nissan Murano SUV, a 2016 Toyota Tundra pickup and a Caterpillar 247 skid loader and spent more on vacations to Alaska and elsewhere. The vehicles and $31,000 in a bank account have been seized to help repay her debt.

A letter to Judge Autrey on behalf of the victims said the family sold their company for a reduced amount because a co-founder was ill and profits appeared to be falling due to Carper’s theft. Had the company books reflected their true profits, the family would have either kept the business to support the next generation or been able to sell it for more money. 

“The damage done is irreparable. All that (the founders) worked for was lost with the damage that Ms. Carper did,” the letter says.

“Stephanie Carper shamelessly abused the good nature, sympathy, and trust of the owners of a family business in rural Missouri,” said Special Agent in Charge Jay Greenberg of the FBI St. Louis Division. “After being hired as a secretary, she paid the owners back by robbing them blind.”

Carper, who moved to Eufaula, Alabama, pleaded guilty in October to a felony bank fraud charge. 

The FBI investigated this case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Monday sentenced a man from St. Louis, Missouri to 6 ½ years in prison for firing a shooting at a St. Louis gas station in 2021.

Jamell Sanders, 47, pleaded guilty in July to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He admitted that on Jan. 15, 2021 at the Convenience Express at 8815 North Broadway in St. Louis, he fired into the ceiling and again into bulletproof glass surrounding the register. He admitted firing the 10mm handgun again in the parking lot. 

A Monday’s hearing, prosecutors said Sanders tried to get behind the counter where two employees were located, then tried to fire through the cash slot. Sanders pointed the gun at a man as Sanders left the store, then fired shots at a car outside, a sentencing memorandum says.

Police arrested Sanders when he returned to the gas station with his children. Officers recovered 12 cartridge casings at the scene.

In 1992, when he was 17 years old, an angry Sanders fired a shot that went through a bathroom window and struck a 21-month-old in the head, killing him, according to statements during Monday’s sentencing hearing. Sanders was sentenced to eight years in prison.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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ST. LOUIS – A jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on Friday found a man who provided the fentanyl that caused one fatal and two nonfatal overdoses in St. Charles, Missouri in 2020 guilty of all charges.

Ledra A. Craig, 46, of Wright City, was found guilty of a fentanyl conspiracy charge, two counts of distribution of fentanyl causing serious bodily injury for the non-fatal overdoses, one count of distribution of fentanyl with death resulting and one count of fentanyl distribution for the sale to an undercover police officer.

“Ledra Craig was selling fentanyl, one of the deadliest drugs known to man,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman told jurors in closing arguments Friday morning.

Just before 7 a.m. on August 2, 2020, Craig provided fentanyl to one man, referred to in court documents as “L.T.,” in the bathroom of the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, according to court statements and evidence. Minutes later, the man collapsed in a lobby. When emergency responders arrived, L.T. was breathing just four to six times per minute and had to be revived with two doses of Narcan.

After leaving L.T., Craig showed a bag containing fentanyl to another man, R.P., in an elevator, then sold him the drug in the parking garage. Craig had approached R.P. and his friend in the casino and offered to sell them cocaine and R.P. believed that cocaine is what he was buying.

About 40 minutes later, R.P. and N.B. were spotted in a car in a neighborhood a few blocks from R.P.’s house. Authorities were called when the car rolled forward onto someone’s lawn. Both men had overdosed. N.B. was revived with Narcan. R.P. was blue, had no pulse and was not breathing. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. 

Investigators quickly identified Craig as the man seen in the casino with the overdose victims, and an undercover officer bought fentanyl from Craig later that day in a transaction that was recorded on video. After his arrest, Craig admitted selling fentanyl to R.P. and admitted conspiring to sell fentanyl that summer. 

At sentencing April 24, Craig faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life.

The case was investigated by the St. Charles County Regional Drug Task Force and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Derek Wiseman and Samantha Reitz are prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A chiropractor from Jefferson County, Missouri on Thursday admitted that he falsely claimed to have a medical license and exaggerated patients’ medical conditions so they would fraudulently receive more than $3.5 million in disability payments from the Social Security Administration and private disability benefit insurers.

Thomas G. Hobbs, 65, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey to a conspiracy charge and admitted conspiring to commit the crimes of health care fraud, making false statements, theft of government funds and Social Security fraud.

Hobbs, the co-owner of Power-Med Inc., a chiropractic clinic in Arnold, Missouri, admitted that he falsely claimed to have a medical license. Despite his lack of a medical license, between 2011 and 2019 he purchased and dispensed prescription medications, administered injections and dispensed medications intravenously to patients. Hobbs admitted in his plea agreement that he knew he was not permitted to administer injections because the Missouri Board of Chiropractic Examiners placed him on probation for five years for fraudulently billing insurance companies for unlawfully administering injections.

Beginning in 2011, Hobbs also fraudulently assisted patients in receiving disability benefit payments through the Social Security Administration’s Disability Trust Fund and through private disability benefit insurance providers.

Hobbs charged patients between $2,000 and $8,600 to prepare disability forms and coach them to lie to the Social Security Administration and insurers about their ability to perform basic activities such as lifting, standing, walking, sitting, remembering and taking care of their personal needs. 

Hobbs also used a fictitious medical license number to buttress patients’ disability claims so that his medical determinations would be given greater weight than those of medical experts evaluating the claims on behalf of the Social Security Administration and private disability benefit insurers. To further bolster his misrepresentations, Hobbs submitted false and fraudulent medical reports to give the appearance that he had a long history with the patients. Hobbs submitted or caused to be submitted false and fraudulent claims for reimbursement to health care benefit programs for services that were not provided, medically unnecessary services or services provided by unqualified persons to make it appear that the disability patients had medical conditions. Those procedures included MRIs, CT scans and cardiovascular studies. He also submitted numerous claims for office visits when he had not provided the required face-to-face evaluation and management services to the patients.

Hobbs admitted the losses to the Social Security Administration and private insurers exceeded $3.5 million.

Hobbs is the seventh of ten individuals indicted in the case in 2020 to plead guilty.

Hobbs is scheduled to be sentenced April 19. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment for each count, a fine of $250,000, or both. Both sides have agreed to recommend a four-year prison term. Hobbs will also be ordered to repay the money.

The cases were investigated by the Social Security Administration – Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tracy Berry, Dorothy McMurtry Diane Klocke and Gwendolyn Carroll are prosecuting the case.

Anyone who suspects fraud involving the Disability Insurance Benefit Program is asked to contact the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General Hotline at: 1-800-269-0271 or https://oig.ssa.gov/report/.

ST. LOUIS – A man from East St. Louis, Illinois was arrested Wednesday on an indictment that accuses him of a role in the carjacking of a uniformed St. Louis Sheriff’s deputy in November.

Montez L. Montgomery, 18, was indicted November 16 on one count of carjacking and one count of possession and brandishing of a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime. He appeared in U.S. District Court in St. Louis Wednesday.

The indictment alleges Montgomery aided and abetted others in the carjacking of a 2011 Chevrolet Cruz and possessed the firearm used in the carjacking.

A detention motion says Montgomery provided the gun to two juveniles “for the express purposes of completing a carjacking in St. Louis.” It also says Montgomery discarded the deputy’s personal items, hid the carjacked vehicle and was later caught in it, with the gun used in the crime. 

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The carjacking charge carries a potential penalty of up to 15 years in prison, and the firearm charge carries a penalty of seven years to life in prison consecutive to any other charge.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Tuesday sentenced a man from St. Louis, Missouri to 17 ½ years in prison for four armed robberies during one month in the summer of 2020.

Louquincy Carr, 37, pleaded guilty in September to four robbery charges, one charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of brandishing a firearm during a robbery. He admitted the armed robbery of the T-Mobile store at 3630 South Grand Boulevard on July 24 and August 4 of 2020, a Boost Mobile store at 3706 South Grand Boulevard on Aug. 14, 2020 and a Wingstop restaurant at 3626 South Grand Boulevard on Aug. 25, 2020.

During the July 24 robbery, Carr poured a bottle of hand sanitizer over the store’s counter and ordered the clerk to take off his shirt and wipe away any fingerprints, according to Carr’s guilty plea. But Carr’s fingerprints were later found by police on the sanitizer bottle.

During the August 14 robbery, he demanded money at gunpoint from two employees, stole cash from the register and took about 15 new cell phones from the store.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Szczucinksi.

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis, Missouri was arrested by the FBI Friday on a federal charge that accuses him of being caught in an online sex sting.

James Wessley Rankin, 46, was charged by complaint in U.S. District Court in St. Louis Friday with one count of transfer of obscene material to a minor.

An affidavit filed in support of the complaint says Rankin responded to a posting on an anonymous chat site by an undercover detective with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in California. Rankin, using the screen name “Lonely Nerd,” struck up a conversation with the detective, who was pretending to be a 14-year-old girl. Rankin sent the “teen” an obscene picture and began making plans to pick her up from her home, the affidavit says.

Rankin is listed on Missouri’s sex offender registry after being found guilty in Greene County Circuit Court of first-degree statutory rape, the affidavit says. He was sentenced in March 2021, to five years in prison. He was also found guilty in Christian County Circuit Court of endangering the welfare of a child and domestic assault in 2019 and sentenced to probation and shock incarceration time. 

At the time of his arrest, Rankin was living at a locked transition house in St. Louis that allowed him passes to go to work during the day, the affidavit says.

Rankin appeared in court Friday and has been ordered jailed.

Charges set forth in a criminal complaint are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, Missouri on Friday convicted a man of all charges connected to a series of carjackings and a home invasion in May of 2021.

Jurors deliberated less than two hours before convicting Drew Clark, 37, of three counts of carjacking, three counts of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and one count of possession of a stolen firearm.

Clark, of the 4000 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, started by stealing a man’s Jeep Cherokee at Union Station in St. Louis on May 22, 2021 as the victim was unloading the vehicle, according to evidence presented at trial. Inside was the man’s 9mm handgun.

Four days later, Clark committed a series of crimes in less than four hours, often discarding items he’d previously stolen and stealing new clothing, vehicles and other items.

“This was an absolute rampage,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Finlen told jurors during closing arguments Friday morning.

Just before noon on May 26, 2021, Clark left the first victim’s Jeep near a commercial business in the 3700 block of South 1st Street and stole a white Dodge Ram belonging to the business. One worker tried to block Clark in with his own truck, until Clark aimed the stolen handgun at him and forced him to move out of the way.

About 30 minutes later, Clark burglarized a home in the 2700 block of South 13th Street, taking a wallet and debit card, a set of keys and running shoes and leaving behind the Dodge Ram and work boots. He unsuccessfully tried to use the debit card, then tossed it in a dumpster behind a nearby deli.

Shortly thereafter, in the same block, he entered the home of a woman and demanded money at gunpoint. He stole her keys and her Jeep Cherokee, leaving the terrified woman zip-tied in her bathroom.

At roughly 1:30 p.m., he left the Jeep in the 1100 block of South 7th Street, along with a blue jacket he had been wearing. He put on a safety vest and helmet stolen from the woman’s home and walked towards the Purina facility just south of downtown. After wandering around the grounds and buildings and changing into clothing he stole from an employee’s locker, he carjacked a Subaru Impreza from a different employee who was on his way to happy hour.

He left the Subaru in the 1600 block of South 9th Street, leaving behind a Purina vest, temporary contractor badge and radio in the Subaru.

St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers spotted him nearby. Clark fled on foot, running through another victim’s home before officers were able to catch and subdue him. He had the stolen handgun and a backpack containing an unused zip tie, keys from Purina and items from the Jeep stolen at Union Station: a business card, gift card envelopes and a charging plug.

At sentencing later this year, Clark faces up to 15 years in prison on the carjacking charges, up to ten years in prison on the stolen gun charge and seven years to life in prison for each brandishing charge, consecutive to the other charges, for a total of at least 21 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police and the FBI.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan Finlen and Jennifer Szczucinski are prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A man from Mexico, Missouri on Thursday admitted repeatedly raping a 13-year-old runaway on a trip to Las Vegas.

Jacob D. Burney, 24, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey to a charge of transportation of a minor to engage in a criminal sex act.

Burney admitted becoming involved in a relationship with a 13-year-old in 2021. Sometime before Dec. 8, 2021, the victim ran away from home to be with Burney. The teen was reported missing, and Homeland Security Investigations received a National Hotline Tip on Dec. 14, 2021 about the missing teen.

Burney switched vehicles and left Missouri to prevent law enforcement officers from finding the teen. They traveled first to Illinois and then to Las Vegas. During the trip, Burney provided drugs and alcohol to the teen and committed the crime of statutory rape repeatedly, he admitted in his plea agreement. 

Burney is scheduled to be sentenced April 12. The charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Missouri State Technical Assistance Team.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Collins is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS –U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Thursday sentenced a man who fled from police in a stolen car after a shooting and a gun sale to five years and 10 months in prison.

Michael Joseph Monroe sold a 9mm pistol for $325 to a confidential informant working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on August 21, 2019 near the Dellwood Market. 

Investigators then learned that shortly before the gun deal, the passenger of a car matching the description of Monroe’s stolen Audi A6 fired multiple shots at another car on westbound Interstate 270 near Old Halls Ferry Road. The victim’s vehicle was hit six times, including three times directly underneath the left driver’s side door, but the victim was not injured.

Monroe suspected he was being followed by the police or a rival drug dealer, and told his passenger, Treyvon Perry, to fire at the other car, according to a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors.

Police located the Audi and Monroe fled, reaching speeds in excess of 100 mph before he crashed about 12 miles later. 

Police found fentanyl, cocaine base, oxycodone and a mixture of other drugs in the car, as well as a single bullet. They believed Perry discarded his gun during the chase.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul D’Agrosa told Judge Schelp Thursday that Monroe had repeatedly been caught with drugs or drug paraphernalia, both before and after his federal indictment.

Judge Schelp told Monroe, “This behavior was out of control,” before sentencing him.

Monroe, 25, pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiracy to possess a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, which was possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. 

Judge Schelp sentenced Treyvon Perry, then 20, to five years in prison in October on one count of conspiracy to possess and discharge a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the St. Louis County Police Department.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul D’Agrosa prosecuted the case.   
 

CAPE GIRARDEAU – U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. on Wednesday sentenced a man from Steele, Missouri who tried to rob a convenience store to seven years and 10 months in prison.

Mark Jones, 39, pleaded guilty to an attempted robbery charge in October. Charging documents say he tried to rob the Smokers Cloud convenience store in Caruthersville, Missouri on May 7 while in possession of a firearm. Jones was masked and wearing a Tyvek suit at the time.

Jones fled when the clerk, who was armed, fired a shot to protect himself and the store’s patrons, according to court documents.

The case was investigated by the Caruthersville Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Shelton prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis, Missouri caught with two illegally modified, fully automatic Glock handguns and suspected narcotics has been charged with a federal gun crime.

Courtlend D. Green, 25, was charged by complaint in U.S. District Court in St. Louis with being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is in custody and is scheduled to appeal in federal court Tuesday.

An affidavit filed in support of the complaint says St. Louis Metropolitan Department officers were told that Green, a documented gang member, was selling narcotics. Police spotted Green and surrounded him in his parked car, deploying spike strips. Green drove off and crashed into an occupied vehicle a short distance away and then fled on foot before he was arrested, the affidavit says.

Police found two Glock handguns modified with conversion devices, also known as switches, that make them fully automatic, the affidavit says. One had a drum magazine containing 41 rounds and the other had a 20-round extended magazine. Police also found suspected narcotics. Green was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in St. Louis Circuit Court in 2022 and is therefore not permitted to possess a firearm, the affidavit says.

Federal and state officials at a news conference Thursday warned of Glock switches and the dangerous trend of an increase in conversion devices being used and found in the St. Louis area and around the country.

Christopher Beavers, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Thursday that the ATF has seen a 500% increase in the number conversion devices recovered as part of criminal investigations across the country.

Lt. Col. Michael Sack of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, said the crime lab has seen a similar large increase in the number of Glock switches seized and analyzed, with one in 2019, one in 2020, 27 in 2022 and three in the first five days of 2023 alone.

U.S. Attorney Sayler Fleming said, “Our office is taking this extremely seriously and we will use all of the statutes and all the punishment provisions that we have available to us.”

“Under federal law, the mere possession of the device is punishable by up to 10 years in prison,” Fleming said, even if not installed in or on a firearm.

But Fleming also cautioned that if a firearm with a conversion device is used while committing a serious drug offense or a crime of violence as defined by federal law, “you’re going to be looking at… not less than 30 years imprisonment. And let me add that that is consecutive to any other sentence you may receive.”

Fleming said a Glock with a conversion device was used to fatally shoot 16-year-old Terrion Smith in downtown St. Louis in March.

Officers are also seeing more high-capacity magazines being used with the firearms.

“These things are dangerous to our officers because of the rate of fire of these weapons,” Sack said. “They are also dangerous to everybody in the neighborhood because of their inaccuracy.”

A fully automatic pistol is difficult to control and “inherently dangerous,” he said.

Both Beavers and Sack said the devices also frequently malfunction.

Sack also said that there were 66 ShotSpotter reports of fully automatic gunfire in St. Louis in 2021 and 339 through December 12th of 2022. St. Louis County has seen similar increases, as the weapons move frequently between jurisdictions.

Green also faces drug, weapon and other charges in St. Louis Circuit Court.

Charges set forth in a criminal complaint are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

ST. LOUIS – A business owner from St. Louis County, Missouri on Tuesday admitted a role in fraudulently applying for pandemic-related loans totaling $231,100.

Joe C. Cohen Jr., 66, of Bel Ridge, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry to two felony counts of theft of government property.

Cohen admitted providing his personal information to someone who submitted applications for Economic Injury Disaster Loans for two of Cohen’s businesses with falsified information, overstating the revenue and number of employees for the businesses. The loans were intended to help business owners struggling with the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cohen knew that this person was going to submit the applications, and deposited the resulting loan money, $110,000 in one loan and $121,100 in the other, into his checking accounts, according to his guilty plea. He then transferred a portion of the money to the man who applied for the loans.

Cohen was indicted in October. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 14 and could face up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. He will also be ordered to repay the money.

The case was investigated by the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Klocke is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Tuesday sentenced a retired St. Louis priest who created PowerPoint presentations containing child pornography to five years in prison.

Judge Schelp also ordered James T. Beighlie, 72, to pay $4,750 in restitution to one of the victims portrayed in the child pornography, and $22,000 in special assessments that will go towards other victims of crimes involving children. After his release from prison, he will be on supervised release for life.

Beighlie possessed 6,000 images containing child sexual abuse material on one computer, including about 3,000 images containing child pornography and 2,992 images of child erotica. Beighlie created two PowerPoint presentations with graphic titles that linked to thousands of the images, and often visited and edited the presentations over a period of years. Another computer had 236 images and 40 videos containing child sexual abuse material.

“It’s depressing and sickening to know that people were looking at images and videos of my online sexual abuse when I was a little girl and that they were getting pleasure from it – my abuse,” wrote one of the victims in a letter to Judge Schelp.

Beighlie had been looking at child sexual abuse material since at least 2008, Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Lang said in court, and revised his PowerPoint presentations more than 200 times. “This criminal conduct was part of his daily life,” Lang said.

On May 17, 2021, while he was working at the Congregation of the Mission in St. Louis, colleagues found compromising images of Beighlie on a church printer.

The church launched an internal investigation. When a private IT support company found what appeared to be videos of minors engaging in sex acts, an attorney for the church contacted the FBI.

Beighlie pleaded guilty in October to two counts of possession of child pornography.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Lang is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Friday sentenced a University City, Missouri business owner to 30 months in prison and ordered him to repay $650,000 that he reaped from bank and pandemic-related fraud.

Le Mell Harlston, 36, used the Social Security number assigned to a minor from the Kansas City, Missouri area and a number that had not been assigned to anyone to apply for loans and lines of credit at credit unions and banks.

After Harlston’s indictment in January of 2021, investigators learned that he had applied for a series of Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans offered under the CARES Act. Those loans were intended to help business owners negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Harlston applied for EIDL funding for four companies registered to him in July 2020 but used another minor’s Social Security number on the application.

Harlston, using his own Social Security number, also received multiple PPP loans in February 2021 after certifying that he was only applying for one loan. He applied for two PPP loans after being arraigned in federal court and lied when asked on the applications whether he was under indictment.

In all, Harlston caused a loss of $653,332, including $551,830 in CARES Act funds.

Harlston pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in August to five counts of bank fraud and nine counts of misuse of a Social Security number.

“The sentence holds Mr. Harlston accountable for his criminal acts of misusing multiple Social Security numbers to defraud several financial institutions and creditors, as well as to fraudulently obtain CARES Act funds. My office will continue working with our law enforcement partners to protect the integrity of Social Security numbers,” said Gail S. Ennis, Inspector General for the Social Security Administration.  

U.S. Attorney Sayler Fleming said, “This case is one of almost four dozen pandemic fraud-related cases that are being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s office. We are continuing to aggressively prosecute these cases. Anyone with information about pandemic fraud should call the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or report via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.”

The Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General and Small Business Administration Office of the Inspector General investigated this case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Klocke prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel on Friday sentenced a man from St. Peters, Missouri to four and one-half years in prison for downloading and sharing child pornography via a variety of social media apps.

Eric S. Crews, 38, will be on supervised release for life after his release from prison.

Crews used social media, including Kik Messenger, Viber, WhatsApp and TamTam, to send and receive child pornography. When Crews uploaded 14 files containing child sexual abuse material to Kik Messenger on Nov. 11, 2020 and shared them with at least one other Kik user, it triggered an alert to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to Crews’ plea agreement. After a court-approved search of Crews’ home by St. Charles County police on June 15, 2021, investigators found at least 5,400 images and 610 videos containing child pornography on Crews’ Apple iPhone.

Crews pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in October to a charge of possession of child pornography.

The St. Charles County Cyber Crime Task Force and the FBI investigated this case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis, Missouri was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday and accused of a fatal shooting in November linked to the distribution of fentanyl.

Terrell Donta McDaniel, 41, was indicted on one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl and one count of murder through the use of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.

The indictment accuses McDaniel of discharging a firearm on November 2 resulting in the premeditated murder of Andre Nash.

An affidavit filed with a criminal complaint on December 7 says McDaniel shot Nash over a drug debt in the 4100 block of Clara Place in St. Louis and then dumped the body in the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood in St. Louis.

The fentanyl conspiracy charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, a $1 million fine, or both. The firearm charge is punishable by a sentence of up to life in prison, a $250,000 fine or both.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Wednesday sentenced a woman from Franklin County, Missouri to two more years in prison for fraudulently applying for three Paycheck Protection Program loans after she had pleaded guilty to an unrelated $727,000 embezzlement case.

Judge Schelp on Wednesday called Christen Diane Schulte’s conduct “outrageous” and “very aggravating.” 

Schulte, now 37, had pleaded guilty and was awaiting sentencing on the embezzlement case in the spring of 2021 when she fraudulently applied for three PPP loans, designed to help save small businesses and jobs from economic losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schulte lied on the loans when asked if she was facing or had been convicted of a felony, and when asked the same question about a felony involving fraud, bribery, embezzlement or a false statement in an application for a loan or for federal assistance. 

She also lied about the gross income for the “Mama Bear Cake Company.”

One application for a $13,691 loan was rejected due to her criminal history. A $13,566 loan was approved by a different financial institution. She then sought and received a “second draw” of $13,566 from that company, receiving the money on May 19, 2021.

Eight days later, Schulte was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison and ordered to repay $517,140 in the embezzlement case. She pleaded guilty in 2020 to two counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of money laundering and admitted embezzling funds from her employer and other individuals and entities associated with her employer. 

Schulte pleaded guilty in September to three more counts of bank fraud in the new case. She was also ordered on Wednesday to repay the loan money.

The FBI investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle T. Bateman is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A former employee of a St. Louis, Missouri area union appeared in court Wednesday to face a federal charge accusing her of embezzling nearly $20,000 from her union. 

Tina Metrolis, 54, was indicted September 28 on one felony count of embezzlement from a labor union. She was arrested December 16 in the Southern District of Mississippi and appeared in U.S. District Court in St. Louis Wednesday to plead not guilty to the charge.

The indictment alleges that Metrolis, while officer manager of Stage and Picture Operators IATSE Local 6, took the money from roughly February through December of 2019. She wrote about $19,533 worth of checks to herself and covered up the theft by altering accounting records, the indictment says. Her actions caused another $6,412 in losses due to penalties and interest on tax liabilities that were not paid during her tenure, the indictment says.

In 2020, Local 6 represented approximately 167 members who work for various theater production companies serving the greater St. Louis region and has collective bargaining agreements with approximately 30 employers. 

The charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Labor-Management Standards. Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Dowd III is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming announced today that the Eastern District of Missouri collected $16,069,243 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2022. Of this amount, $10,414,823 was collected in criminal actions and $5,654,419 was collected in civil actions. 

“The Eastern District of Missouri’s Financial Litigation Unit aggressively pursues money owed both to victims of crimes and the taxpayers,” said Fleming. “In addition, three days after the end of this fiscal year, the unit obtained a voluntary payment of $3,056,159 more from Anthony Swiantek, one of 20 defendants who admitted participating in a telemarketing fraud that targeted elderly victims.”

The payment satisfies the remaining balance of the over $4.2 million in restitution ordered by the court in Swiantek’s 2016 criminal case. After the Financial Litigation Unit suspected that Swiantek was concealing assets, the unit began pursuing Swiantek’s various assets, including his cryptocurrency. The unit issued multiple subpoenas and filed garnishments for Swiantek’s bank account, life insurance policy and individual retirement account, triggering Swiantek’s voluntary payment in exchange for releasing those garnishments.

The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the Justice Department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the U.S. and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims. The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss. While restitution is paid to the victim, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the department’s Crime Victims Fund, which distributes the funds collected to federal and state victim compensation and assistance programs.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Missouri, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $5,451,628 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2022. Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis, Missouri on Thursday admitted trying to rob a St. Louis supermarket at gunpoint in 2019.

Michael Chambers, 54, pleaded guilty by Zoom in front of U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel to one felony count of attempted robbery. He admitted approaching a store clerk at the Fields Foods on Lafayette Avenue in St. Louis on Nov. 23, 2019, brandishing a firearm and demanding the money in the cash register. The clerk refused and Chambers left the store. The attempted robbery was captured by the store surveillance cameras.

Chambers is scheduled to be sentenced March 22. Prosecutors and Chambers’ lawyer have agreed to recommend a sentence of 10 years in prison.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Christian Goeke is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Thursday sentenced a St. Louis County, Missouri man involved in a fentanyl distribution ring to 20 years in prison.

Anthony “Peta Man” Caldwell, 27, was the final defendant to be sentenced out of 11 people who distributed multiple kilograms of fentanyl in the St. Louis area over the course of the conspiracy, which began at least as far back as January 2018.

Caldwell was also identified as the man who used a semi-automatic rifle to shoot a woman in her car on Interstate 70 in St. Louis on April 30, 2019, sparking the FBI to begin investigating, according to court filings.

The investigation, which also involved the Drug Enforcement Administration, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the St. Louis County Police Department, would eventually uncover a drug ring that was supplied by an Arizona man charged in a different case. That man supplied fentanyl to Caldwell’s co-defendants, Kevin White and Maricus Futrell, through the use of couriers or by mailing packages of fentanyl. White and Futrell then supplied Caldwell and others.

Caldwell was responsible for between 1.2 and 4 kilos of fentanyl as part of the conspiracy, court records show, and the whole conspiracy was responsible for 12 kilograms. Caldwell supplied other conspirators and sold the drug in the Fairgrounds Park neighborhood of St. Louis.

Investigators recovered fentanyl, cash, assault rifles, handguns and a stolen Dodge Charger during the case.

White, 29, of St. Louis County, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Futrell, 22, of St. Louis County, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in a related case.

Caldwell was shot in the head shortly before he was arrested in connection with the case, according to court records and testimony. He pleaded guilty in August to a drug conspiracy charge.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Wednesday sentenced a man who carjacked two people in 2021, including a grandmother and her granddaughter, to 28 years and 10 months in prison.

Darius Eubanks, 28, first stole a 2012 Chevrolet Malibu at gunpoint at a north St. Louis grocery store on the afternoon of June 27, 2021. He then unsuccessfully tried to kidnap someone at gunpoint before crashing the stolen vehicle at Labadie Avenue and North Sarah Street in north St. Louis.

Eubanks abandoned that vehicle and walked to a nearby market, where he pistol-whipped a woman who was placing her granddaughter into a 2005 Hyundai Sonata, knocking the woman to the ground. As the woman struggled to get her granddaughter out of the car, Eubanks began driving off.

Less than 30 minutes later, Eubanks was caught by police near his home in the 5000 block of Palm Avenue with a gun and the grandmother’s car keys.

In court Wednesday, the grandmother said she and her granddaughter were traumatized and that she would “never forgive” Eubanks.

Eubanks pleaded guilty in September to two carjacking charges and a charge of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Wednesday sentenced a man who sold the fentanyl that killed a St. Peters, Missouri woman in 2020 to 18 years and four months in prison.

Nathan Matson, 27, of O’Fallon, Missouri, met with the victim in the driveway of her home on July 4, 2020 and sold her ten capsules containing fentanyl for $100.

When the victim contacted Matson to ask him what he sold her, Matson lied and said it was morphine, according to a sentencing memorandum. Knowing that she was in distress, Matson could have contacted the victim’s family or called 911 but did not.

The woman’s mother discovered her daughter dead in her bedroom the next day.

The St. Peters Police Department investigated and both Matson and his co-defendant, Jason Post, admitted their role to police.

In court Wednesday, the victim’s sister said Matson, “took advantage of someone who trusted him.” She said her sister would still be alive if she’d never met Matson.

The victim’s mother said, “I can’t understand why Nathan Matson would give my daughter a drug that would kill her and drive away, knowing what was going to happen.”

The sentencing memo says Matson tested positive for opiates 25 times since he was charged, suggesting he must have been selling fentanyl to support his own drug addiction even after the 2020 death. 

Matson pleaded guilty in August to a fentanyl distribution charge.

Post, 30, of O’Fallon, Missouri, pleaded guilty in February to aiding and abetting in the distribution fentanyl and was sentenced in July to eight years in prison. He drove Matson to St. Louis to purchase the fentanyl, and then drove Matson to the victim’s house. He was rewarded with five capsules of fentanyl.

“Poisonings involving opioids jumped to more than 80,000 last year and are the leading cause of death for those ages 18 to 45,” said Special Agent in Charge Michael A. Davis, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration division that leads DEA investigations in Missouri. "The gravity of this problem is one reason the DEA and our law enforcement partners, like the St. Peters Police Department, take these investigations so seriously and why long sentences are appropriate.”

The St. Peters Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration investigated this case.

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis was arrested Thursday on an indictment that accuses him of manufacturing and selling fake temporary vehicle license tags.

Mario C. Cooks, 34, was indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis Wednesday on six felony counts of fraudulent transfer of an authentication feature. The indictment says Cooks used a fake watermark and seal of the Missouri Department of Revenue on temporary motor vehicle license tags produced between June 28 and December 6.

In a court-approved search Thursday morning of Cooks’ home in the 5300 block of Claxton Avenue, the United States Secret Service, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, St. Charles Police Department and the Missouri Department of Revenue seized computer equipment, counterfeit temporary motor vehicle documents and counterfeit motor vehicle titles.

In an affidavit filed to obtain the search warrant, an agent of the U.S. Secret Service said the investigation began when police in St. Charles learned that Cooks was offering fraudulent temporary motor vehicle tags as well as a fraudulent license plate that appeared to have been issued by the State of Missouri to a licensed car dealership. An undercover police officer then purchased a series of fraudulent temporary motor vehicle tags and automobile insurance cards from Cooks, the affidavit says.

“The people using these temporary tags are not just those trying to avoid paying their taxes. Some are using them to conceal their possession of stolen vehicles or to thwart their identification while committing crimes,” said St. Charles Police Chief Ray Juengst. “This is a great example of collaboration between agencies that will have a positive impact throughout the metro area.”

“This arrest disrupted a sophisticated criminal enterprise designed to defraud the State of Missouri,” said Thomas Landry, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s St. Louis Field Office.  “I commend the exceptional work of our partners and emphasize our agency’s ongoing commitment to combatting fraud at every level.”

Cook’s federal charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the St. Charles Police Department, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Secret Service and the Missouri Department of Revenue. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Berry is prosecuting the case. 

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Ronnie L. White on Tuesday sentenced a former St. Louis County, Missouri high school counselor who had sexual contact with one student and inappropriate contact with nine others to 15 years in prison.

After James Q. Jenkins, 38, is released from prison, he will be on supervised release for life and will have to register as a sex offender. 

In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson said Jenkins executed a “carefully orchestrated web of manipulation” that lasted months, and used students’ religious beliefs or past sexual abuse to prey on them.

She pointed out that Jenkins had been placed on administrative leave and counseled by a prior school for inappropriate behavior with students and sought a job at a third school even after his offenses in St. Louis County came to light in the summer of 2021.

In a letter about Jenkins to Judge White, the mother of one victim wrote, “He was supposed to be helping our seniors map out colleges to help them into the next step of their educational path. Instead, he was manipulating and grooming our girls for his pleasure while traumatizing them for life at the same time.”  The mother added that her daughter wanted to attend the sentencing hearing but “couldn't handle the emotional turmoil from it.”

Jenkins pleaded guilty in September to two felonies, coercion and enticement of a minor and transfer of obscene material to minors, and admitted engaging in a pattern of inappropriate activity with multiple students between Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 1, 2021.

Jenkins contacted a 15-year-old student on her personal cell phone and via social media, his plea agreement says. Jenkins told her that he was very sexual, requested nude pictures and sent her nude pictures. He claimed he loved her and told her he wanted to have sex with her.

Jenkins complimented the body of a second teen and told her that he wanted to engage in phone sex with her.

Jenkins communicated with a third teen in a sexual manner, sent her nude pictures of himself and requested pictures in return. He also engaged in sexual conduct with the teen while she was a student, on occasion leaving school early to do so. The girl originally began meeting with Jenkins for counseling because of challenges at home.

Jenkins brought up inappropriate topics with a fourth student, arranged to smoke marijuana with her and asked her to teach him a “sensual” dance.

About six more students told authorities that Jenkins made comments about their bodies, communicated with them on their personal cellular telephones and social media accounts, tried to make plans with them outside of school, showed them sexual videos, called them by pet names and touched them in a manner that was inappropriate and uncomfortable.

One teen told other counselors that Jenkins took off his shirt on a Zoom call and touched himself after telling her to share details about when she was molested.   

The St. Louis County Police Department investigated this case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – On Monday, a man from Texas admitted targeting a St. Louis woman in a $1.2 million romance scam.

Rotimi Oladimeji, 37, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel to two counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. He admitted in his plea obtaining or trying to obtain more than $1.2 million from the woman.

Oladimeji admitted that in May of 2019, someone in Nigeria created a fake LinkedIn profile of a veterinarian and animal behaviorist who was purportedly a Belgian national living in St. Louis. They used a picture of a German man. 

In August of that year, a St. Louis woman created an online dating profile. Several months later, Oladimeji and others began communicating with the victim, using the Belgian identity. The perpetrators of the fraud made plans to meet the victim, but never followed through. On one occasion, they left her waiting at the Missouri Botanical Garden. 

Oladimeji then told the victim that the Belgian was taking a business trip to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. One day after his alleged arrival, Oladimeji texted the victim, claiming that he needed help with “an urgent business issue,” and $15,000, the plea says. That began a pattern of texts requesting electronic transfers of cash from the victim between October 2019 and March of 2020. In total, the victim sent or attempted to send $931,000 to her scammers in a mistaken belief that the Belgian would not be permitted to leave Dubai unless she paid, the plea says. 

Oladimeji also had the victim send cash and cashier’s checks via FedEx to the Texas home of his co-defendant, Olumide Akrinmade, 37, of Richardson, Texas, his plea says. Oladimeji admitted recruiting Akinrinmade and Adewale Adesanya, another Texas resident, to receive the finds, the plea says, in exchange for a cut of the money.

The victim sent about $314,000 to Texas that way, the plea says.

Oladimeji admitted taking part of the money for his role in the scam. The majority went to other scammers in Nigeria and the United States, the plea says.

The scam began to unravel on February 3, 2021, when Oladimeji returned to the United States from a trip to Nigeria. Upon his arrival in Atlanta, Georgia, Homeland Security Investigations agents inspected two phones belonging to Oladimeji and discovered text messages from and to his victim.

Each count to which Oladimeji pleaded guilty carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both. Oladimeji is scheduled to be sentenced in March 23. He will also be ordered to repay the money, and could face deportation.

Akinrinmade’s case is pending. He has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud and four counts of mail fraud.

Adesanya pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Dallas in April and was sentenced in September to four years in prison. He was also ordered to repay $1.5 million that resulted from various frauds.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Berry is prosecuting the case. 

For information about how to spot and guard against romance scams, go to ice.gov/features/romance-scams.

ST. LOUIS – A man from East St. Louis on Monday admitted assaulting Park Rangers in an incident that began on the grounds of the Gateway Arch National Park.

Antione Lamont Hawkins, 38, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry to two counts of assaulting an officer. 

Hawkins admitted that on Feb. 28, 2021, Park Rangers made a lawful traffic stop of a vehicle in the Old Cathedral parking lot. Hawkins was in the driver’s seat. An open beer bottle was in the vehicle and an open beer carton was in the backseat.

Hawkins gave his name to the rangers but refused to provide identification and refused to keep his hands on the steering wheel before becoming confrontational.  He admitted that he had been drinking.

When rangers tried to handcuff Hawkins, he struggled and resisted, stomping on one ranger’s foot and kicking him in the leg. When rangers tried to put him in a patrol vehicle, he kicked a ranger in the face.

During a struggle in jail, Hawkins grabbed a different ranger by the throat.

At his sentencing March 23, Hawkins could face up to eight years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both on each count.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman is prosecuting the case. 

ST. LOUIS – A man who led St. Louis police on a high-speed chase Thursday was charged Friday with a federal gun crime. 

Anthony L. Rogers, 35, of St. Louis, was charged by complaint in U.S. District Court in St. Louis with being a felon in possession of a firearm. 

The criminal complaint says the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department was looking for Rogers, and a GMC Yukon SUV that he was driving, in connection with a November 30 homicide in St. Louis. Police spotted the Yukon Thursday in St. Louis and officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop, the complaint says. Rogers refused to pull over and instead drove away, the complaint says.

Police followed Rogers into St. Louis County, where he threw a Glock 9mm pistol out of the window, and then north on Interstate 55 into St. Louis, where he discarded the pistol’s magazine, the complaint says. The pursuit continued through downtown St. Louis and onto westbound Interstate 70. Rogers exited the interstate at Riverview Boulevard and pulled to the curb, where he was arrested, the complaint says

The firearm charge carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both.

Charges set forth in a complaint are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Finlen is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – Two men from East St. Louis, Illinois have been accused of a St. Louis carjacking last month, using a vehicle that had been carjacked a week earlier.

Quinn Turner, 20, and Jaylen Mays, 25, were indicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on one count of carjacking and one count of possession and brandishing of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Mays was also indicted on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The indictment says they aided and abetted each other and others known and unknown to the grand jury to steal a 2017 GMC Terrain on November 13. On that same date, Mays was in possession of a firearm despite being a convicted felon, the indictment says.

A detention motion says the GMC was stolen from a gas station at the northwest corner of Russell Boulevard and South 7th Street in the Soulard neighborhood by men in a Nissan Rogue and a Chevrolet Malibu.

Three men, including two armed men, rushed the driver of the GMC, ordered him to the ground and took his wallet and keys. All three vehicles were then driven away.

Detectives assigned to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department's Anti-Crime Task Force utilized spike strips to stop the Malibu. Quinn, Mays and a juvenile that matched the description of one of the armed men were inside the car with a Glock .40 caliber semiautomatic pistol, the motion says. The juvenile was in possession of the victim’s wallet and the Malibu had been taken in a carjacking in the downtown business district just a week earlier, the motion says.

The carjacking and felon in possession charges carry a potential penalty of up to 15 years in prison. The firearm charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Martin is prosecuting the case. 

ST. LOUIS – A woman from St. Louis County, Missouri on Wednesday admitted committing both an armed robbery and carjacking in 2021.

Kadijah McFadden, 29, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp to carjacking, discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, robbery, brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

McFadden admitted robbing a Boost Mobile store at 12135 Bellefontaine Road at gunpoint on Aug. 9, 2021. McFadden pointed a firearm at a store employee and said, “give me everything out the drawer right now.” She stole approximately $630 as well as multiple cell phones. 

McFadden also admitted that on Sept. 5, 2021 around 9 a.m., she approached a woman in the 3600 block of Bates Street who had just parked her 2017 Jeep Cherokee and was unloading groceries. McFadden pointed a large black handgun at the victim and demanded her purse before trying to snatch it. McFadden did get the victim’s car keys. She then walked to the opposite side of the Jeep, opened the passenger side door and again demanded the purse before firing a total of four shots into the air and at the ground.

McFadden then stole the Jeep. The incident was captured on video.

About three hours later, St. Louis County police spotted the Jeep and followed it. During the pursuit, McFadden threw a black firearm out of the vehicle, but police recovered it. The Jeep eventually crashed and McFadden and her co-defendant, Damonta Jamall Bridges, were found inside.

A robbery and gun charge are pending against Bridges, 30, who has pleaded not guilty.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the St. Louis County Police Department and the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley Walker is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Francois County, Missouri on Wednesday pleaded guilty to his third child pornography offense and now faces at least 15 years in federal prison.

James D. Brewer, 50, of Park Hills, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp to a felony charge of receiving child pornography.

As part of his plea, Brewer acknowledged that he was also convicted of distribution of child pornography in a 1997 case and possession of child pornography in a 2008 case. Brewer was sentenced to ten years in prison and a lifetime term of supervised release in the 2008 case. One of the conditions of Brewer’s supervised release is that he is subject to a search when reasonable suspicion exists that he violated a condition of supervision.

After United States probation officers received information that Brewer bought a laptop at a pawn shop, they conducted an unannounced home visit on March 1, 2022. They found the computer and also spotted a smart phone, USB drives, a smart watch and a cell phone. Brewer admitted downloading child sexual abuse material via the smart phone and storing it on one of the USB drives. Thousands of images containing child pornography were found on the phone, the USB drive and a hard drive, Brewer admitted in his plea Wednesday.

Brewer faces a mandatory minimum prison term of 15 years at his sentencing, scheduled for March 14, as well as an assessment of up to $35,000.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Probation Office in St. Louis.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that a Missouri man pled guilty to hate crime and arson violations for burning down the Cape Girardeau Islamic Center (the Center) in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

According to court documents, on April 24, 2020, which was the first morning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at approximately 4:50 a.m., Nicholas John Proffitt, 44, set fire to the Islamic Center at 298 Northwest End Boulevard, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The Center’s video security system showed Proffitt throwing multiple objects through the building’s glass window, causing it to break. Proffitt threw two containers into the Center through the broken window and stepped through the window to enter the Center. He then poured the contents of two gallon-sized containers throughout the foyer and down the hallway. Proffitt lit two fires that immediately spread through the inside of the building. The Islamic Center building suffered severe damage that rendered it unsuitable for use as a religious center. Proffitt admitted that he set the fire to the Islamic Center because of the religious character of the building.

“Attacks on houses of worship, like the Cape Girardeau Islamic Center, strike at the very heart of religious freedom and observance,” said Assistant Attorney Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’ Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute individuals who violently target religious institutions and communities.”

“This is the second time Nicholas Proffitt attacked the Islamic Center in Cape Girardeau, and his third attack against a house of worship,” said U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming for the Eastern District of Missouri. “He placed the occupants of that building at risk of death or serious injury, and he will be held responsible for his actions with a significant prison sentence.”

“The FBI just released the 2021 statistics on reported hate crime incidents nationwide. In Missouri, incidents reported to law enforcement jumped by almost 70%,” said Special Agent in Charge Jay Greenberg of the FBI St. Louis Division. “The FBI elevated investigating hate crimes as one of the top priorities for the Bureau because of the alarming increases in recent years. As such, the FBI and our law enforcement partners left no stone unturned to bring Nicholas Proffitt and other perpetrators to justice.”

“ATF has a long tradition of fire and arson investigation. In no case is that expertise more critical than a fire such as this,” said Special Agent in Charge Fred Winston of the ATF Kansas City Field Division. “When a house of worship is intentionally damaged by fire, it is not only that congregation that suffers, but the entire community. Religious centers, churches and mosques are often at the center of our neighborhoods, offering sanctuaries of peace and caring to those in need. Today’s guilty plea is a direct result of local, state, and federal law enforcement working together to ensure justice in this unthinkable act.”

Sentencing is scheduled for May 2, 2023. Proffitt faces up to 20 years in prison for damage to religious property and a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, consecutive to any other sentence, for using fire to commit a federal felony. Proffitt also faces a fine of up to $250,000 with respect to each charge.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department, the FBI Kansas City Field Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, the Missouri State Fire Marshal’s Office, and the Perryville Police Department investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hahn for the Eastern District of Missouri and Trial Attorney Noah Coakley II of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section prosecuted the case.
For more information and resources on the department’s efforts to combat hate crimes, visit www.justice.gov/hatecrimes.

ST. LOUIS – A man from Maryland Heights, Missouri on Wednesday admitted engaging in sexual activity with a 16-year-old runaway after they met playing an online game.

Terry E. Kuehnel, 48, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey to one felony count of coercion and enticement of a minor.

Kuehnel admitted meeting the girl in 2021 while plating an online game. At the time of initial communications, the girl was 15 but initially represented herself to be a young adult.

They began corresponding via text and audio and video communications. At that time, the girl reported that she made Kuehnel aware of her true age of 15 years. During communications, Kuehnel requested pictures of the girl’s genitals.

Kuehnel admitted in his plea that at some point he knew or had reason to know that the girl was a minor and it was not reasonable for him to believe she was older than 16. 

On June 5, 2021, ten days after she turned 16, the victim and Kuehnel arranged for her to travel from her home in another state to Missouri, where he met her in a department store parking lot. Kuehnel then brought the victim back to his home where he subjected her to unlawful sexual activity.

After her family reported her missing, law enforcement found the girl at Kuehnel’s home on June 6.

Kuehnel faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both at his sentencing, scheduled for March 15, 2023.

The case was investigated by the Maryland Heights Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting the case. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

CAPE GIRARDEAU – A man from Iron County, Missouri has been indicted on charges that accuse him of starting fires in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri and assaulting a law enforcement officer.

Lucas G. Henson, 36, appeared in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the charges. 

Henson was indicted December 6 on charges of assaulting a law enforcement officer, arson and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The indictment says Henson assaulted a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer on Oct. 23, 2022 in Wayne County, Missouri. On the same date, the indictment says he damaged United States property with fire and possessed a firearm as a convicted felon. 

Henson is currently facing charges including robbery, stealing a motor vehicle and resisting arrest in New Madrid Circuit Court related to the same incident. Charging documents in that case, 22NM-CR00930, say he set three fires in Butler and Wayne counties that damaged seven to eight acres of National Forest land and pointed a crossbow at the Forest Service officer.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Forest Service, the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Shelton is prosecuting the case. 

ST. LOUIS – A former supervisory motor vehicle inspector with the Missouri State Highway Patrol was indicted in U.S. District Court Wednesday and accused of taking cash bribes.

Larry S. Conrad's primary duty was to perform motor vehicle inspections at the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Troop C facility in south St. Louis County and sign and certify forms required for motor vehicle owners to apply for original Missouri Certificates of Title.

The indictment accuses Conrad of taking cash bribes ranging from $40 to $160 to pass vehicles, often falsifying certificates to indicate no apparent damage when there was visible damage to the vehicle being inspected. Conrad had owners place the cash bribes in the driver’s side door pocket, the indictment says. Conrad also took bribes ranging up to $300 to sign and certify inspection forms for vehicles which he never saw or inspected, the indictment says.

Conrad, 67, was indicted on one felony charge of using a facility in interstate commerce, a cellular telephone, to facilitate his bribery scheme which was unlawful under Missouri statutes prohibiting acceding to corruption and official misconduct.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the FBI, with the cooperation of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A disgruntled former employee on Tuesday admitted attacking a St. Charles restaurant with a Molotov cocktail in 2021.

Rashaad Cotton, 25, of St. Louis County, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to a felony charge of attempting to commit arson. Cotton admitted that on April 30, 2021 at approximately 6:20 p.m., he threw a Molotov cocktail on a residential street in a suburban area in St. Charles.

Twenty minutes later, Cotton threw a Molotov cocktail on the northeast side of the Sauce on the Side restaurant on Beale Street in St. Charles, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ware said in court Tuesday. He threw another near the front door. A juvenile female with Cotton threw a Molotov cocktail at a patio area, Cotton’s plea agreement says. The restaurant was open and serving customers. The pair then ran back to Cotton’s vehicle and sped away, but crashed into a curb and were arrested.

Cotton told police that he had been fired from the restaurant the night before and wanted to scare people.

At his sentencing, scheduled for April 19, Cotton could face five to 20 years in prison for the crime.

The case was investigated by the St. Charles Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ware is prosecuting the case. 

ST. LOUIS – Four teens from St. Louis County, Missouri are now facing federal charges in the fatal shooting of a cab driver in Hazelwood in April. 

Tywon Harris, now 19, Coron Dees, 19, and Jeremiah Allen, 18, were indicted in federal court in June on a robbery charge and a charge of aiding and abetting the commission of a murder. 

Trishawn Jones, who was 17 at the time of the shooting and turned 18 a few weeks later, was added in a superseding indictment Wednesday and now faces the same charges. Harris and Dees were 18 at the time of the shooting. 

Allen is also facing a charge of being an accessory after the fact.

The indictment accuses all four of involvement in the shooting death of Dewight Price, a driver for St. Louis County Cab, on April 24, 2022.

“Violent juvenile criminals are not beyond the reach of the federal criminal justice system.  As the St. Louis area sees an increase in juveniles committing violent crime, they should know the United States Attorney’s Office will be here to investigate and prosecute them,” said U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming. “Trishawn Jones is being accused of killing 54-year-old Dewight Price during a robbery less than three weeks before Jones turned 18, and after Price turned over all his money. I believe prosecuting a violent felony involving a gun under the juvenile system would not provide a range of punishment commensurate with this crime.”

In federal court, prior to indicting a juvenile, the U.S. Attorney’s Office must file charges under the Juvenile Delinquency Act and seek a court order to prosecute the juvenile as an adult.

A detention motion filed Wednesday says Harris used a fake name and address to hire a cab to take the teens to St. Louis County from downtown St. Louis following a party. During the ride, Harris redirected the cab to Hazelwood Central High School and planned the robbery with the other three teens, the motion says. When they arrived at the school, Dees and Jones demanded Price’s cash.  After Price turned over the money, he tried to get out of the cab. Harris opened his door and struck Price with it, knocking Price to the ground.  Jones then shot and killed Price, the motion says.

The robbery charge carries a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison, a $250,00 fine or both. The aiding and abetting murder charge carries a potential penalty of 10 years to life in prison and the same fine. The accessory charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, a fine of $125,000 or both.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis County Police Department and the FBI.

ST. LOUIS – A former official at a Missouri university pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal possession of child pornography charge.

Neil Anthony Outar, 44, of Rolla, could face up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both at his sentencing hearing, set for March 14.

The investigation began when the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department received a CyberTip about child pornography being uploaded to a Gmail account between Nov. 2, 2020, and Dec. 23, 2021. A detective determined the IP address used to upload the images was serviced by the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and traced the IP address to Outar, who was the university’s chief diversity officer at the time, Outar’s plea agreement says.

On Feb. 9, 2021, court-authorized searches were conducted of Outar’s home and office. Outar told detectives that he viewed child sexual abuse material. Investigators found child pornography in two of Outar’s email accounts, and determined that child pornography had been deleted from Outar’s home and work computers.

The case was investigated by the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department and Homeland Security Investigations.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc

ST. LOUIS – A former correctional officer at a Missouri prison was indicted Wednesday on a civil rights charge and two counts of possession of child pornography. 

Carl Hart, 36, of Farmington, was a corrections officer at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre at the time of the alleged assault, the indictment says.

The indictment says that on Oct. 28, 2021, Hart deprived an inmate of the right to be free from unreasonable force by assaulting him while he did not pose a threat to anyone. The inmate was injured, the indictment says.

The indictment also says Hart possessed child pornography between roughly April 21, 2018, and June 29, 2022.

Hart is also facing three child pornography charges in St. Francois County Circuit Court.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Krug is prosecuting the case. 

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Court Judge Stephen R. Clark on Tuesday sentenced the former president of the St. Louis Board of Alderman and two other former aldermen to prison for accepting multiple bribes to misuse their official positions. One alderman was also sentenced for committing insurance fraud in a separate case.

Judge Clark sentenced Lewis Reed, the former board president, to 45 months in prison on two bribery-related charges and fined him $18,500 to represent the value of the bribes and campaign contributions Reed accepted. 

Former 22nd Ward Alderman Jeffrey L. Boyd, the former board vice president, was sentenced to 36 months for two bribery-related charges in one case and two counts of wire fraud in the insurance fraud case. Judge Clark fined Boyd $23,688, twice the value of the bribes Boyd accepted.

Judge Clark sentenced Former 21st Ward Alderman John Collins-Muhammad to 45 months in prison and a $19,500 fine on two bribery-related charges and one charge of honest services bribery/wire fraud. 

“The victims here – the 300,000 residents of the city of St. Louis – expect their elected officials to do their jobs honestly and honorably, not line their pockets and swap official actions for cash,” said U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming. “I hope this case demonstrates that investigating and prosecuting public corruption has been and will continue to be one of the priorities of the Justice Department and this office.”

The victims here – the 300,000 residents of the city of St. Louis – expect their elected officials to do their jobs honestly and honorably, not line their pockets and swap official actions for cash. – U.S. Attorney Sayler Fleming

All three former aldermen helped a businessman, identified in court documents as “John Doe,” in multiple dealings with city agencies and sponsored, supported and signed off on multiple board bills before the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. All three also lied to FBI agents until confronted with photographs and recordings of themselves accepting bribes, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith wrote in a sentencing memo.

None of the former aldermen displayed any concern about taking bribes, demonstrating through their actions and their statements that “it was simply business as usual,” Goldsmith wrote.

As an example, when John Collins-Muhammad introduced Doe to another public official to seek his help winning trucking contracts, Collins-Muhammad warned Doe that he needed to be prepared to pay a bribe. “If you don’t throw him something, he’ll never come back,” Collins-Muhammad said on an undercover recording quoted in the memo.

“This case presents a picture of greed, pure and simple,” Goldsmith wrote in the memo. “These Defendants sold their elected offices in exchange for cash bribes, campaign donations, and other things of value with total disregard for the best interests of their constituents, the real victims in this case.”

“Small businesses contribute significantly to the economic engine of our communities. It’s hard enough for entrepreneurs to establish and grow their companies without needing to pay bribes to elected officials. What these three City of St. Louis aldermen did to selfishly line their own pockets was a slap in the face to our community,” said Special Agent in Charge Jay Greenberg of the FBI St. Louis Division. “If anyone is aware of misconduct or corruption by public officials, please contact the U.S. Attorney or the FBI. Without your courage to come forward, corrupt officials will be able to continue to abuse their power for their own benefit, instead of serving the constituents who elected them.”

All three former aldermen pleaded guilty in August to all the charges in their May 2022 indictment. 

Collins-Muhammad admitted accepting a total of $13,500 in cash, $3,000 in campaign contributions, a Volkswagen CC sedan and an Apple iPhone 11 to assist Doe obtain a multi-year property tax abatement for a building he was developing in Collins-Muhammad’s ward.

After the development sparked opposition from residents, Collins-Muhammad lied and told those residents that he would not continue to seek the tax incentives.

Collins-Muhammad also introduced Doe to other public officials, suggesting he bribe them as well. Collins-Muhammad received $3,000 for setting up the meeting with the public official about the trucking contracts. That official initially accepted a $10,000 bribe before returning the money and asking for two $5,000 checks to the official’s campaign account. The checks were never cashed or deposited and Doe never received any contracts. Collins-Muhammad then told Doe that the official wanted another $2,500 in cash, but Collins-Muhammad used the money to buy a 2008 Chevrolet Trailblazer for his own use.

Collins-Muhammad also received $1,000 from Doe for setting up a meeting with Boyd.

Reed took $6,000 in cash and $3,500 in campaign contributions to help Doe obtain Minority Business Enterprise certification and win city trucking and hauling contracts. Reed took another $9,000 total in cash to assist in the property tax abatement bid involving Collins-Muhammad.

Boyd admitted accepting a total of $9,500 from Doe for his help convincing the city’s Land Reutilization Authority to accept a lower bid from Doe for a commercial property on Geraldine Avenue in Boyd’s ward. The LRA ultimately accepted Doe’s $14,000 bid. The LRA initially listed the property as worth $50,000. Boyd then worked to get a property tax abatement for Doe.

In addition to the cash, Boyd accepted free repairs from Doe for two vehicles owned by Boyd.

In a separate case, Boyd admitted fraudulently submitting an insurance claim for three vehicles owned by Doe. A Jan. 17, 2021 accident at Doe’s used car lot damaged the vehicles, and when Doe learned that his insurance would not cover the damage, Boyd suggested falsely claiming that his company owned them.

Boyd then falsified and backdated vehicle sales records and Missouri Department of Revenue documents to claim he had paid $22,000 for the vehicles on Jan. 2. In addition to the claim for damages, Boyd also falsely attempted to claim a $200 daily storage fee for the damaged vehicles. Boyd’s insurance company ultimately rejected the claim, despite his attempt to have his insurance agent intervene.

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis pleaded guilty to a federal gun charge Tuesday and admitted possessing a Glock handgun and a stolen AR-15-style pistol while fleeing from police in a stolen car.

Eric Davis, 31, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge John A. Ross to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

In his plea agreement, Davis admitted driving a stolen Jeep Cherokee on May 4, 2021 and possessing a handgun and an AR-15-style pistol. St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers initially spotted the Jeep because it had no license plate, and it then sped away from a stop sign at Minerva and Hamilton Avenues. 

Officers tried to stop the Jeep in a parking lot, but Davis accelerated away recklessly and continued to flee even after officers used a spike strip. After Davis ran a red light at the intersection of Kingshighway Boulevard and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, the Jeep collided with another vehicle, injuring that driver. 

Police found a stolen American Tactical Omni Hybrid AR-style pistol on the backseat and a .357-caliber Glock 32 under the passenger seat. Both had large-capacity magazines.

Officers then discovered that Davis had several prior felony convictions and bench warrants for his arrest and confirmed that the Jeep had been stolen less than 48 hours earlier.

Davis’ sentencing is set for March 13. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. If Davis is determined to be an armed career criminal, he could face 15 years to life in prison. 

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Missouri Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachry Bluestone is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis County, Missouri has been indicted on drug and machine gun charges. 

The indictment charges Zavion McGee, 18, with four felonies: possession of at least 50 grams of methamphetamine, possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl, possession of one or more firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes and possession of a machine gun.

The indictment and a motion seeking to have McGee held in jail until trial say the charges stem from two incidents. On Oct. 29, 2022, McGee was in the passenger seat of a vehicle that crashed after fleeing from police. McGee had multiple guns near him and police found over 440 grams of methamphetamine and 6 grams of fentanyl in the vehicle. 

On Nov. 29, 2022, McGee was in possession of a fully automatic Glock handgun, defined under federal law as a machine gun, the court filings say. During a search of his home on that date, investigators seized suspected fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin, a double drum magazine for a Glock pistol and $8,101 in cash, the detention motion says. The search warrant was related to a series of burglaries in the St. Louis area, and McGee already faces state charges including burglary.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the St. Louis County Police Department and the FBI. 

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis County, Missouri on Thursday admitted cashing his mother’s Social Security checks for 26 years after her death.

Reginald Bagley, 62, of Dellwood, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of stealing money belonging to the United States. Bagley admitted that his mother’s death on March 12, 1994 was not reported to the Social Security Administration. In 1998, a bank account was established to directly deposit her benefits. The bank statements went to Bagley’s address in the name of either Bagley or his mother since then. After the Social Security Administration learned that Bagley’s mother was not using her Medicare benefits, they sent a letter to her address in an attempt to contact her.

Bagley quickly closed the bank account that was receiving the benefits, receiving a cashier’s check for the remaining balance on July 24, 2020. 

Bagley on Thursday admitted stealing a total of $197,329 in Social Security benefits to which he was not entitled.

At his sentencing, scheduled for March 29, Bagley will be ordered to repay the money. The charge carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both.

The case was investigated by the Social Security Administration – Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Klocke is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A former teaching assistant at St. Louis University on Thursday pleaded guilty to a federal charge and admitted blackmailing a student who was also his former girlfriend.

Hussein Kadhim Abood Khalaf, 34, was a teaching assistant in one of the victim’s classes in the fall of 2020, his plea agreement says. They dated briefly that December. Khalaf admitted setting up Instagram accounts and using them to threaten the victim. He also set up a fake Instagram account in her name and sent her threatening text messages from multiple phone numbers.

In these messages, Khalaf demanded $30,000 and sex from the victim. He threatened to send nude pictures and videos to her friends, classmates and relatives if she did not comply.

Khalaf, an Iraqi citizen, is in the United States on a student visa. In court, he said he was expelled from the university but is planning on petitioning to be readmitted. Khalaf also acknowledged in his plea agreement that it could impact his immigration status or result in deportation

Khalaf pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey to a misdemeanor blackmail charge. 

The case was investigated by the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Colleen Lang and Matthew Drake prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Wednesday sentenced a woman from St. Louis County, Missouri to 27 months in prison for committing a $357,000 fraud involving a pandemic relief program.

Judge Pitlyk also ordered Rose Ann Shaw, 65, of Ladue, to repay the money, which she had fraudulently obtained via Paycheck Protection Program loans. The PPP loans were designed to help save jobs at small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shaw lied about the number of employees and the companies’ payroll in her applications on behalf of three companies that she’d set up.

On May 11, 2020, Shaw applied for a PPP loan on behalf of Shaw Investments LLC, falsely claiming it had seven employees and an average monthly payroll of $44,400. She received a $111,000 loan.

On May 29, 2020, Shaw submitted a PPP loan application on behalf of Shaw Brokerage Real Estate Investment Firm LLC, falsely claiming the company had seven employees and an average monthly payroll of $54,256. She received a $135,638 loan.

In August of 2020, Shaw submitted an application for Vision LLC, falsely claiming it also had seven employees and an average monthly payroll of $44,400. She got another $111,000.

Shaw pleaded guilty on February 28 to one count of bank fraud.

The case was investigated by the Social Security Administration - Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gwendolyn Carroll prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge U.S. District Ronnie L. White on Wednesday sentenced a man from St. Louis County, Missouri who sought nude pictures from an undercover police officer to five years and three months in prison.

Robert L. Payne, 77, will also be on supervised release for life after he gets out of prison and has been banned from parks, playgrounds and other places where children gather.

Payne had repeatedly been watching and trying to talk to boys at Fenton City Park, 1215 Larkin Williams Road. St. Louis County police responded to complaints about Payne, and spotted Payne at the park each day between March 1 and 4, 2021.  On March 2nd, Payne moved his vehicle in the park about eighteen times, including backing into a space to allow him to watch the Lindbergh High School boys’ lacrosse team practice. On March 3, Payne tried to talk to about 10 to 12 young males near the basketball courts.

On March 8, 2021, a police officer pretending to be a 16-year-old played basketball at the park and then used a trashcan near Payne, who was sitting in his parked red 2003 Ford Ranger.  Payne began talking to the officer, offered to perform oral sex on him and gave the officer his contact information.

Payne later contacted the officer and repeatedly offered to engage in sex acts with him before requesting a picture of the purported teen’s genitals.

Payne pleaded guilty in August to a felony charge of solicitation of child pornography.

In 2018, the Sunset Hills Police Department investigated Payne over allegations that he’d approached a 16-year-old male at Minnie Ha Ha Park and offered to perform oral sex on him. Payne later pleaded guilty to a harassment charge and was ordered to stay away from the park.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis County Police Department and the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Ronnie L. White on Wednesday sentenced a man from St. Louis County to 25 years in prison for a retaliatory drug murder in 2020.

Cevone Weeden, now 26, fired at least 12 shots at Joel Phillips, 22, in the parking lot of a McDonald’s at 1420 Hampton Avenue in St. Louis on August 20, 2020.

Weeden’s co-defendant, Herschell Perkins, 37, was sentenced November 2 to 15 years in prison.

Two days before the murder, Phillips arranged to buy fentanyl from Weeden, his source of supply of the drug, but instead robbed him and then blocked Weeden’s phone number.

Weeden enlisted another person to call Phillips and arrange to buy fentanyl to lure Phillips out into the open so Weeden could retaliate.

Perkins drove Weeden to the McDonald’s and the pair watched Phillips for nearly two hours. Perkins then picked Weeden up after the murder.

Phillips was found dead in the driver’s seat of his vehicle, along with $1,814 in cash, a gun, a phone and 156 capsules containing a mixture of drugs including the fentanyl Phillips stole from Weeden.

Weeden and Perkins both pleaded guilty on August 1. Weeden pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime that resulted in the death of Phillips. Perkins pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the firearm charge.

The case was investigated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.