Kinloch mayor impeached by Board of Aldermen

1 hour ago • By Steve Giegerich




Kinloch city attorney James Robinson (right) tries to give letters of impeachment to newly elected Kinloch Mayor Betty McCray on Thursday morning, April 23, 2015, in the parking lot at the Kinloch City Hall. She refused to accept the papers, as did newly elected Alderman Eric Petty (center). Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com


KINLOCH • The Board of Aldermen voted Friday to impeach Mayor Betty McCray for a variety of offenses, including allegations that she promised to forgo overdue rents on city-owned property in exchange for votes in the April municipal election and misused her office in an attempt to fire two city officials.

The articles of impeachment also accused McCray of falsely claiming that she and her daughter share a home in Kinloch.

The daughter, according to charges, resides in Ferguson.

An administrative law judge presided at the special meeting of the Board of Aldermen to consider the impeachment.

The most serious allegation, the circumstances under which McCray transferred ownership of city property into her name, occurred while she served on the Board of Aldermen.

“Criminal conduct or at least very questionable,” City Attorney James Robinson said, after entering into evidence what he claimed is a doctored receipt documenting the 2007 transaction that resulted in McCray occupying the Courtney Avenue home where she still resides.

McCray did not attend the four-hour City Hall hearing that concluded with three board members voting without comment to remove her from office.

A fourth alderman was absent.

The only witness called by Robinson, City Manager Justine Blue, testified that she reached out to both McCray and her attorney, Lynette Petruska, before the board hearing Friday.

“No one can say she didn’t have an opportunity to be heard,” said Bernard F. Edwards Jr., the administrative law judge presiding over the hearing.

The mayor, suspended since her April election over incumbent Mayor Darren Small, has 30 days to appeal the decision.

“We gave her the opportunity” to defend herself, said Alderman Darryl Dixson after the vote. “She chose not to come to fight for what she believes. I believe she knows she was wrong. She just doesn’t want to face her accusers.”

Led by Robinson, city officials locked McCray out of City Hall following her contested win for the top Kinloch office in April.
Elected leaders accused the McCray campaign of pledging to halt eviction proceedings against occupants of city-owned apartments if the rent-delinquent tenants cast a vote for McCray on April 7.

Robinson presented a sworn deposition from one of the apartment residents as evidence at the impeachment hearing.

Petruska in a brief filed this week in St. Louis County Circuit Court cited a Sept. 8 incident in Kinloch Municipal Court in announcing she would no longer represent McCray in the impeachment proceedings.

Petruska, a Richmond Heights attorney, was cited for disorderly conduct after she attempted to make a smart phone video when she appeared to ask the court to dismiss a charge that McCray falsely impersonated a city official when she sought to dismiss Blue and the city clerk before the April election results were certified.

Petruska said in the circuit court filing that she feared “her constitutional rights will continue to be violated with impunity” if she returned to Kinloch to represent McCray at the impeachment hearing.

A circuit court challenge to the Kinloch decision to contest the outcome of the mayoral election is still pending.

McCray could not be reached for comment.

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