Old trombone my verbiage into some Italian rock!

I learned from a blog this morning that one of my poems has been translated into Italian and set to rock music.

The translator and songwriter is a man named Andrea from the northern Italian band Van Cleef Continental. I met him years ago on a listserv devoted to The Replacements, thinking I was flirting with an Italian girl who was into American post-punk. It's a man's name in his country.

Andrea and I met once in the Milan airport, where I was connecting en route to Ghana, and we have kept up with one another's projects over the years. In fact, his attention to my work scoring long poems was what motivated him to request some of my poetry so he could score it.

He chose this poem - the first piece in my chapbook A heart I carved for a girl I knew.

I used to be precocious.
I’ll spare you that bit,
The old fart expostulates
On his precocious youth.
I was right on time, though,
Or a little behind the swerve,
On this middle-aged thing,
This old blues. I have no eye
Out for car lots, or hair pieces,
But I did want to run away and join the circus, again.
I do, I do want to run away and join the circus,
I want to somersault out of a cannon, into the empty air,
I want to sleep beneath the stars and my carnival ride,
I want to put my head into the mouth of the lion. I do.
I want to run away and join the circus, with you.

The Van Cleef blog has Andrea's Italian translation, which I can't read. Though Google Toolbar gives me the option of translating his Italian with the flick of a switch. Doing so gives me this English version of my poem:

I was quite early
I shall spare you this part,
old trombone that verbiage
about his early childhood.
But I was more than punctual, however
Or a little below average
this thing to middle age
this old blues. I never had a great eye
for the resale of cars or the hairstyles special
but I wanted to run away and join the circus
and I still want to run away and join the circus
I want to do a spin in the air, fired from a cannon
I want to sleep under the stars, near the carousel horses
I want to poke your head in the mouth of the lion. yes.
I want to run away and join the circus with you.

I love "the old fart expostulates" going into Italian, then coming back into English as "old trombone that verbiage"!

I'll have an mp3 of his song soon - I am told it is a piano rock ballad (I love me a piano rock ballad). I expect Andrea will sing the English version - my English version.

*

Andrea is the man playing bass to the left in this photo from the Van Cleef Continental MySpace page.

A year and a day for Jeff Smith

Judge Jackson sentences former state senator for obstruction of justice

By Chris King
Of The St. Louis American

Former state Sen. Jeff Smith’s good works saved him at least three months in federal prison.

On Tuesday morning Judge Carol E. Jackson sentenced Smith to 12 months and one day in prison and a fine of $50,000, whereas sentencing guidelines for his crimes called for 15 to 21 months of incarceration.

In August Smith pled guilty to two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Jackson sentenced him to 12 months and one day in prison (and two years of supervised release) for each charge, but the sentences will run concurrently.

“These are very serious offenses – ongoing efforts to thwart ongoing investigations by the FEC and FBI,” Jackson said to Smith during the sentencing hearing Tuesday morning in federal district court.

“Serious, in that these were the legitimate efforts on the part of two government bodies to perform the duties they are supposed to perform: investigating allegations of misconduct.”

Smith and his codefendants conspired to obstruct justice in 2004 when the Federal Election Commission investigated a minor act of campaign fraud committed in the course of Smith’s 2004 congressional campaign against Russ Carnahan in the Democratic primary.

This year they conspired to obstruct justice when the FBI investigated the earlier conspiracy, which was uncovered through recordings made covertly by a campaign operative, who remains imprisoned on other charges.

The 2009 conspiracy against the FBI was recorded by a cooperating witness, codefendant Steve Brown, a state representative at the time, who avoided a prison sentence for his cooperation. He and Nick Adams, the young treasurer of Smith’s 2004 campaign, were sentenced by Jackson to two years of probation and fines of $40,00 and $5,000, respectively.

Transcriptions of those wire tapes, which prosecutor Hal Goldsmith read aloud in the sentencing hearing, reveal Smith scheming to lie and conceal evidence of their crimes and even attempt to pin them on a co-conspirator from the 2004 campaign who had since killed himself.

The Jeff Smith revealed on these tapes stood in stark contrast to the selfless public servant described in the many letters of support submitted by the defendant. “Reading these letters, then reading these transcripts, leads me to wonder: Who is the real Jeff Smith?” Jackson said.

Clearly, the testimony in the letters impacted the judge – and she said she had taken them into consideration.

“There is no doubt in my mind that you have contributed significantly to the community and social causes. Moreover, your contributions were motivated by a genuine desire to help people and better lives, not motivated by personal, professional or political gain,” Jackson said to Smith.

“Your service was significant, perhaps even extraordinary, compared to what others have done. A lot of politicians have showed up at events to have their picture taken, we all know that. You showed up because you wanted to be there and you wanted to participate. You touched a lot of people’s lives.”

Ultimately, though, Smith’s obstruction of justice – continued for five years through two separate conspiracies against two separate federal investigations – weighed too heavily against him to keep him out of prison, as his attorney had requested.

“What’s most troubling is you had many, many opportunities between 2004 and 2009 to come clean, and you didn’t do that,” Jackson said.

“You and your codefendants continued to think of ways to conceal what you did. One lie led to another, and they built on each other. That is very troubling. Our justice system doesn’t work very well when people interfere with it.”

The need for deterrence, the judge said, demanded prison time.

“Deterrence is an important factor, not only for yourself but for others in your position. It is important that your sentence reflect promotion of respect for the law, which you and your defendants showed very little respect for in your conduct,” Jackson said.

“Probation and house arrest is not punishment. How you perpetrated these crimes, and the period of time you perpetrated them, warrants something more.”

The film Frank Popper made about Smith’s 2004 campaign includes footage of Smith’s mother saying she wished her son wouldn’t pursue electoral politics because of the dirty things people do to win. Those haunting words may now be joined in Smith’s memory by something incisive Judge Jackson said when weighing Smith’s crimes against his record of community service.

Jackson said, “I have to wonder, because you seem so sincere and have such a stellar record, do people tend to believe you, even when you are lying to them?”

The Nightingale's Song at Powell in a rainy season

Possibly it has always been true, but most of us these days are not taught the things we really need to know and are left to ourselves to learn them for ourselves.

I feel fortunate, first, to have survived into adulthood, and then to have emerged with abundant curiosity and gumption to venture into the places where it might have been said by others that I didn't belong.

One such place is Powell Hall. When I was younger and had far less money but much more freedom in time, I bought season tickets in the nosebleeds, and sat up there rapt with wonder, learning how symphonies move and even the names of instruments in the orchestra.

I knew so little; had so much to learn. Now I only know the proverbial more that alerted me to the vaster more I have yet to learn.

Friday night at Powell, not in the nosebleeds, I learned more about how a symphonic poem, as opposed to a symphony proper, moves. The program opened with Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale, a symphonic poem that follows the rhythm of a story, rather than historic expectations as to the structured movements of composed music.

It occured to me that this kind of music is not about movement at all, but rather space. I had a strikingly visual experience of the music, as David Robertson brought alive different sections of The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and even individual players, with waves of his wand and magic little puffs from his fingers.

Song of the Nightingale is a tentative, atomised, delicate piece of music, a dreamscape, and the way David led the band through its changes was a revelation to me.

I dream when awake with intensity, and resist being shook from my dreams, so I remained absorbed in the Stravinsky and my new sense of space in music throughout the next piece of music, which was the anchor of the program.

This was Tan Dun's Water Concerto, featuring Colin Currie guesting on lead percussion. There is an undeniable wow factor to this piece, because it introduces big glass bowls of water into the orchestra as musical instruments.

Traditional African music is one of those other things I wasn't supposed to find, but found, and have dreamed into with intensity; and I have in my possession numerous recordings of African villagers making music by splashing in water. I am down with this sort of thing and adored seeing it melded into symphonic repertoire.

Even more to my liking was the play with overtones. Currie and two house percussionists also bowed and struck some odd instruments I have never seen before, creating eeries overtones. The same effect was made by bowing a gong and dipping the gong into the water. The score called for violins and other instruments with high registers to echo these overtones and embellish them. This made for brilliantly colorful splashes of sound that hearkened back, tonally, to the Stravinsky.

But I thought the performance Friday night had some problems. The orchestra didn't seem to be hearing Currie very well. The rhymic interaction between his playing and the band as a whole seemed, often, to be off. This would be understandable when the instrument was something as evanescent as water, but I found the disconnect more dismaying when he was rapping out louder beats on more solid instruments.

If I'm right about this - and the disconnection could be integral to the score; I don't know - then I expect David Robertson will fix this before they take this show on the road to Carnegie Hall.

That's the other thing I have learned about music from this orchestra - in this case, at rehearsals, rather than concerts. If the conductor looks superfluous on the bandstand at the concert - most of the time, most of the musicians don't even look at him - that's because he really earns his keep at rehearsal.

That's when he stops the band, stamps out the proper rhythm, sings the accurate pitch, redirects the players to the starting place in the score, and has them hit it again. David Robertson takes musicians through this process with a joy and generosity that must make him a very pleasant man to work with and for.

But really, my biggest problem with the Water Concerto was not the orchestra's performance of it, in tandem with Colin Currie. The problem was, it wasn't the Stravinsky, and I wasn't finished thinking about the Stravinsky. I am thinking about it still.

*

The image is of Joan Miro's painting The Nightingale's Song at Midnight and the Morning Rain

***

Noted with shame: I spent the seven days previous to this concert in virtual quarantine with an H1N1-addled child and desperately was needing some social life. My friend Bradley Bowers was hosting an open house to share some of his art work before it gets shipped off to a gallery elsewhere, and a number of other friends were expected to attend. So I skipped out of the second half of this program. It pains me to have missed the Bright Sheng and the Bartok, but a man also must be a friend.

A little love to, and from, the White House

One of the cool things about editing a newspaper is that when you see a beautiful new portrait of your country's beautiful First Family, you can display it loud and proud on the front page in full color.

So long as the publisher agrees. And I knew our publisher, Doc, would agree. Here is a pdf of our front page tomorrow for The St. Louis American:

Page A1, Oct. 29, 2009

I don't usually have a pdf of the front page the night we go to press; usually, I'm there with the rest of our little newsroom and the publisher, proofing black & white printouts as they roll out of our ancient printer.

But today, I am home with a sick kid, and stayed away even when my wife came home to relieve me, since the girl has H1N1. She is doing fine, and her parents don't seem to be getting sick, but I have been exposed and don't want to communicate the virus to anyone else while I may be contagious.

Having proofed the front-page design by pdf (and corrected a few errors on this version that won't appear in tomorrow's paper, multiplied by 70,000), I had the idea of sending it to our contact at the White House.

Barack Obama set a new standard for outreach to the minority press; I've actually had a far easier time communicating with the Obama campaign and administration than the Slay for Mayor campaign or administration.

Anyway, I emailed this front page to our man in Washington, with the note, "Thought you'd appreciate how we played your peeps."

And he wrote right back in moments:

Chris, you guys are too good for your own good. That made my day.
Hope the kid feel better. Thanks much.

Well, hell. Approval from the White House, and the paper isn't even at the printer? I think I deserve a beer. I think I'm going to go get one now.

p.s. If you want to continue reading the stories that start on 1A, here are the jump pages:

Page A6, Oct. 29, 2009

Page A7, Oct. 29, 2009

Call him sperm whale poop

I understand from a report in The Telegraph that a British broadcast medium will try reporting news and issues of the day using impersonators for literary figures of the past:

Dr Samuel Johnson will be interpreted by the broadcaster David Stafford, John Ruskin, the critic, will be played by Professor Bernard Richards, a Ruskin expert at Brasenose College Oxford, and Jane Austen will be performed by Rebecca Vaughan, who wrote and performed in 'Austen's Women' at this year's Edinburgh festival.

I like it - if only because I dislike so much what so many broadcasters do when they don't impersonate anybody.

We are told, further, that "Dr Johnson will examine the knowledge economy and learn how to use the internet" and "Jane Austen,will consider modern courtship and the waning popularity of marriage," while left to guess what faux Ruskin will natter on about.

This made me imagine dead American writers we might bring back to talk about the news and issues of our day.

This deserves to be an occasional series, rather than a hurried roundup. So let me start by bringing back one dead American scribe - Herman Melville - to report on climate change.

Herman, of course, was the great poet of the sperm whale. As his news director, I would have him interview Trish J. Lavery of Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, who just busted out some fresh research about Melville's species of choice.

Turns out since Hermie kicked, sperm whales have been getting a bum rap for allegedly breathing out skads of carbon that contributes to greenhouse gas buildup, and thereby global warming. Bad sperm whale! Bad, bad!

According to Science News, Trish is putting the kebosh on that slander. A whale whose name is associated with a bodily fluid is actually rehabilitating its reputation through a bodily solid. It's all about diving to the depth and bringing up iron that, returned to the surface of the ocean, nourishes plankton that scarfs on - y'all guessed it - carbon.

Using numbers from studies of feeding and nutrition, Lavery and her colleagues calculate that each whale brings up about 10 grams of iron a day from the depths
and then defecates it at the surface. The beauty of this sperm whale output is that it takes the form of drifting liquid plumes that can feed life in the upper ocean, Lavery says. She notes that experiments with iron have struggled with iron fertilizers that clump and sink before upper-water plankton can eat all of the goodies. Yet, she says, those experiments document measurable carbon trapping with even less iron fertilizer than sperm whales contribute.

I know, I know, I know: this clip talks of "the beauty of this sperm whale output," when said output is sperm whale poop. Bad Branson dinner theater joke in there somewhere. How many scientists does it take to see beauty in sperm whale poop? Just one I guess.

And I know just how I'll coach old Herman to start his every stand-up on camera: "Call me Ishmael!" And, then, in this instance, "Or, call me sperm whale poop! Reporting from the Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Quebec City, Canada ..."

Antonio French responds to Rainford's 'Katrina' insult

Alderman Antonio D. French hand-delivered this letter to the Mayor' Office around noon today.

Dear Mayor Slay,

I would like to call to your attention comments made yesterday by your chief of staff, Jeff Rainford. On the 10:00 PM broadcast of KMOV Channel 4 News, Mr. Rainford compared north St. Louis City to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

While it is certainly true that parts of the City of St. Louis have suffered greatly from decades of population loss and benign neglect under past administrations, to have the chief of staff of the Mayor make such a broad characterization of half of our city completely undermines the efforts many of us are making to improve the quality of life in our wards.

As I work daily to attract the interest of rehabbers, developers and entrepreneurs who can help us rebuild the 21st Ward house-by-house, block-by-block, I definitely do not need to have an official City spokesperson on television painting a negative picture of my northside
ward.

Furthermore, if it is truly the opinion of Room 200 that sections of north St. Louis are similar to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, then I welcome a proportional response from your office in terms of a true commitment of attention and resources to those sections of our city that present both the biggest challenges and the greatest opportunity for the City of St. Louis.

I would also like to invite Mr. Rainford on a personal tour of the Penrose and O’Fallon neighborhoods to show him the beautiful and wellmaintained blocks that make these some of the finest places to live in the City of St. Louis and not at all like an area destroyed by a natural disaster.

Sincerely,

Alderman Antonio D. French
City of St. Louis, Ward 21

French's letter on pdf.

*

Katrina pic from Tumblr.

Missouri man indicted for threatening Obama

Josh Randall McCallum was indicted on federal charges of making a threat to kill the President of the United States, Acting United States Attorney Michael W. Reap announced today.

According to the indictment, on August 3, 2009, McCallum mailed a letter threatening to kill the President of the United States. At the time he mailed the letter he was an inmate at the Northeast Correctional Center.

McCallum, 32, Bowling Green, MO, was indicted by a federal grand jury October 8, 2009, on one felony count of threatening the President of the United States. He is expected to appear in federal court later this week.

If convicted, this charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000.

Reap commended the work on the case by the United States Secret Service; and Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Rea, who is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations, and each defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

‘An affirmation of American leadership’

One peculiar experience I get as editor of The St. Louis American at this historic juncture is on a regular basis to edit a speech given by the president for publication. I know his flow, and that of his speechwriters, pretty well by now. We will run this in the paper this week.

*

President Obama responds to Nobel Peace Prize award

By Barack Obama
U.S. President

Washington, D.C. – Well, this is not how I expected to wake up this morning.

After I received the news, Malia walked in and said, "Daddy, you won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is Bo's birthday!" And then Sasha added, "Plus, we have a three-day weekend coming up." So it’s good to have kids to keep things in perspective.

I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize – men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women, and all Americans, want to build – a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents. And I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action – a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.

These challenges can’t be met by any one leader or any one nation. And that's why my administration has worked to establish a new era of engagement in which all nations must take responsibility for the world we seek.

We cannot tolerate a world in which nuclear weapons spread to more nations and in which the terror of a nuclear holocaust endangers more people. And that's why we’ve begun to take concrete steps to pursue a world without nuclear weapons, because all nations have the right to pursue peaceful nuclear power, but all nations have the responsibility to demonstrate their peaceful intentions.

We can't allow the differences between peoples to determine the way that we see one another, and that's why we must pursue a new beginning among people of different faiths and races and religions; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.

And we must all do our part to resolve those conflicts that have caused so much pain and hardship over so many years, and that effort must include an unwavering commitment that finally realizes that the rights of all Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security in nations of their own.

And even as we strive to seek a world in which conflicts are resolved peacefully and prosperity is widely shared, we have to confront the world as we know it today.

I am the Commander-in-Chief of a country that's responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies. I'm also aware that we are dealing with the impact of a global economic crisis that has left millions of Americans looking for work. These are concerns that I confront every day on behalf of the American people.

Some of the work confronting us will not be completed during my presidency. Some, like the elimination of nuclear weapons, may not be completed in my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it's recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone.

This award is not simply about the efforts of my administration – it’s about the courageous efforts of people around the world.

And that's why this award must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity – for the young woman who marches silently in the streets on behalf of her right to be heard even in the face of beatings and bullets; for the leader imprisoned in her own home because she refuses to abandon her commitment to democracy; for the soldier who sacrificed through tour after tour of duty on behalf of someone half a world away; and for all those men and women across the world who sacrifice their safety and their freedom and sometime their lives for the cause of peace.

That has always been the cause of America. That's why the world has always looked to America. And that's why I believe America will continue to lead.

Edited from remarks delivered in the White House Rose Garden on Oct. 9, 2009.

*

President Barack Obama and his daugher Malia read an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence at the Jefferson Memorial, Sept. 27, 2009. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

Osama, Obama, and the Nobel Prize for Peace

I'll have to admit some good-faith understanding of the Americans who loathe President Barack Obama and oppose every last thing he says or does without regard for our country.

I felt much the same way about President George W. Bush and his father, President Geoge H.W. Bush. During both Bush presidencies, things got so bad for me that I quit watching national television news because the sound of the president's voice immediately pitched me into a towering rage.

I have never killed anyone, don't plan to kill anyone, and would never kill a president, but I hated both of these men with a quality and quantity of rage that could fairly be described as "murderous".

I get all that. And I would never let anyone convince me that I hated the Bushes because I hate rich white men. I hated them because I hated their rhetoric and policies and what I thought they were doing to our country.

So, I think it is possible to hate Barack Obama for his rhetoric and policies and what he is perceived to be doing to our country - without being a racist. I think much hatred of Obama is, in fact, entangled with racism and outraged white privilege, but I don't think all of it is.

And no one who hated the Bush presidents as much as I did can, with good faith, deny a fellow American the right to hate the president. (Just, please, don't kill him.)

Here is how much I have hated the recent Republican presidential administrations.

I am married to a woman from West Africa, and we own a postage stamp of land in Ghana. We looked at John McCain and, especially, Sarah Palin (who is, at least, easy to look at, at least for me), and we agreed that if our fellow Americans (my wife is now a citizen) wanted these people to run the country, that we would leave it. I was fully prepared to abandon my country and repatriate to Ghana if John McCain and Sarah Palin had won the White House.

So, I get it - I get the hating. I really do.

I wish the haters were as ready to repatriate as my wife and I were (angry conservative white people are welcome in many places, though fewer and fewer, every day). But it's their country, too, and they have every right to stay right here and hate it and everything about it, including the president. (Just don't kill him with those guns that you have every right to bear.)

I have been thinking a lot about Ghana, lately, after the surprising announcement that Barack Obama had won the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Let me say, first, that I report for and edit an African American-owned newspaper that worked hard to elect Obama, through the powers of the press, and remains committed to supporting him and helping him to succeed. As our owner and publisher, Donald M. Suggs, said to me once, when he was privately criticizing a piece of public adulation of Obama, "Look - no one loves Obama more than we do".

No one loves Obama more than we do, but that doesn't mean we can't be puzzled by certain things and offer criticisms.

So, yeah, I was among those - and I am fairly certain Barack Obama himself was among those - who was puzzled by his receiving this high honor at this time in his life and career. However, come with me to Ghana for a moment. Maybe that will help us to understand this thing.

I first started visiting Ghana after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, when George W. Bush was the American president. Ghana is a stong, proud nation of strong, proud people, quite preoccupied with their own challenges and initiatives. It is a democracy highly engaged with its own internal politics.

On the roadside and in the streets, one sees and hears mostly about Ghanaians. However, when one saw a depiction of someone who was not Ghanaian, more likely than not the bearded face one would see would be that of Osama bin Laden. One saw a symbol of the desire to destroy our country, the United States, and all it stood for in the world.

We went home to Ghana this past summer to bury my wife's father. It was our first visit home since the election of Obama. I was thinking more about the father we had lost than the president we had elected, but I was immediately struck by the omnipresence of Barack Obama's smiling face on the streets of Ghana.

True, Obama had recently visited the country, in his historic first visit to West Africa as president, and given one of his stirring speeches. And true, too, that Ghana was doing some of its own political soul-searching, with a torpor in its local politics, no local star to hold onto.

But, still, it was striking to see so many publicly displayed images of an American - the president of the United States, no less - in this proud West African nation.

I think this amazing and abrupt transformation is the only way to understand Barack Obama winning the Nobel Prize for Peace when he hasn't ended any wars or closed any torture camps or discontinued any nucleaur programs or even served as president for a complete year.

Yesterday, the most common international image on the streets of Ghana was of a man who wanted to destroy our country. Today, that face has been replaced by the president of our country, the man elected to lead it.

Can you imagine anything more remarkable - or hopeful - than that? Oslo is a long way from Accra, but I think the decision made by the Nobel committee can be traced to this change on the streets of Ghana.

Remember, this is not so much about Barack Obama or our country. It's about the rest of the world.

They look at us, and they fear us. They have very good reason to fear us. For starters, the United States is the only nation that has ever dropped an atomic bomb (two, in fact, when one would have ended the war) on another country. Our nation is powerful and dangerous and people are terrified of us - we, too, strike terror - and the rest of the world has every good reason to be terrified of the most heavily armed nation on Earth.

When George W. Bush ran this nation and its military, the world fantasized about a man who lives in a cave who wanted to destroy our country. With Barack Obama running this nation and its military, the world is fantasizing about our president and where he says he wants to lead us.

It may only be a fantasy, but I like this fantasy a whole lot better than the one that it replaced.

God bless America, and Ghana, and Norway, and you. Just don't kill anybody! Especially our president.

STL coppers indicted for stealing stolen electronics

TWO ST. LOUIS METROPOLITAN POLICE OFFICERS INDICTED ON FEDERAL CHARGES

Ronald Jackson and Christian Brezill have been indicted on charges of theft of government property, after allegedly stealing stolen merchandise after an arrest, Acting United States Attorney Michael W. Reap announced today.

According to the indictment, Ronald Jackson and Christian Brezill were uniformed patrol officers assigned to work in the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Sixth District out of the North Patrol Division. They were responsible for collecting, preserving and inventorying evidence; interviewing witnesses; making lawful arrests; conducting lawful searches; and making truthful and accurate reports of their official activities.

The indictment alleges that on July 27, 2009, Jackson was on duty when he received information from an individual that Jane Doe was in possession of electronics equipment stolen from the retailer Best Buy, and was in a vehicle on the parking lot of the Phillips 66 station at 5728 West Florissant Avenue. Jackson agreed with the individual that he would find Jane Doe, seize the stolen electronics equipment from her vehicle, and split some of the stolen electronics equipment with that individual.

Jackson then shared that information with Christian Brezill, who was also on duty and they both drove their police vehicles to the Phillips 66 station to meet Jane Doe. Jackson and Brezill did a computer check on Doe, discovered that she had outstanding minor traffic warrants, arrested her on those traffic warrants, and placed her handcuffed into Brezill’s police vehicle.

They searched the trunk of Doe’s vehicle and discovered electronics equipment, in original boxes and in Best Buy store bags, including a Sony speaker system, a Phillips I-Pod docking system, speaker cable, a Wii gaming system, an X-Box gaming system, a Logitech computer speaker system, a Dell Inspiron laptop computer, and a Dynex LCD flat screen television.

Jackson and Brezill removed all of the electronics equipment from Doe’s vehicle, and placed the items into the trunk of Brezell’s police vehicle. They then conveyed Jane Doe to the North Patrol Division where she was booked on the outstanding minor traffic warrants. Doe was neither arrested nor charged relative to her possession of the electronics equipment. According to the indictment, Jackson and Brezill failed to report to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, either verbally or in writing, their seizure of the electronics equipment from Jane Doe’s vehicle.

After their work shift ended during the early morning hours of July 27, 2009, Jackson and Brezill met at a residential location and split up the seized electronics equipment between themselves.

Jackson kept the Sony speaker system, the speaker cable, the X-Box gaming system, and the Dynex LCD flat screen television; he later gave the Sony speaker system and the speaker cable to the individual who had originally provided him the information regarding Jane Doe, and sold the Dynex LCD flat screen television to another individual for cash.

Brezill kept the Phillips I-Pod docking system, the Wii gaming system, the Logitech computer speaker system, and the Dell Inspiron laptop computer; he later sold the Phillips I-Pod docking system and the Logitech computer speaker system to an individual for cash.

Unbeknownst to Jackson and Brezill, Jane Doe was cooperating with federal law enforcement, and the electronics equipment seized from her and stolen by the defendants was the property of the United States of America.

Jackson, 57, St. Louis City; and Brezill, 25, St. Louis City, were each indicted by a federal grand jury on one felony count of theft of United States Property. They surrendered to authorities this morning have made their appearance in federal court and were released on bond. They are presently scheduled to be arraigned next Friday, October 16, 2009.

If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of 10 years and/or fines up to $250,000.
Reap commended the work on the case by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Assistant United States Attorney Hal Goldsmith, who is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations, and each defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

Drugs, bribes, conspiracy and corruption in St. Louis

The feds’ greatest hits: 2009

I see incipient signs of a backlash, from some quarters, suggesting that public corruption in St. Louis has been getting too much attention. But when you look at this - partial - list of major indictments and plea agreements from basically only one quarter of this year, I think it's clear that corruption has not been getting nearly enough coverage in our mainstream media.

I am talking about actual, documented, prosecuted corruption, not the "swirling whispers" kind.

*

October 9, 2009 – St. Louis Metropolitan Police Detective Vincent Carr is scheduled to be sentenced regarding his guilty plea to conspiracy, wire fraud, making false statements and theft of government funds relative to making drug busts.

Sept. 24, 2009 – State Rep. Talibdin El-Amin pleads guilty to federal bribery charges.

Sept. 17, 2009 – STLPD Detective Leo Liston is sentenced to three months in prison and ordered to pay $8,000 restitution for misappropriation of government funds relative to making drug busts.

August 28, 2009 – STLPD Detective Bobby Garrett pleads guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud, making false statements and theft of government funds relative to making drug busts.

August 25, 2009 – State Sen. Jeff Smith, State Rep. Steve Brown and Smith’s former campaign treasurer Nick Adams plead guilty to conspiring to obstruct justice relative to Smith’s 2004 congressional campaign. Smith and Adams also plead guilty to obstructing a federal grand jury investigation during 2009, in addition to obstructing the Federal Election Commission investigation going back to the 2004 campaign.

August 14, 2009 – St. Louis City Corrections Officer Peggy O’Neal pleads guilty to attempted distribution of heroin to inmates at the St. Louis City Justice Center.

August 12, 2009 – St. Louis City Corrections Officer James Moore pleads guilty to attempted distribution of heroin to inmates at the St. Louis City Justice Center.

August 10, 2009 – STLPD Detective Kevin Shade pleads guilty to mail fraud in connection with falsifying inspections for S&H Parking Systems, which held a lucrative contract with the city police.

June 25, 2009 – Former STLPD detective and manager of S&H Parking Systems Gregory P. Shepard is indicted on multiple charges including mail fraud, wire fraud and bribery; these are only accusations.

June 3, 2009 – St. Louis City Corrections Officers James Moore, Peggy O’Neal and Marilyn Brown are indicted for attempted distribution of heroin to inmates at the St. Louis City Justice Center. Moore and O’Neal would eventually plea guilty; Brown is set for trial December 7, 2009 and remains innocent until proven guilty. The Corrections Division is part of the Department of Public Safety, directed by Charles Bryson, an appointee of Mayor Francis G. Slay.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

*

This timeline appears today in The St. Louis American as a sidebar to my lengthy interview with Roland J. Corvington, returning Special Agent in Charge of FBI St. Louis, who has a reputation among local federal prosecutors as a solid team player.

Since last week we ran with an even longer interview with outgoing Special Agent in Charge John Gillies, we may be open to the charge of overplaying the role of the FBI in this impressive string of investigations and prosecutions.

That is not intentional. It so happens that Gillies left office when these stories were hot, and both he and the new guy (who also is the old guy, having been in St. Louis just before Gillies) consented to interviews.

I am hoping when the U.S. Senate confirms Richard Callahan as the new U.S. Attorney in St. Louis, that both he and Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Reap will sit down with me and talk.

I will add that it gives me no pleasure to report on dirty cops when cops are struggling for their lives in the hospital, having been shot on the street; but the mainstream media tends to do a good job of covering the noble defender aspect of police work, especially when a man is down.