Missouri AG : No charges in 2017 death of Black jail inmate

O’FALLON, Mo. – Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Friday that no charges will be filed in the 2017 death of Tory Sanders, a Black inmate at a rural jail who died under similar circumstances to George Floyd – after a white law enforcement officer’s knee was pressed on his neck.

Schmitt, a Republican, said in a news release that there is not enough evidence to prove first- or second-degree murder, which are the only options because the statute of limitations has expired on other potential charges, such as manslaughter. The statute of limitations for manslaughter in Missouri is three years.

“The death of Tory Sanders is tragic and heartbreaking, particularly for his family and his loved ones, and my heart goes out to them,” Schmitt said in the statement.

Sanders’ mother, Quinta Sanders, said by phone from Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday that her son was murdered and accused Schmitt of not having the courage to file murder charges.

Schmitt’s predecessor, Josh Hawley, also investigated Sanders’ death but declined to file charges.

The Missouri NAACP and Black lawmakers last year pushed for Schmitt to investigate and called for murder charges against former Sheriff Cory Hutcheson and other officers.

The 28-year-old Sanders died at the Mississippi County Jail in Charleston, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of St. Louis in May 2017.

Sanders had several encounters with officers while jailed and a mental health counselor determined he was suffering from paranoia. Hutcheson and eight others subdued him.

A wrongful death lawsuit said Hutcheson jammed his knee against Sanders’ neck and kept it there for up to three minutes, even as a police officer urged him to stop. Sanders fell into unconsciousness and died.

Medical experts concluded that Sanders died of “excited delirium,” not from the knee to the neck or other efforts to control him.

“My son did not die of excited delirium,” Quinta Sanders said. “He was murdered and the AG doesn’t have the guts to press charges. They don’t want to do what’s right.”

Floyd’s death on May 25 in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests. Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder after bystander video showed him pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck, even as the man pleaded for air and eventually stopped moving.

The Rev. Darryl Gray, a St. Louis civil rights activist, said Schmitt’s decision was disappointing but not surprising.

“For Black people in Missouri, the truth is that we did not expect justice,” Gray said. “And we’re not seeing anything legislatively or policy-wise that gives us any assurance that there is justice for people of color versus law enforcement under any circumstances.”

Sanders’ mother agreed, saying that if a white man had been killed in similar circumstances by Black officers “you know those officers would have been taken out in handcuffs.”

Sanders, also of Nashville, ran out of gas on May 4, 2017, in southern Missouri, then hitchhiked and ended up in Charleston.

A day later, Sanders went to the police and told officers there was a warrant out for his arrest in Nashville related to an altercation with the mother of his children. The wrongful death lawsuit said Sanders also told officers: “I need to see a mental health doctor to save my life and my kids’ life.”

He was taken to the jail, where a mental health counselor concluded Sanders was suffering from paranoia as a result of substance abuse, and that he should be hospitalized for observation. But Sanders remained in his cell.

That night, Hutcheson led a team of officers and jailers, wearing helmets and vests and holding a large shield, into Sanders’ cell, according to the lawsuit. Sanders was tackled, pepper sprayed, hit with a stun gun and punched while “pleading for help and struggling to stay alive,” the lawsuit stated.

According to the lawsuit, Hutcheson pressed his left knee on top of Sanders’ neck. A Charleston police officer told Hutcheson at least three times to remove the pressure.

“No, I’m good,” the sheriff allegedly responded.

Sanders died at a hospital a short time later.

His mother said officers in the jail should have forced Hutcheson to remove his knee, rather than just asking him to do so. She also alleged that video on one of two cameras trained on her son’s jail cell was deleted later and said the family is trying to determine what that camera recorded.

Though not charged in Sanders’ death, Hutcheson was sentenced in 2019 to six months in federal prison for unrelated crimes: wire fraud and identity theft. He resigned after pleading guilty and can no longer work as a law enforcement officer.

Federal prosecutors said Hutcheson in 2017 used a fraudulent process to track the whereabouts of more than 200 cellphone users, including a judge and a former sheriff. He never explained his motive.

He also was accused of roughing up a 77-year-old beauty salon owner in a dispute over Hutcheson’s sister-in-law’s paycheck. The woman suffered a heart attack during the encounter but recovered.

The state charges were dropped as part of the federal plea agreement.

Sanders’ death was cited in July 2017 when the state NAACP issued a Missouri “travel advisory” over concerns about whether civil rights would be respected for those traveling through the state. The resolution also cited legislative action such as the passage of a bill that weakened the state’s anti-discrimination law.

United will pay $49 million to settle air mail fraud case

United Airlines will pay more than $49 million to avoid criminal prosecution and settle civil charges of defrauding the U.S. Postal Service in the delivery of international mail.

The Justice Department said Friday that former employees of United’s cargo division falsified parcel-delivery information between 2012 and 2015. Prosecutors said that as a result, United collected millions of dollars in payments that it should not have received.

Chicago-based United agreed to pay nearly $17.3 million in criminal penalties and forfeited revenue to end the criminal investigation, according to the Justice Department. The airline will also pay $32.2 million in related civil penalties.

United issued a one-sentence statement: “The U.S. Postal Service is a valued customer for United, and we are glad to have remedied these procedures and look forward to serving the Postal Service in the future.”

United’s contracts required it to scan mail when it was received, loaded on a plane, and delivered to a foreign country’s postal agency. The scans were transmitted back to the U.S. Postal Service. United faced penalties if mail was delivered late, damaged, or sent to the wrong destination.

According to settlement documents, two United managers and two other employees fabricated automated data to make it look like mail was delivered on time. Others, including employees of an IT contractor hired by United, were aware of the scheme.

When post office representatives raised questions about the automated data, the manager running the scheme emailed colleagues “we been caught” and changed the group’s methods to make the phony information about scans appear less suspicious, according to the documents.

The Justice Department said United cooperated after getting requests from the department’s fraud section. Prosecutors gave United credit for collecting “voluminous documents” and helping make employees available for interviews.

According to the documents, United removed the main manager involved in the scheme, the cargo division’s postal-sales manager. The airline also improved internal controls designed to detect misconduct, including limiting access to data to guard against employees manipulating information transmitted to the Postal Service.

In 2019, American Airlines agreed to pay $22.1 million to settle similar allegations that it falsified information about international mail deliveries.

United, American and other U.S. airlines trace their roots to air mail delivery contracts in the early part of the last century, and mail remains a source of revenue for them.

University of Missouri to hold in-person graduations

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Missouri plans to hold in-person graduations this spring after canceling the ceremonies last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The details are not yet final but the university says it plans to have ceremonies for May and August graduates during two weekends in May. Students who didn’t get in-person ceremonies last year will be invited back to be honored in late April. The university says graduates can invite six people, who will be grouped together and distanced from others. Another school, Missouri Western in St. Joseph, voted Thursday to return to mostly in-person learning in the fall.

Rush Limbaugh buried in private cemetery in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS – Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has been buried in a private cemetery in St. Louis, his family announced Friday.

Limbaugh’s widow, Kathryn, and his family said a private ceremony with close family and friends was held Wednesday, but they did not say where he was buried.

The family said additional celebrations of Limbaugh’s life are planned in the future, both virtually and in his hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, The Southeast Missourian reported.

Limbaugh died Feb. 17, a year after announcing he had lung cancer.

The fiery Limbaugh was a leading voice of the Republican party and conservative movement for decades with a daily radio show that was broadcast on more than 600 U.S. stations for more than 30 years.

As hospital numbers fall, fatigued staff get relief at last

MISSION, Kan. – When COVID-19 patients inundated St. Louis hospitals, respiratory therapists arriving for yet another grueling shift with a dwindling supply of ventilators would often glance at their assignments and cry, heading into the locker room to collect themselves.

“They were like, ‘Man, another 12 hours of this slog of these on-the-verge-of-death patients who could go at any moment.’ And just knowing that they had to take care of them with that kind of stress in the back of their head,’” recalled Joe Kowalczyk, a respiratory therapist who sometimes works in a supervisory role.

Now the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S. has dropped by 80,000 in six weeks, and 17% of the nation’s adult population has gotten at least one dose of a vaccine, providing some relief to front-line workers like Kowalczyk. On his most recent shift at Mercy Hospital St. Louis, there were only about 20 coronavirus patients, down from as many as 100 at the peak of the winter surge.

“It is so weird to look back on it,” he said. “Everyone was hitting their wit’s end definitely toward the end just because we had been doing it for so long at the end of year.”

The U.S. has seen a dramatic turnaround since December and January, when hospitals were teeming with patients after holiday gatherings and pandemic fatigue caused a surge in cases and deaths. Health officials acknowledge the improvement but point out that hospitalizations are still at about the same level as earlier peaks in April and July and right before the crisis worsened in November. Deaths are still persistently high, though much lower than the peak in early January, when they sometimes exceeded 4,000 per day.

Hospitalizations in Missouri were hovering around 3,000 a day during a stretch from late November into January but have since fallen about 60%. As of Monday, 1,202 people were hospitalized, according to state data.

In Wisconsin, hospitalizations dropped dramatically over the last three and a half months, from a high of 2,277 patients on Nov. 17 to 355 on Wednesday, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association. And the patients who are hospitalized are not as sick. The number of patients in intensive care has dropped 81% since Nov. 16.

State health officials on Feb. 15 removed all staff from a field hospital set up in October at the state fairgrounds in suburban Milwaukee. They have stopped short of dismantling the facility out of concern that the state could experience a surge in cases sparked by variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.

“It’s a balancing act. You don’t want to close it too soon until you really believe we’re on the other side of this pandemic, yet we don’t want to tie up (the fairgrounds) too long if we’re truly not going to need the facility,” state Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said.

Behind the overall positive trends in hospitalizations are worrisome hints that the worst may not be over, said Ali Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.

“In the past week, we’re seeing the slowdown of the decline,” Mokdad said. In many states, hospitalizations are leveling off or actually rising.

The biggest driver in the overall decline in U.S. hospitalizations is people’s behavior in December and January, Mokdad said. For the first time in the U.S., the shape of the wave is symmetrical, with the decline as steep as the rise.

“This didn’t happen before in the previous two waves,” Mokdad said. “For us, in the business, it’s like ‘Wow we are doing something really good right now.’”

In Minnesota, non-intensive care hospitalizations dropped from around 1,400 in late November to just 233 as of Tuesday. The number of intensive care patients has dropped about 85% since early December to just 59 patients on Tuesday, according to state data.

Hospitalizations in Illinois hovered around 6,000 patients for several days in late November but fell to 1,488 by Monday, a decrease of about 75%. The number of patients in intensive care has dropped as well, from 1,224 on Nov. 25 to just 361 on Monday, according to the state health department.

In hard-hit California, hospitalizations have dropped a stunning 70% since January, from 22,821 patients on Jan. 5 to 6,764 on Tuesday. The number of patients in intensive care has fallen from a high of 4,971 on Jan. 10 to 1,842 as of Tuesday, according to state data.

In Kansas, where many rural hospitals lack ventilators, the situation was so dire at one point that patients were being flown hundreds of miles for treatment.

But the number of hospitalizations in the state has dropped nearly 84%, from 1,282 on Dec. 2 to 208 on Sunday, according to the state health department. More than 300 people were in intensive care in December; that’s down to just 50 now, state data shows.

“It has just kind of been quiet out here with COVID,” said physician assistant Ben Kimball, who works primarily at Graham County Hospital in Hill City, a town of about 1,500 in rural northwest Kansas.

At the peak of the surge, he once resorted to flying a patient to a hospital in Denver, about 250 miles (402 kilometers) away. All the closer hospitals capable of providing more advanced care were full and turning away patients.

“We are pretty fortunate, I think,” he said. “I can definitely feel that things are getting better. We aren’t constantly struggling for bed space. We have had a few overnight observation COVID patients, but we haven’t sent anyone out in a while.”

Kris Mathews, the administrator of Decatur Health, a small hospital in rural northwest Kansas, also spent hours on the phone arranging transfers for patients at the peak of the surge. His staff fell ill themselves, and those who were well worked overtime caring for coronavirus patients.

“I could feel the staff’s weariness and fatigue,” he wrote. “Nobody complained to me about it, but I could see and feel them burning out.”

Now it’s been weeks since the hospital cared for a coronavirus inpatient. Thinking back, he said, “I couldn’t be more damn proud.”

Pharmacist accused of filling dangerous amounts of opiates

CREVE COEUR, Mo. – Federal authorities allege a St. Louis-area pharmacist filled prescriptions for dangerous amounts of opiates, including prescriptions that were obviously altered. The U.S. Attorneys office filed a civil complaint against Elizabeth Dembo on Tuesday. Prosecutors also allege she filled prescriptions for patients of Dr. Philip Dean, of Warrenton, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to illegally distributing prescription opioids. Dembo is also accused of violating the federal law by billing Medicaid and Medicare for medically unnecessary drugs. was the pharmacist-in-charge at Olive Street Pharmacy in Creve Coeur from Sept. 26, 2015, to March 5, 2018.

Natural gas outage impacts around 800 in Carl Junction area

CARL JUNCTION, Mo. – Nearly 800 residents in the Carl Junction, Missouri area are without natural gas for the moment.

Spire has been sending its  customers the following:

“We are working to resolve an operational issue from one of our third-party suppliers, impacting our ability to provide natural gas service to nearly 800 customers in the Carl Junction area near Joplin, MO.

This has caused a temporary outage and are in the process of alerting our customers who are impacted. We’re currently working to assess the situation and doing everything we can to quickly restore service to our customers.

We encourage customers to visit spireenergy.com/outages for timely information as we work to resolve the outage.”

New jobs on the horizon for Miami

MIAMI, Ok. — More jobs are coming to Miami, Oklahoma.

Communications Solutions, LLC will soon open a call-center on North Main Street. It will be the 6th location for the Springfield-based company – which also has locations in Joplin and Neosho. The Miami facility’s focus will be helping existing local businesses develop short and long-term workforce opportunities – and recruit new businesses to town. It also means about 250 new jobs.

Charlotte Howe Maeds, CEO and President, “I’m pretty excited I love this part of the job but you know what I love working with my companies as well so I always feel like I kinda have the best jobs ever, not that they’re not days that’s challenging but today’s a good day.”

Miami Chamber Of Commerce: (918) 542-4481