Thread: New mayor of Mo. city met by police, suspended over alleged voter fraud

New mayor of Mo. city met by police, suspended over alleged voter fraud

Published April 25, 2015 FoxNews.com

April 23, 2015: Kinloch city attorney James Robinson, left, asks Kinloch Mayor-elect Betty McCray if he can show the impeachment papers to the media at the Kinloch City Hall, in Kinloch, Mo. (AP_


The new mayor of a Missouri city had a tough first day on the job when she was met by police at City Hall and informed she had been suspended over allegations of voter fraud.

Betty McCray, the newly elected mayor of the city of Kinloch, was met in the parking lot at City Hall Thursday by police officers and the city attorney holding articles of impeachment, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

“You can’t come in as mayor,” attorney James Robinson told McCray. “You have been suspended.”

McCray, however, was defiant, telling Robinson, “You may be the attorney now, but I promise you, you won’t be later.”

The city, located between Ferguson and Lambert St. Louis Airport, has fewer than 300 residents and is plagued by shady land deals and bitter political fights, according to the Post-Dispatch.

“I won. The people spoke,” McCray said, according to MyFox2Now.com. “I was sworn in by the St. Louis County. Today I take office. I want them out, I want the keys.”

Concerns had been raised to the St. Louis County Board of Elections and the Missouri Secretary of State about voters registered in Kinloch who no longer live there.

On April 7, McCray defeated Mayor Darren Small 38 votes to 18.

However, the outgoing administration refused to administer the oath of office to her after the allegations surfaced. She was later sworn in by a St. Louis County court clerk.

The city found that two of the apartments, where six people were registered to vote, were vacant and stripped of furniture and appliances. In one, only a jar of pickles and two used oxygen tanks remained among other debris, the Post-Dispatch reported.

McCray dismissed the allegations as absurd.

“It never came up until I ran for mayor,” McCray said.

This was not the only legal trouble facing the new mayor. In March, the city filed a lawsuit alleging she obtained a house fraudulently from the city in 2008, claiming that former mayor Keith Conway – who served time in prison for charges of wire fraud, theft from a federal program and witness tampering – gave her the house for free.

McCray says she bought the four-bedroom house for $9,000.

“I didn’t defraud the city of anything,” McCray told The Post-Dispatch. “They are trying to get those homes back, so they can get the money and put it in their pocket.”

McCray said she intended to file an injunction with the St. Louis County courts, and to return and try to enter City Hall again on Friday.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015...ed-over-voter/

This is how great nations die. The fact that apartments where people were registered to vote were vacant should be all that is necessary to invalidate the election results. And the fraudulently "elected" mayor should be shamed into leaving politics.

But of course she is black and a member of the privileged race and therefore can get whatever she wants. If she were a white male it would be a national scandal making major headlines across the entire country.

Well, wait a minute, did those 6 people vote in the election? Just because someone was registered to vote doesn't mean they voted. Did they vote for her? It was only 6 votes, so even if they did vote for her, she still won 32 to 18. But how would anyone know how they voted? The outgoing Mayor wouldn't have access to that information.

Alleging voter fraud, Kinloch refuses to swear in new mayor and alderman

April 23, 2015 11:00 pm • By Stephen Deere



Kinloch city attorney James Robinson (right) tries to give letters of impeachment to newly elected Kinloch Mayor Betty McCray on Thursday, 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
(17) More Photos


KINLOCH • Betty McCray, Kinloch’s newly elected Mayor, arrived at City Hall on Thursday morning with an entourage and the intention to fire multiple city employees.

But before she could enter the building, McCray was told she was the one who was out of job.

In the parking lot, McCray was met by a half-dozen police officers and City Attorney James Robinson, who held a manila envelope under his arm containing articles of impeachment.

“You can’t come in as mayor,” Robinson said. “You have been suspended.”

McCray refused to take the envelope, saying, “You may be the attorney now, but I promise you, you won’t be later.”

Robinson also told Alderman Eric Petty, an ally of McCray’s, that the board had drafted articles of impeachment against him. Petty, too, refused to accept them.

“We won,” he said. “It’s time for them to move on.”

Kinloch, the first city in Missouri to be incorporated by African-Americans, is situated between Ferguson and Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. It once thrived with more than 10,000 residents. Then in the 1980s, the airport began buying homes for a noise-abatement program, purchasing roughly 1,360 properties. The city’s population plummeted, and poverty and blight took hold.

Today, Kinloch, which has fewer than 300 residents, is marked by pilfered coffers, shady land deals and increasingly bitter fights over the last remnants of political power.

During the past five years, the city has seen the imprisonment of a former mayor on federal fraud and theft charges, the hiring of a convicted felon as city manager, the selling of a previous city hall building to an alleged drug dealer and the unseating of at least two aldermen.

Now there are fresh allegations of voter fraud.

On April 7, McCray defeated Mayor Darren Small with 38 votes to his 18. Another candidate, Theda Wilson, received two votes.

Petty ran unopposed. After the Board of Aldermen declined to swear them in, the two were sworn in by a St. Louis County circuit court clerk on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Robinson declined to provide copies of impeachment charges. Nor would he reveal who on the Board of Alderman voted to suspend McCray, except to say they voted in a meeting on Monday.

According to documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch through a records request, the city has raised concerns to the St. Louis County Board of Elections and the Missouri Secretary of State about people being registered to vote in Kinloch who no longer live there.

On April 2, the city gave the Election Board a list of 27 names of people who it claimed were illegally registered; many of those individual addresses were listed at city-owned apartments.

McCray said that the concerns about people’s being illegally registered were “absurd.”

“It never came up until I ran for mayor,” she said, adding that people were still living at the addresses the city claims are empty.

At least two of the apartments in question on Tuttle Street, where six people are registered to vote, according to the city, appeared this week to have been unoccupied for some time.

Both were stripped of furniture and appliances. In one, a jar of pickles and two spent oxygen tanks sat amid other debris on the floor.

Petty said the homes were vacant because the city began evicting people behind on rent shortly before the election because the tenants were supporters of McCray.

But City Manager Justine Blue said that wasn’t true. The only people who the city is evicting still live in their apartments, she said. The city did file lawsuits to evict some residents, but that was on Thursday, court records show. Blue said those residents have yet to be formally served with eviction notices.

“Besides, we would have no idea who would be supporting Ms. McCray,” Blue said.

Blue, Small’s cousin, took over at City Hall just after Small was elected in 2012. The previous city manager, Eric Mason, was a parolee once convicted of writing bad checks.

County Republican Election Director Gary Fuhr said that in response to the city’s complaints, the election board sent four canvassers to Kinloch on Tuesday to verify that voters were registered to correct addresses. He declined to say what canvassers found.

The city also filed a lawsuit in March against McCray, alleging that she fraudulently obtained a house from the city in 2008.

The home was one of 17 properties that the airport bought with federal noise abatement money in the 1990s. The airport later determined the noise wasn’t loud enough to prohibit residential development and sold the properties back to the city for $354,000 in 2007.

Property records don’t show how much McCray paid for her home. The sale price wasn’t recorded with the St. Louis County assessor’s office. McCray said that the homes were advertised to everyone and that she paid $9,000 for the four-bedroom, two-bath home.

But the suit alleges that previous mayor Keith Conway — who served time in prison on charges of wire fraud, theft from a federal program and witness tampering — gave McCray the house for free. McCray was serving on the Board of Aldermen at the time.

“I didn’t defraud the city of anything,” McCray said. “They are trying to get those homes back, so they can get the money and put it in their pocket.”

When McCray was at City Hall on Thursday, she announced that she was firing Blue and Court Clerk Bridget Washington; but during the ordeal, she never came within earshot of them.

After Robinson confronted her with impeachment papers, McCray and her supporters gathered in a semi-circle to pray.

Then, when it was clear she wouldn’t take office on this day, the mayor-elect said she was heading to Clayton for one purpose:

To find a good lawyer.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/m...897e4a7f2.html

Could we have an ambitious city attorney using police powers to his favor? Spooky situation, but if the mayor-elect gets an attorney it sue looks to me like now we have police interfering with politics. That indicates POLICE STATE. Why doesn't the state AG just investigate, the city has a checkered record?

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Kinloch, the first city in Missouri to be incorporated by African-Americans, is situated between Ferguson and Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. It once thrived with more than 10,000 residents. Then in the 1980s, the airport began buying homes for a noise-abatement program, purchasing roughly 1,360 properties. The city’s population plummeted, and poverty and blight took hold.

Today, Kinloch, which has fewer than 300 residents, is marked by pilfered coffers, shady land deals and increasingly bitter fights over the last remnants of political power.

Marginal people living in a marginal community. They need help from a larger entity, such as a state agency.
*****************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Dear Judy:

Because we can never know who voted or how they voted is precisely why voters registered in empty apartments is a serious matter.

But what am I? I am a white male, the only group of people of whom there can be too many, in jobs, college admissions or breathing.

Originally Posted by csarbww

Dear Judy:

Because we can never know who voted or how they voted is precisely why voters registered in empty apartments is a serious matter.

But what am I? I am a white male, the only group of people of whom there can be too many, in jobs, college admissions or breathing.

Not really. Think about it. Those people could have been registered from that address from years ago and moved. Were they registered from that address in the last election? Apparently someone had been living there since they did find a jar of pickles and two empty oxygen tanks. Maybe they were poor and elderly and went to the hospital or a nursing home or died and other family members who had been living there with them moved out. A candidate who wins an election doesn't lose the race because registered voters moved away. I've never heard of such a thing.

Originally Posted by Judy

Not really. Think about it. Those people could have been registered from that address from years ago and moved. Were they registered from that address in the last election? Apparently someone had been living there since they did find a jar of pickles and two empty oxygen tanks. Maybe they were poor and elderly and went to the hospital or a nursing home or died and other family members who had been living there with them moved out. A candidate who wins an election doesn't lose the race because registered voters moved away. I've never heard of such a thing.

Your argument is theoretical in nature. We don't have enough facts to make a judgement one way or the other (IMO). With such a small voting block, even one impopriety could bring the election results into question.

I didn't go saving all the articles that I have read on the issue to show. However what I remember person (secretary or some such) who normally swears in the new mayor had word of voter fraud with a tip and had it checked out. When checked they found 6 votes cast from a building that was supposedly vacant for sometime and neighbors said no one had lived there in at least a year. The official then seeing fraud refused to swear in the new mayor and had the votes checked. Supposedly it was found all 6 were for the new mayor and none of the people could be located in the town anymore as well.

I had also read they were investigating other leads on other fraudulent or mishandled votes as well.

Anyway you cut it the usual dirty politics in play and voter fraud. Even discounting only those 6 votes isn't a good solution as voter fraud of that sort doesn't happen without someone with direct connections having a hand in it which makes it deliberate on the candidate and their campaign.