Eastern District of Missouri

ST. LOUIS – A man residing in a halfway house after serving prison time for producing child pornography on Tuesday admitted being caught again with child sexual abuse material.

Joseph Trahan, 62, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography. He admitted that in August of 2025, he was on supervised release and residing at a halfway house. After learning that Trahan had an unauthorized electronic device and had been viewing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), Trahan’s probation officer met with him on August 6, 2025. Subsequent investigation discovered conversations between Trahan and another registered sex offender on supervised release in another judicial district about sex with a child, as well as more than 600 images containing CSAM. Trahan also had unregistered and unauthorized accounts on TikTok and Instagram.

Trahan is scheduled to be sentenced on September 9. Both the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Trahan’s lawyer have agreed to recommend 10 years in prison.

In 2007, Trahan, originally of Phoenix, Arizona, was convicted of production of child pornography in U.S. District Court in St. Louis and sentenced to 270 months in prison, followed by a life term of supervised release. Trahan videotaped himself engaged in sexual activity with a 16-year-old girl and distributed the tapes through the mail in exchange for money.

The U.S. Probation Office and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kyle Bateman and Sila Karacal are 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 – U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. on Tuesday sentenced a man who used stolen identities to fraudulently apply for pandemic loans, file tax returns and seek state benefits to 39 months in prison.

Judge Limbaugh also ordered Myles Benjamin Depew, 35, of Cape Girardeau, to pay $25,000 restitution to the United States and $10,728 to the State of Missouri.

Depew used the name of someone else to fraudulently apply for and receive an $11,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) in June of 2020. The next month, Depew used another person’s name to fraudulently apply for and receive a $14,000 EIDL loan. Finally, he used a third person’s identity to open a checking account with a West Virginia-based bank. Depew prepared two fraudulent Missouri state tax returns, triggering a refund of $2,060 into the bank account in February of 2022 and $8,668 in April of 2023.

U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration agents interviewed Depew, who estimated that he had spent about $40,000 on casino gambling, $5,000 on food and another $5,000 on methamphetamine. Depew used his job as a tax preparer to gain access to names, birthdates and Social Security numbers.

Depew pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau in February to three counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Willis prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – A teenage felon from St. Louis on Thursday admitted being caught with a machine gun after a police chase.

Juanell Carter, 19, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. On the afternoon of Aug. 26, 2025, the St. Ann Police Department was alerted about a stolen 2024 Nissan Altima on Page Avenue. A St. Ann police lieutenant spotted the vehicle backing into a parking spot at a convenience store. Carter was behind the wheel, wearing a yellow and black ski mask. Carter sped away, followed by the lieutenant, who activated his lights and siren. After deploying a Starchase tracker, the lieutenant discontinued the pursuit and monitored the vehicle electronically until it stopped at North Garrison Avenue and Thomas Street in St. Louis. Carter and his passenger ran away, but Carter was later located and arrested.

Carter was wearing a cross-body bag that contained suspected narcotics and a Glock 10mm pistol equipped with a machine gun conversion device that rendered it into a fully automatic weapon. Police found the ski mask in Carter’s pocket. He is a convicted felon and is thus barred from possessing a firearm. He was on parole at the time of his crime.

Carter is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 2, 2026. His crime is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

The St. Ann Police Department, the North County Police Cooperative and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul D’Agrosa is prosecuting the case.  

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.

ST. LOUIS – A Florissant man who has been accused him of stealing more than $250,000 from a grocery chain was arrested Wednesday.

Richard Lind, 39, of Florissant, was indicted with five counts of wire fraud on April 22. He appeared in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.

The indictment says Lind worked as the site manager for a logistics company at the grocer’s distribution center. Lind’s employer supplied the physical labor and heavy equipment to unload trailers containing the grocer’s inventory, as well as software for tracking shipments.

Lind defrauded the grocery chain by creating false records for inventory shipments that had never occurred and false invoices seeking payment from the trucking companies for unloading those shipments, the indictment says. The trucking companies then sought reimbursement from the grocery chain. Lind voided the false records to conceal his scheme from his employer. He used the electronic payment authorization codes that resulted from his scheme to obtain cash payments at truck stops, triggering more than 600 fraudulent payments totaling more than $250,000, the indictment says.

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

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gwen Carroll is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Tuesday sentenced a man who recorded his sexual abuse of an 8-year-old to 25 years in prison.

Jacob J. Hampton, 33, placed a hidden camera in a bathroom to record an 8-year-old girl. Police found images on Hampton’s phone of Hampton abusing the victim, as well as child sexual abuse material that he’d obtained online.

Hampton, of O’Fallon, Missouri, pleaded guilty in January of 2025 to one count of production of child pornography and one count of receiving child pornography.

The FBI, the St. Charles County Police Department and the St. Charles County Cyber Crime Task Force investigated the 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 – U.S. District Judge Zachary M. Bluestone on Wednesday sentenced a registered sex offender who exchanged child sexual abuse material on Snapchat and raped a woman in 2024 to 20 years in prison.

Michael A. Driemeier, 32, of Bonne Terre, will be on supervised release for life after his release from prison. Driemeier pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in February to possession of child pornography as a prior offender.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol was first alerted by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in November of 2024 that Driemeier had distributed child sexual abuse material (CSAM) via Snapchat. Investigators found Driemeier on Jan. 9, 2025, shopping with a young child. He consented to a search of his cell phone, which revealed CSAM and an exchange of CSAM with another Snapchat user. He later admitted obtaining CSAM and sending it to others, his plea agreement says. Driemeier also admitted as part of his plea that he raped a 20-year-old female acquaintance in a hotel room in February of 2024.

On April 6, 2018, Driemeier was convicted in St. Francois County Circuit Court of second-degree statutory rape and sentenced to five years in prison. The victim in that case was 13.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Missouri State Technical Assistance Team and the Bonne Terre Police Department investigated the 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 – U.S. District Judge Zachary M. Bluestone on Tuesday sentenced a Jefferson County businessman to 18 months in prison for failing to pay 10 years of employment taxes totaling $774,081.

Judge Bluestone also ordered Danny L. Nickelson Jr., 54, to pay the back taxes in restitution to the IRS and imposed a fine of $18,684.

Nickelson owned General Physiotherapy, a manufacturer and distributor of massage and percussion devices used in medicine and physical therapy. For tax years 2013 through 2022, Nickelson withheld Social Security and Medicare taxes and federal income taxes from employees’ pay but did not pay that to the IRS. He also did not match the withheld taxes and pay that amount, as required. Nickelson did the same thing for tax years 2013-2015 for Tomichi Industries, a small plastic distributor and supplier for General Physiotherapy. Nickelson was sole shareholder of Tomichi.

Nickelson used the tax money for the operating expenses of the business and personal expenditures including food, travel, retail purchases and credit card bills.

Nickelson “put at risk his employees’ tax liabilities and future federal benefits” and stole “money from the U.S. tax system that funds the federal government and the social safety net,” a sentencing memorandum by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow says.

Nickelson pleaded guilty in February to two counts of failure to pay over trust fund taxes.

The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – A woman from Lake St. Louis turned herself in Monday to face an indictment accusing her of embezzling $1.2 million from her employer.

Kari Bertels, 44, was indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on April 29 with five counts of wire fraud. She turned herself in Monday, appeared in court and pleaded not guilty.

The indictment accuses Bertels of using her company credit card to make purchases for herself and relatives from Oct. 9, 2018, to Jan. 12, 2026, including $19,815 in beauty products from Red Aspen, $16,512 in fitness coaching, $42,407 in DoorDash deliveries, $59,994 in Amazon purchases, $15,000 in airfare for herself and relatives for domestic and international trips, $27,044 from Instacart, $14,331 in jewelry from Diamonds Direct, and $14,110 at a Sandals resort.

Bertels was an accountant and a senior financial analyst at the St. Louis County company. Her responsibilities included approving expenses reports and paying the company credit card bills and other business expenses with the company checking account, the indictment says. She concealed her embezzlement by refusing to submit monthly expense reports for the unauthorized credit card purchases, re-directing the credit card statements from work to her home and dividing the payments for her unauthorized credit card purchases into smaller amounts in the accounting system, the indictment says.

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.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 or both prison and a fine.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Karin Schute is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis has been accused of stealing $735,137 from a retired St. Louis teacher.

Michael N. Jones, 40, was indicted April 29 with eight counts of wire fraud. He pleaded not guilty Monday.

The indictment says Jones was named as the victim’s power of attorney in March of 2023, and began stealing from her that same month. He made over $12,000 in purchases using her checking account and used her credit card for OnlyFans purchases, the indictment says. The victim was admitted to an assisted living facility on April 25, 2023. Jones put the proceeds of the sale of her home and two certificates of deposit into her checking account, and used that account to buy four properties in St. Louis, one in Hillsboro and two in East St. Louis, the indictment says. He also transferred $20,000 to his personal bank account and $140,000 to his Cash App account, using the Cash App money for food, trips, life coaching and OnlyFans, the indictment says.

From April 2024 to November 2024, Jones made only one payment to her assisted living facility and the victim was evicted owing $38,535, the indictment says. In November of 2024, Jones moved her into another facility but failed to pay costs that grew to $52,502 a year later, it says.

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.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 or both.

The U.S. Secret Service, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jolene Taaffe is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – Two illegal immigrants from Honduras were indicted Wednesday and accused of hiring at least 10 other illegal aliens.

Oscar Ruiz-Oliva, 41, and Jorge Manuel Oliva-Paguada, 37, were indicted on one count each of knowingly and intentionally engaging in a pattern of hiring unauthorized aliens, knowingly hiring at least ten unauthorized aliens in a 12-month period and illegal re-entry into the United States after being deported. Ruiz-Oliva was deported in 2009 near Phoenix and Oliva-Paguada was deported in 2013 near Houston. Oliva-Paguada also faces one count of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm, namely a .40-caliber pistol.

A motion to have Ruiz-Oliva held in jail until trial says he employed at least 25 illegal aliens.

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.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Ware and Kyle Bateman are prosecuting the case.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF St. Louis comprises agents and officers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); Untied States Marshal Service (USMS); Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Internal Revenue Service (IRS); and United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Cristian M. Stevens on Thursday sentenced a Slovakian man who aided the operation of a darknet market to 200 months in prison.

Alan Bill, 33, of Bratislava, pleaded guilty in January to one felony count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and admitted involvement in the operation of Kingdom Market, a darknet marketplace that operated between March 2021 and December 2023. Kingdom facilitated thousands of transactions wherein hundreds of vendors offered dangerous illegal drugs, stolen financial information, fraudulent identification documents, counterfeit currencies and computer malware throughout the world. Buyers made their purchases via cryptocurrency and anonymous or semi-anonymous accounts.

As part of his plea, Bill admitted assisting others in maintaining or operating Kingdom by providing or procuring web-administration services. He also admitted receiving cryptocurrency from a wallet associated with Kingdom, assisting with the creation of Kingdom’s forum pages on websites such as Reddit and Dread, having access to Kingdom usernames that made postings on behalf of Kingdom on social media accounts and communicating with others regarding certain Kingdom transactions.

Although Bill attempted to minimize his role with Kingdom Market in a day-long hearing Thursday, Judge Stevens found that evidence showed that Bill was a leader and/or organizer of the criminal conspiracy and was aware of what vendors were selling.

Kingdom servers show that there were more than 1,500 sales of heroin by dozens of vendors and nearly 600 sales of what sellers claimed was Oxycodone. Bill and his co-conspirators knew that fentanyl was being slipped into other products, a sentencing memo filed by the government says. “The dangerous drugs trafficked by defendant through Kingdom caused harm to untold numbers of people across the world,” the memo says.
 

After announcing the sentence Thursday, Judge Stevens said, “It’s hard to even imagine the amount of misery that the defendant’s actions have caused.”

Undercover federal investigators bought fentanyl, meth and a United States passport from Kingdom that were shipped to the Eastern District of Missouri. Bill was arrested Dec. 15, 2023, at Newark Liberty International Airport in possession of electronic devices that contained evidence of his involvement with Kingdom.

As part of his plea agreement, Bill also agreed to forfeit five different types of cryptocurrency, as well as the Kingdommarket.live and Kingdommarket.so domains, which have been shut down by authorities.

“Alan Bill helped run a darknet market that sold stolen identity and financial information, counterfeit currency and illegal drugs, including bogus prescription drugs containing fentanyl,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Albus. “This sentence should send a message that serious crimes will be punished harshly, no matter where they occur or how hidden they appear to be.”

“Life is a series of good and bad choices.  Mr.  Bill made a bad choice to start a darknet marketplace that sold misery in the form of illegal drugs, stolen financial information and fake or stolen identification documents,” said IRS-Criminal Investigation St. Louis Special Agent in Charge William Steenson. “IRS-CI is committed to using the financial expertise of our special agents to track down and stop criminal organizations such as Kingdom Market. We’re grateful to our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their aggressive prosecution of this case.”

“Distributing deadly and highly addictive narcotics is extremely dangerous and has been a major contributor to the ongoing drug epidemic that is destroying communities across the country,” said Acting Inspector in Charge, Nicholas Bucciarelli, who leads the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which includes the St. Louis Domicile Office.  “Leveraging USPIS unique cross-border authorities and expertise in cyber and narcotics investigations, Inspectors were able to pierce the veil of anonymity that these drug traffickers falsely believed they possessed by operating on the dark web, to expose their conspiracy and hold them accountable for their actions.”

“People often feel a false sense of security and anonymity, like they’re able to get away with something if they conduct business on the dark web,” DEA St. Louis Field Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Davis said. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. Our investigators and agents are well versed in the field of cyber transactions and work routinely to dismantle those organizations looking to profit off others with the sale of illegal drugs.”

IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Missouri Department of Revenue investigated the case. The investigation also involved numerous foreign law enforcement agencies, including the German Federal Criminal Police, or Bundeskriminalamt, the Frankfurt am Main Public Prosecutor's Office - Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) as well as law enforcement agencies from Switzerland, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kyle Bateman, John Ware and Justin Ladendorf prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Joshua M. Divine on Thursday sentenced a St. Louis felon caught twice with guns, including after a police chase, to a total of 27 years in prison.

After a two-day bench trial in October, Judge Divine found Roosevelt Easley, 40, guilty of two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. On Thursday, Judge Divine sentenced Easley to 25 years for that case and two more years for violating his supervised release in a 2018 case in which he pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, cocaine base and methamphetamine.

Evidence and testimony at the October trial showed that on March 29, 2022, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers stopped a vehicle driven by Easley.  Marijuana and a firearm were in plain view in the vehicle.  On Sept. 10, 2022, St. Louis police again attempted to make a traffic stop of Easley’s vehicle, but he sped off. He eventually crashed into a tree before running away. Officers found two firearms in the vehicle.

Easley also resisted arrest, threatened police officers, intimidated a potential witness and attempted to bribe a police officer, a sentencing memo filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Boyce says.

Easley has at least three previous convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses, which subjected him to the enhanced penalty provisions of the Armed Career Criminal Act.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Donald Boyce and Nichole Frankenberg prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Joshua M. Divine on Wednesday sentenced a convicted felon who shot at his ex-girlfriend and triggered a police standoff to 13 years in prison.

Judge Divine also ordered Jairell Allmon to pay a $2,000 fine.

On Feb. 18, 2025, Allmon fired a shot at his ex-girlfriend after spending the night in her car, which was parked outside her house in Jennings. The victim told police that Allmon made threats against her and her children throughout the night, and in the morning threatened to shoot her if she tried to get in her car. He fired a shot at her but missed. When St. Louis County Police Department officers arrived, Allmon refused to reply or comply when officers ordered him out of the vehicle, triggering a three-hour standoff. After it ended, police found a 9mm handgun in the trunk of the car, which was accessible from the inside of the vehicle. Allmon is a convicted felon and is thus barred from possessing a firearm.

This is Allmon’s fourth conviction involving a firearm and third involving the possessing and brandishing of a gun, Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Christian Goeke wrote in a sentencing memo, adding that the crime was one of a long string of domestic crimes.

Allmon, 40, of Jennings, Missouri, pleaded guilty in January to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The St. Louis County Police Department, including the Tactical Unit, the Crisis Intervention Team, Crisis Negotiation Team and Special Response Team, handled the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Christian Goeke prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Wednesday sentenced a former high school basketball coach to 90 months in prison for sending sexually explicit photos to students and engaging in sexually explicit conversations with them.

Lee Anthony Bogan Jr., 29, was working at a St. Louis area high school at the time. Bogan, known as “Coach Teejay,” used a social media application to contact high school students beginning in the spring of 2024. Bogan sent photos of his genitals and expressed romantic and sexual interest in the students, seeking to gauge their responses. Bogan was unaware that the minors took screen shots of the explicit photos before they disappeared.

In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Edwards said that the students interrupted Bogan’s attempt to groom them by reporting his conduct.

Bogan pleaded guilty in February to one count of attempting to receive child pornography. He will be on supervised release for life after his release from prison.

The Ladue Police Department and the St. Louis County Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Edwards 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 – A St. Louis man on Monday admitted driving a 12-year-old from Michigan to Missouri, where he engaged in illegal sex acts with her.

Harold Paul White, 56, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of interstate travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. He admitted meeting the girl on social media and driving to Michigan to pick her up. White engaged in illegal sex acts with the minor at his apartment and recorded those acts with a phone. When the victim realized that she had been reported missing, White bought her a bus ticket home.

White is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31. Both sides have agreed to recommend 15 years in prison.

The FBI and local police investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Edwards 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. For more information, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – A former U.S. Postal Service supervisor on Monday admitted stealing 89 checks from the mail.

Benita D. Randle, 43, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of theft of mail by a U.S. Postal Service employee. John W. Harrison, 26, of Black Jack, Missouri, pleaded guilty on Feb. 10, 2026, to one count of possession of stolen mail matter.

Randle was a supervisor at the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center, which processes, sorts and distributes all non-parcel mail for the St. Louis metropolitan areas. She had access to all the mail at the center. Between September and October of 2023, Randle stole mail containing checks and gave that mail to Harrison, who opened the mail and removed the checks.

Randle’s crime was uncovered when her leased Nissan Juke was repossessed for her failure to maintain insurance. The car dealership found Harrison’s backpack, which contained an AR-style handgun, cocaine, fentanyl and loose checks, and called the St. Charles Police Department. After officers arrived at the dealership, so did Randle, who falsely claimed that she did not handle mail in her job. She later lied to investigators with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General that she never drove the Juke and did not have access to mail.

Investigators determined that Randle had stolen 89 checks from mail that belonged to dozens of victims. They also found one counterfeit check that bore the same bank account and payor information as one of the stolen checks. The total face value of the 90 checks was $369,248.

Randle is scheduled to be sentenced on August 20 and Harrison on June 3. They face a penalty of up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 or both prison and a fine.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General and the St. Charles Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – Two men have been sentenced to prison for two carjackings in St. Louis in 2024.

U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Monday sentenced Davion Pruitt, 19, of St. Louis, to nine years in prison in prison. Tywone Calvin, 20, of Pine Lawn, was sentenced on April 27 to nine and one-half years in prison.

The pair stole a 2011 Cadillac Escalade at gunpoint on Dec. 23, 2024. Three days later, they carjacked a 2017 Chevrolet Trax.

The Escalade’s driver had met a woman, Mya Reagan, on Facebook. Pruitt and Calvin told Reagan to find someone to rob, and she arranged to meet with the victim on Dec. 23, 2024. Reagan had the victim stop at a gas station for cigars near South Broadway and Interstate 55. When the victim exited the store, he was confronted by two armed men, who stole his SUV. St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers found the SUV later that day with three men who said they bought the vehicle from someone matching Reagan’s description.

On Dec. 26, 2024, at about 3:35 a.m., the second victim received an alert from his key fob about his Chevrolet Trax. He went outside to find two armed men by his SUV who demanded the keys and drove away. Later that day, St. Louis County Police Department officers spotted the stolen Trax with Pruitt and Calvin inside. Calvin crashed after letting Pruitt out, and then got out of the vehicle and ran, dropping a handgun. Pruitt was arrested by St. Louis police on Feb. 14, 2025. Officers found a 9mm handgun with a laser sight.

Calvin and Pruitt both pleaded guilty to one count of carjacking and one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. Reagan pleaded guilty to the carjacking charge on April 10 and is scheduled to be sentenced in July.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the St. Louis County Police Department and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Torrie J. Schneider is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge John A. Ross on Monday sentenced a man who committed identity theft, check fraud and pandemic fraud to 42 months in prison and ordered him to repay $77,360 to his victims.

For over three years, Darryon M. Sutherlin, now 29, engaged in a series of frauds and financial crimes, including filing a fraudulent application for COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, check fraud and the use of stolen identities to obtain loans and credit. His crimes continued even after he was indicted.

On May 26, 2022, Sutherlin used the stolen identity of a New Jersey resident to finance a $25,850 loan for a 2016 BMW. Sutherlin also used the New Jersey man’s name, Social Security number and a fake ID to obtain a personal loan of $8,500 and two credit cards.

On Dec. 7, 2022, Sutherlin deposited two stolen and altered U.S. Treasury checks, totaling $10,436, into his personal bank account.

On Jan. 31, 2023, Sutherlin’s property manager contacted the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department after seeing pounds of marijuana and driver’s licenses in different names but with Sutherlin’s photo in his apartment. Officers caught Sutherlin with stolen personal and U.S. Treasury checks and unauthorized bank cards and false driver’s licenses, including the New Jersey victim’s license.  They found more bank cards, false driver’s licenses, bank paperwork and a large trash bag containing stolen, opened U.S. mail in his apartment. In total, officers recovered roughly 23 unauthorized debit and credit cards, 13 false driver’s licenses and 2 false Social Security cards, all of which bore the information of more than 10 different identity theft victims.

Sutherlin sought a Paycheck Protection Program loan on March 23, 2021, by falsely claiming that he ran a construction business and by submitting a false Form 1040 Schedule C showing bogus gross earnings. After receiving a $20,833 PPP loan, Sutherlin immediately withdrew a large portion of the loan funds in cash and spent the remainder on personal expenses.

After he was indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on May 15, 2024, Sutherlin obtained a loan of $8,500 from a credit union branch in Collinsville, Ill. by using the identity of a Massachusetts man whose name appeared on one of the licenses found in his apartment in 2023. Sutherlin’s bond was revoked, and he has been in jail since the new offense was discovered.

Sutherlin pleaded guilty in September in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to two counts of identity theft.

“The sentencing in this case illustrates that individuals who engage in mail theft will be held accountable for their actions,” stated Acting Inspector in Charge, Nicholas Bucciarelli, who leads the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which includes the St. Louis Domicile.  “The Postal Inspection Service is proud to work with our local, state, and federal partners to bring mail theft perpetrators to justice and prevent financial crimes targeting local citizens, postal customers, and financial institutions.”

“This sentencing represents the hard work and dedication by USPS OIG Special Agents working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring charges on this significant mail theft investigation,” said Special Agent in Charge Dennus Bishop, U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Central Area Field Office. “The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General and the United States Postal Inspection Service, along with our law enforcement partners, remain committed to safeguarding the U.S. Mail and ensuring the accountability and integrity of U.S. Postal Service employees.”

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the Glen Carbon Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – A man on supervised release from a prior carjacking case on Monday admitted being caught with a fully automatic handgun after fleeing from police in a stolen car.

Davell A. Horton, 29, of St. Louis County, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He admitted that on July 15, 2024, St. Louis County Police Department officers spotted an Infiniti G37 with no license plates that matched the description of a stolen car. Horton was driving, ignored police attempts to pull him over and instead sped away on a circuitous route around north St. Louis County.

Eventually, Horton crashed the car into a light pole. His passenger fled, dropping a handgun. Horton also ran, leaving behind a .45-caliber Glock equipped with a high-capacity magazine and a “switch,” or auto sear, that modified it into a fully automatic weapon.

Horton was on supervised release at the time, having been sentenced in January of 2021 to 70 months in prison for carjacking.

He now faces up to 15 years in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for August 10.

The St. Louis County Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul D’Agrosa is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Monday sentenced a man who recorded his sexual abuse of two underage girls to 50 years in prison.

“You’re not going to get out again,” Judge Schelp told Richard James Miller. “You’re not going to get an opportunity to victimize someone else.”

Miller, 41, recorded his sexual abuse of the two juveniles between Jan. 1, 2022, and May 24, 2024. One victim told investigators that her abuse began when she was 15. The other said she began spending time in Miller’s apartment when she was 8 or 9 years old. Miller initially told her to undress so that he could take pictures of her and send them to friends.

In statements read to Judge Schelp Monday, both victims said Miller threatened to kill their relatives. One said he threatened to make her watch as he killed her two dogs.

In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman told Judge Schelp that although a third juvenile victim was not presenting a statement, she was abused in the same way.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations learned of Miller in 2024, when the court-approved search of a New Jersey man’s home uncovered Kik messenger chats with Miller. Images constituting child sexual abuse material were found in the chats. Investigators located and interviewed Miller, who admitted engaging in sex acts with young girls at his home in the past. He also admitted distributing photos of one of the victims in a Kik group chat.

Miller, of St. Francois County, Missouri, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of production of child pornography.

Homeland Security Investigations, the Park Hills Police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman 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. For more information, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel on Thursday sentenced a man who embezzled $434,000 from a medical business in the St. Louis area to a year and a day in prison and ordered him to repay the money.

Talon Lewis’ embezzlement lasted from Oct. 21, 2019, through at least Feb. 19, 2025. At the time, he was an accounts payable specialist at a medical business. One of his jobs was to upload a list of patients who were owed refunds so the company could generate and mail refund checks to patients. Lewis had refunds sent to himself or to the homes of friends and acquaintances, sometimes using fake names, by adding those people to the patient refund lists. Lewis recruited 14 people to aid his scheme. Those friends and acquaintances then kicked back 30% of the money they fraudulently received to Lewis. He spent his share of the money on personal expenses and at local casinos.

As part of the sentence, Judge Sippel barred Lewis from gambling or entering gambling establishments during his three-year term of supervised release.

“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is charged with defending the nation’s mail system from illegal use.  With the collaborative efforts of our federal law enforcement partners, Postal Inspectors investigate fraudsters who utilize the U.S. Mail to perpetuate financial schemes to defraud others to enrich themselves.  Postal Inspectors seek justice for victims including those most vulnerable,” said Acting Inspector in Charge, Nicholas Bucciarelli, who leads the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which includes the St. Louis Domicile Office.

Lewis, 33, formerly of St. Charles, Missouri, pleaded guilty in January to one count of mail fraud.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Wednesday sentenced a man to 20 years in prison for fatally shooting someone during a marijuana deal in 2023.

The shooting occurred on May 25, 2023, in an alley behind the 4800 block of Farlin Avenue in St. Louis. Trevon Carson, now 32, of St. Charles, drove the marijuana buyer, Earl S. Hill, to the alley. Carson was armed despite having been convicted multiple times of felonies, including assault and robbery. The marijuana seller’s friend stepped out of his own car holding an AR-style firearm and began to approach Carson’s car. Carson got out of his vehicle, fatally shot the victim and took his gun.

“Carson never called for help. Carson never rendered aid. Carson simply left the victim to die in the alley,” a sentencing memo filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Finlen says.

On June 13, 2023, the FBI and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, having learned of Carson’s involvement, conducted a court-approved search of his home and found three loaded handguns and an AR-style firearm.

Carson pleaded guilty in November in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and one count of discharge of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime resulting in death.

Hill, 33, of Maryland Heights, was sentenced in February to 127 months in prison after pleading guilty to the conspiracy charge and one count of possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Finlen prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Joshua M. Divine on Wednesday sentenced a former bartender who admitted possessing child sexual abuse material and installing hidden cameras in the bedroom and bathroom of a former residence to 13 years in prison.

Judge Divine also ordered Anthony Thomas, 49, of St. Charles County, to pay $104,500 to victims who appeared in the child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that he downloaded.

Thomas possessed thousands of media files containing CSAM and thousands more containing pornography where the age of those depicted is difficult to discern. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations found Thomas after learning that someone in St. Charles County was making CSAM available for download via the BitTorrent peer-to-peer network.

Thomas also admitted installing hidden cameras in a bedroom and bathroom of a former residence. Both captured images of a 14-year-old girl.

Thomas pleaded guilty in January to one count of receipt of child pornography.

“Anthony Thomas committed egregious crimes that exploited and harmed children,” said HSI St. Louis Assistant Special Agent in Charge Gregory Paris. “I am extremely proud of our agents’ diligent work in bringing his criminal conduct to an end. As a bartender, Thomas interacted with countless individuals who, I imagine, were unaware of the serious crimes he was committing. Parents and guardians can take comfort in knowing Thomas is off the streets”.

Homeland Security Investigations and the St. Charles County Regional SWAT Team investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes 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 Cristian M. Stevens on Wednesday sentenced a Washington County, Missouri man to 29 years in prison for sexually abusing a girl and soliciting child sexual abuse material from her.

William R. Murphy, 41, engaged in sexual contact with a juvenile when she was between the ages of 13 and 17. Sometimes Murphy threatened the victim to take sexually explicit photos of herself.

Murphy pleaded guilty in January in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of production of child pornography and one count of coercion and enticement of a minor.

“William Murphy’s abhorrent crimes were uncovered because a vigilant mother trusted her instincts and took action to protect her child,” said Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. “Child predators often rely on fear and manipulation to silence their victims. Parents must remain engaged; set clear expectations and monitor your child’s online activity to help keep them safe.”

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI investigated the case. 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.

ST. LOUIS – Eight people, including six who entered the country illegally, were arrested Wednesday on charges including trafficking in firearms and cocaine.

The eight are:

•    Ivan Said Henriquez-Corea, 34, of St. Louis.
•    Jose Edwardo Maldonado-Vargas, 21, a.k.a. Oscar Rodriguez-Lopez, of St. Louis County.
•    Manuel DeJesus Hernandez-Maldonado, 47, of St. Louis.
•    Heber Marcelino Figueroa-Bardales, 27, of St. Louis.
•    Edgar Cruz-Ramirez, 36, of St. Louis County. 
•    Thomas Allen Hull, 37, of Eureka.
•    Maria Amabil Hernandez, 49, of St. Louis.
•    Joan Hurtado-Jimenez, 31, of Maryland Heights.

Henriquez-Corea, Maldonado-Vargas, Hernandez-Maldonado and Hernandez face charges of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute at least 500 grams of cocaine and multiple counts of distributing cocaine. Henriquez-Corea, Cruz-Ramirez, Figueroa-Bardales and Hull are accused in the indictment of one count of conspiracy to illegally traffic in firearms and one count of conspiracy to purchase firearms for illegal aliens. Henriquez-Corea and Figueroa-Bardales face charges of possessing a firearm as an illegal alien and Maldonado-Vargas has been charged with possession of a short-barreled rifle. Figueroa-Bardales and Hurtado-Jimenez each face one count of illegal re-entry to the United States.

The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of seven pistols and five AR-style firearms that were seized during the investigation.

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.

A motion seeking to have Henriquez-Corea held in jail until trial says that the sale of cocaine and at least six firearms transactions between late 2025 and March were monitored and/or recorded by the FBI. Some of the gun sales involved AR-style pistols with high-capacity magazines. Cruz-Ramirez obtained guns from a straw purchaser and sold them to a co-conspirator who is in the country illegally, who sold them to others, his detention motion says. Henriquez-Corea, Hernandez-Maldonado, Hernandez, Figueroa-Bardales and Cruz-Ramirez are originally from Honduras and entered the country illegally, detention motions say. Maldonado-Vargas is also from Honduras but is a lawful permanent resident. Jimenez is from Mexico and is in the country illegally.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF St. Louis comprises agents and officers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); Untied States Marshal Service (USMS); Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Internal Revenue Service (IRS); and United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Tuesday sentenced former St. Louis Alderman Brandon Bosley to 16 months in prison for insurance fraud and lying to the FBI.

Bosley will be on supervised release for three years after his release from prison. Judge Autrey also ordered Bosley to pay restitution of $6,253.90 to the insurance company that he defrauded.

Bosley, 38, was found guilty by a jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in January of three felony wire fraud charges and one count of making a false statement to the FBI. Evidence and testimony at trial showed that after an auto accident, Bosley hatched a scheme to defraud an insurance company by falsely inflating the cost of needed repairs and then lied when FBI agents asked him about it.

In September of 2021, Bosley’s 2010 Toyota Prius, which was parked, was hit by another vehicle. The drivers’ insurance company contacted Bosley in February of 2022 and told him that they would pay for the damage. Bosley then asked the auto repair shop owner who had sold him the used Prius for the deeply discounted price of $500 to prepare and submit an inflated repair estimate in exchange for a bribe, evidence and testimony showed. “Mark that (expletive) all the way up,” Bosley told the business owner during the conversation, which was captured on audio and video. Bosley also had discussions with the business owner about buying the car back if it was totaled and then paying the estimated repair costs of $2,000 to $2,200, thus retaining the car while fraudulently netting thousands of dollars, evidence and testimony showed.

After the insurance company balked at a $6,800 repair estimate, Bosley caused a second estimate of $4,333 to be submitted, the trial showed. The insurance company ultimately totaled the car and paid Bosley $7,978.90. At the time, he had $14.93 in his bank account. He lived off the insurance proceeds for about six weeks.

When FBI agents interviewed Bosley in the presence of his lawyer in March of 2023, Bosley repeatedly lied, jurors found during the trial. He falsely stated to agents that he never saw the two fraudulent repair bills that were prepared. He falsely claimed the repair estimates were not inflated and denied asking the business owner to inflate the repair estimates.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith wrote in a sentencing memo that “this criminal scheme was instigated, planned, designed, and carried out by Defendant once he was advised by the insurance carrier that there was money to be had for repairs to the damaged Prius automobile. From his very first conversation with the auto repair shop owner, without any idea of the extent of the necessary repairs, Defendant indicated that he wanted the Prius considered a total loss.” Bosley “used his position as an elected official in discussions with representatives of the insurance company, presumably to influence their decision on his claim,” the memo says.  During the sentencing hearing, in requesting a sentence of imprisonment, Goldsmith advised the Court that, “the public is frustrated and fed up with these ticky-tacky fraud and bribery schemes committed by their elected officials,” “the public deserves some sense of justice here, and only a fair and just punishment will achieve that.”  

The government’s sentencing memo also cites Missouri Ethics Commission findings from December that concluded that Bosley failed to report hundreds of improper expenditures for personal expenses, including gas, groceries and meals, made from two separate campaign accounts, at the time he was engaged in this insurance fraud. In recordings made by the business owner, Bosley also showed himself to be a racist and an antisemite, the memo adds.

“A federal jury unanimously agreed the evidence proved Brandon Bosley committed fraud. He initiated the scheme to bilk his auto insurance company. He directed the auto shop owner to inflate the cost to repair his car,” said Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. “In addition, Bosley used his position and made it clear to the insurance company that he is an elected official.”

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hal Goldsmith and Matthew Martin prosecuted the case.

CAPE GIRARDEAU – U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. on Tuesday sentenced a former Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper to 21 months in prison for searching women’s cell phones for nude images during traffic stops.

David McKnight, 40, unlawfully searched the cell phones of nine women without a warrant or probable cause from Sept. 12, 2023, to July 30, 2024, to find nude images of the victims or their loved ones. He was on duty, in uniform and in a marked Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) vehicle at the time. He used his own cell phone to take photographs of images he found in the phones of seven victims. In all but one of the cases, McKnight took the victims’ phones back to his vehicle, falsely claiming that he needed to confirm their identification, insurance coverage or other information. In the remaining case, McKnight searched the phone of a woman that he arrested and took a photo of one of her images.

After two victims became suspicious of his actions, they reported him to the MSHP. Forensic analysis revealed that McKnight had searched through their phones, including folders that contained nude photographs of them. Subsequent investigation revealed the other victims. McKnight had deleted the photos, but they were recovered from his phone.

McKnight’s “conduct in this case was inexcusable and demands a sentence of incarceration,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Krug wrote in a sentencing memo.

McKnight pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau in December to nine counts of deprivation of rights under color of law, namely the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Krug prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – A man from Venice, Illinois on Friday admitted helping carjack one man in St. Louis in 2024 and shooting at another.

Harry Moore, 21, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one felony count of carjacking and one felony count of possession and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime. He admitted driving a Cadillac that had been stolen in Belleville, Illinois to the 2900 block of Minnesota Avenue in St. Louis on Sept. 4, 2024. Two armed people were in the car, including a juvenile. They got out and demanded the wallet, iPhone and keys from the driver of a Subaru Outback at gunpoint. Moore, who was also armed, got out and demanded that the victim unlock his phone and provide his debit card PIN.

Moore then drove to a gas station, followed by his accomplices, and used the victim’s debit card to withdraw more than $200 from an ATM. He also transferred $200 to someone via Cash App using the victim’s phone.

About an hour later, Moore was in the front passenger seat of the Outback when he spotted someone from a rival group walking near Ballpark Village in downtown St. Louis. Moore fired multiple rounds from a .45-caliber handgun as his target fled into a parking garage. Later that day, investigators found the juvenile and the stolen Outback in East St. Louis.

On Oct. 10, 2024, Moore was arrested inside a home in Cahokia Heights, Illinois. Investigators found three firearms there, including the Glock used in the shooting.

Moore is scheduled to be sentenced on July 27. The carjacking charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The brandishing charge is punishable by at least seven years in prison, consecutive to the sentence he receives for the carjacking charge.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the FBI and the St. Clair County (Illinois) Sheriff’s Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Martin is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel on Thursday sentenced the woman who fraudulently obtained $2.3 million in funds intended to feed hungry Missouri children to 41 months in prison.

Judge Sippel also ordered Cymone McClellan, 33, of St. Louis, to forfeit the vehicles and real estate that she spent meal money to buy and pay back the rest of the money that she obtained.

McClellan operated a nonprofit, Sister of Lavender Rose (S.O.L.R.), that submitted false and fraudulent meal reimbursement claims to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services from about January 2019 to June 2022. Terra Davis, now 44, was McClellan’s second-in-command at S.O.L.R. and aided in the scheme.

At the start of McClellan’s enrollment with the state program in 2019, she submitted fraudulent management plans falsely claiming that her finance director, who was not truly a signor on S.O.L.R.’s account, would sign all checks and provide financial oversight. “These lies demonstrate that Defendant McClellan made a calculated effort from the beginning of her participation in the state’s meal program to enrich herself at the expense of hungry children in our community,” a sentencing memo filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman says.

McClellan and Davis submitted false reimbursement claims for a total of 860,876 meals that they purportedly supplied to Missouri children but S.O.L.R. only purchased enough food and milk to serve fewer than a quarter of those meals. McClellan also provided dozens of bogus attendance sheets to DHSS to bolster her false claims.

McClellan’s fraud spiked after the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the state from conducting regular in-person audits—and after the state allowed non-profits to run drive-thru meal services, the sentencing memo says.

S.O.L.R. submitted management plans to DHSS falsely asserting that state meal reimbursement dollars were spent only in connection with the provision of meals to low-income children, and that the nonprofit did not use meal money to make purchases over $5,000. McClellan spent $60,000 for the down payment on a house in Collinsville, Illinois and another $86,172 on a house in Florissant, Missouri. She spent almost $135,000 in student meal money more to buy five vehicles: a 2021 Chevrolet Traverse, a 2012 Chevrolet Express G3500 van, a 2020 Mercedes-Benz Metris van, a 2012 Ford E350 box truck and a 2018 Lexus RX SUV.

“Cymone McClellan caused lasting damage to the program meant to feed hungry Missouri children, not only by stealing $2.3 million that should have gone to student meals but by diminishing public support and increasing cynicism through her corruption,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Albus.

“Fraud targeting programs designed to feed children is particularly egregious,” said Inspector General John Walk for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General.  “This non-profit owner exploited a USDA program meant to feed low-income children during the coronavirus pandemic by submitting $2.3 million in reimbursement claims for providing meals the organization never served.  Instead, the defendant lived lavishly off tax-payer dollars by spending the funds on two homes and five vehicles.  Stealing from an emergency relief program meant to provide food to needy children for personal gain is depraved.  This guilty plea reflects USDA OIG’s commitment to aggressively pursue those who commit fraud against USDA nutrition programs.  I commend SAC Matthew Wilkins for his work on this investigation and thank the United States Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners for their continued collaboration in holding the defendant accountable.”

“For the second time in as many months, we are holding accountable individuals who exploited programs meant to feed children for their own personal gain,” said Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. “Cymone McClellan diverted approximately 75% of the taxpayer funds entrusted to her nonprofit over a three-year period. While children in the St. Louis area went without meals, she used those funds to pay for homes, vehicles, and luxury items. Let this case serve as a clear warning: those who steal from programs designed to serve our most vulnerable will be identified, investigated, and brought to justice.”
McClellan pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in May of 2025 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Judge Sippel sentenced Davis, who also pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, to five years of probation in June of 2025 and ordered her to repay $2.3 million.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman prosecuted the case.  

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division. The core mission of the Fraud Division is to zealously investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars.  Department of Justice efforts to combat fraud support President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Cristian M. Stevens on Thursday sentenced the former police chief and city administrator of Velda City, Missouri to 27 months in prison for stealing $307,100 in city funds.

Judge Stevens also ordered Daniel Paulino, 52, to repay $248,929 to the city, as some of the money was recovered.

Paulino was appointed to the city administrator position in 2021. He was police chief until the department was dissolved in 2024, earning a salary of approximately $95,000 for the dual role. During an almost four-year period from 2021 to 2024, Paulino stole from the city in multiple ways:

• Paulino caused three city checks totaling $1,800 to be fraudulently issued to him.
• Paulino caused about 20 direct deposits totaling $30,667 in city funds, purportedly for additional payroll, to be deposited into his personal bank account without the knowledge or approval of other city officials.
• On 17 occasions, Paulino used a city credit card to transfer a total of $37,500 in city funds to two businesses owned by Paulino and his spouse.
• He caused about 55 direct deposits of $54,693 in Velda City funds, purportedly for his spouse’s payroll, to be sent to his personal bank account.
• Paulino used a city credit card, city checks and ACH transactions to pay for his personal expenses, including a $25,500 check for a 2007 International tow truck that he used in his private towing business.

Paulino admitted using the money for travel, automobiles, pool supplies, utilities at his personal residence and food and beverage charges.

“The City’s police chief, sworn to serve the citizens and the community, turned out to be a thief, stealing from the very community and people he was charged with protecting,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith said in court. “While receiving a generous salary and benefits in his two city positions,” Paulino took advantage of those positions and defrauded a city where the “estimated 1,250 residents have a median household income which is 30% lower than the State of Missouri," he wrote in a sentencing memo.

In a victim impact statement, Velda City Mayor Derrick Gill wrote that Paulino was “the most powerful appointed official in our local government” with “unchecked access to virtually every aspect of City government.” The losses caused by Paulino were “devastating,” Gill wrote, and destroyed citizens’ trust in city officials and city employees’ morale. He created a hostile work environment for police officers while “depleting the funds needed to properly staff and equip the department,” triggering the department’s abrupt dissolution, he wrote.

“Daniel Paulino didn’t mastermind a sophisticated scheme; he abused the trust placed in him and exploited a lack of oversight. As the city’s financial gatekeeper, he used taxpayer funds for personal expenses, including vacations, vehicles, and even repairs to his swimming pool,” said Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. “He stole from a community where one in five residents lives below the poverty line. The people of Velda City deserve accountability and a system that prevents this kind of corruption from happening again.”

Paulino pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in November to two counts of wire fraud.

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

ST. LOUIS – Five people have admitted involvement in the theft of mail from St. Louis area collection boxes.

Roderick Orlandez Walker, 26, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis Thursday to one count of conspiracy, two counts of mail theft and one count of possession of stolen mail. He admitted involvement in the purchase of an arrow key from a mail carrier in the Marine Villa neighborhood in south St. Louis on July 20, 2023. Arrow keys are used to unlock mail collection boxes. Investigators traced the car the group was driving to a rental car company and learned that Marissa Diane Worthen and Walker rented it. Walker was armed at the time of the car rental. Evidence showed that Worthen, Walker and Yahtis Niquae Bailey were present at the arrow key purchase.

Walker also admitted being present when mail was stolen from a collection box in Ladue, Missouri on July 25, 2023. On Oct. 12, 2023, he used an arrow key to steal mail from a collection box in Frontenac, Missouri.

U.S. Postal Inspectors tracked the vehicle used by Walker and others to an Airbnb in the 5500 block of Chippewa Street in St. Louis, then followed the vehicle to a restaurant. Walker, Tommy Earl Kilbert and another person were in the car, where they also found an arrow key that had been reported lost by the Jennings, Missouri Post Office between June and July of 2023.

A subsequent court-approved search of the Airbnb found checks that had been stolen from the mail in various locations, a book of blank business-style checks and Walker’s laptop, which contained check-writing software and messages about altering checks. Forensic examinations of the laptop and multiple cell phones used by the group revealed hundreds of images of checks believed to have been stolen from the mail.  The total face value of the checks exceeded $2.2 million. Two company checks stolen from the mail in Brentwood were altered to be payable to two people in Florida and were cashed, costing the company $38,576.

Walker is scheduled to be sentenced on July 21. He faces up to five years in prison for each count and will be ordered to pay restitution.

Worthen, 38, of Atlanta, was sentenced to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and stealing keys adopted by the Post Office. Bailey, 26, of the Atlanta suburbs, was sentenced to 15 months on charges of conspiracy, stealing keys adopted by the Post Office and mail theft. Roderick Henry Gaines, Jr., 24, also of the Atlanta suburbs, was sentenced to 12 months and a day on the conspiracy charge. All three were ordered to pay restitution of $5,680

Kilbert, 27, of St. Louis, was sentenced to 12 months and a day for conspiracy, stealing keys adopted by the Post Office, possession of stolen mail and mail theft. His restitution is $39,786.

This U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Frontenac Police Department and the Ladue Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Torrie Scheider and Donald Boyce are prosecuting the case.  

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.

ST. LOUIS – A medical doctor and owner of an urgent care clinic in Columbia, Missouri was arrested Wednesday on an indictment that accuses him of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid and providing prescription drugs to friends, people suffering from substance use disorders and those with whom he had sexual relationships.

Dr. Jonathan Wayne Morris, 46, was indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on April 8, 2026, with 15 counts of illegal prescribing of controlled substances and 23 counts of health care fraud. Dr. Morris has owned Columbia Urgent Care since at least 2019. From at least May 1, 2019, through April 8, 2025, Dr. Morris caused Medicare and Medicaid to be billed for medical services as if they had been provided by him instead of the assistant physicians (APs) that he employs, the indictment says. APs are medical school graduates who have not entered a residency program and therefore require training and supervision by a fully licensed physician. Rather than teaching the APs, Morris allowed the APs to train each other, the indictment says. He left the APs unsupervised when he left the clinic for domestic and international travel, and to work at a different clinic in St. Louis, it says.

The indictment also accuses Dr. Morris of issuing controlled substance prescriptions outside of the usual course of professional practice and for no legitimate medical purpose to friends, associates, those with substance use disorders and those with whom he had sexual relationships. In some cases, Dr. Morris accepted cash for controlled substances or prescribed them for individuals on whom he made sexual advances (sometimes accepted and sometimes unwelcomed), it says. He also prescribed controlled substances to individuals to whom he offered cocaine and other drugs, it says.

Finally, the indictment accuses Dr. Morris of submitting false and fraudulent claims for reimbursement to the Medicare and Missouri Medicaid programs for controlled substance prescriptions that were issued outside the scope of professional practice and to further his personal relationships and/or increase the number of patients at his clinic.

A motion seeking to have Dr. Morris held in jail until trial says investigators are currently aware of about 20 individuals who received prescriptions for a total of over 15,000 individual dosage units of controlled substances from Morris despite the existence of substance use issues, sexual relations with Morris, or both. The motion says the lack of training of the APs rendered the Columbia clinic a “free-for-all when it comes to issuing prescriptions for controlled substances.” The motion says “evidence supports that Morris, who still has an active DEA registration, is continuing to operate his clinic in this manner.”

The FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Missouri Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Sestric is prosecuting the case.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division. The core mission of the Fraud Division is to zealously investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars.  Department of Justice efforts to combat fraud support President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

ST. LOUIS – Three St. Louis area residents have admitted selling fentanyl and other drugs via social media, including drugs that caused one fatal and one nonfatal overdose.

Aeman Ali, 23, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis Tuesday to aiding and abetting the maintaining of a drug-involved premises.

Zaki Salman, 23, of Hazelwood, pleaded guilty in February to one count each of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances, maintaining a drug-involved premises and distribution of fentanyl with a serious bodily injury resulting.

Haeder Jameel, 23, pleaded guilty in March to one count each of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances, maintaining a drug-involved premises and possession with the intent to distribute MDMA and fentanyl.

According to the plea agreements, Salman rented a home in the 4400 block of Ohio Street in St. Louis that was used for selling drugs from August 20, 2022, through Dec. 14, 2022. Salman and Jameel bought drugs in California, the plea agreements say. Salman advertised the drugs on social media and would “direct” the drugs sales, his plea says. The men sold real Percocet pain pills and fake pills that contained fentanyl. When Salman was not present, Jameel or Ali would handle the transactions. When law enforcement officers conducted a court-approved search of the home on Dec. 14, 2022, they recovered cocaine, MDMA, fentanyl, amphetamine and prescription pills.

Salman and Jameel admitted that Salman delivered drugs to a minor on Sept. 18, 2022, who believed she was buying the prescription drug Percocet. The minor overdosed but was saved by multiple doses of Narcan. Salman and Jameel also admitted that the fentanyl purchased by another teen at the Ohio Street residence on Nov. 19, 2022, resulted in the teen’s overdose death. Before his death, the teen exchanged messages with the conspirators regarding the purchase of Xanax and Percocet, Salman and Jameel's plea agreements say.

Ali is scheduled to be sentenced on July 28, Salman on May 18 and Jameel on June 18. Each count carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the Florissant Police Department, the O’Fallon, Missouri Police Department and the St. Charles County Regional Drug Task Force investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Finlen is prosecuting the case.

CAPE GIRARDEAU – A man from Wayne County, Missouri on Tuesday admitted threatening employees of the Social Security Administration twice in 2025.

Timothy Wells Stevens, 57, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau to two counts of transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce. On Oct. 1, 2025, Stevens was talking to an SSA employee in Pennsylvania and was told that there was no record showing that he was due payments. Stevens said, that if he did not receive payments, “I’m commin’ gunning’ for you all,” his plea agreement says. The employee told Stevens that the SSA takes all threats seriously, and he responded “No, I am going gunnin’ trust me, and I’m going to blow up every (expletive) office around here.”

About 30 minutes later Stevens called again and reached an SSA employee in California. During that call, he said, “Cause I’m telling you now, if I have to sell my place I’ve owned for 17 years and go live under a bridge, I’m hunting every last one of you (expletives) down and I’m gonna blow you up,” his plea agreement says.

On Oct. 9, 2025, investigators interviewed Stevens, who confirmed that it was his voice on the recorded call with the California employee.

Stevens is scheduled to be sentenced on July 28. The charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both prison and fine.

The Federal Protective Police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Willis is prosecuting the case.

CAPE GIRARDEAU – U.S. District Judge Cristian M. Stevens on Monday sentenced Leslie B. Clark, 60, of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, to 141 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to the offense of possession of child pornography. 

According to court documents, Clark has a prior 2017 federal conviction for possessing child pornography.  In May 2025, Clark was temporarily residing at a halfway house in Neelyville, Missouri following his release from federal prison.  During that timeframe, investigators discovered that someone within the facility was uploading child sexual abuse material through a social media messaging service.  Investigators subsequently traced the account to Clark.  As Clark was set to begin his term of supervised release, his assigned probation officer seized his cell phone and discovered several videos containing child pornography. At his guilty plea hearing in January, Clark admitted that he used his cell phone to obtain the videos.  

After serving his 141-month sentence, Clark will be placed on a lifetime term of supervised release.    

This case was investigated by the U.S. Probation Office, the Southeast Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and the Poplar Bluff Police Department.  Assistant United States Attorney Jack Koester handled the prosecution for the government.    
 

ST. LOUIS – Three people have been accused of defrauding a cruise ship company out of more than $2 million.

Thomas Markwell, 53, and Nathan Boyd, 50, were indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in October with seven counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Joanna Dettman, 50, of St. Louis was indicted on the wire fraud charges.

Markwell, originally from near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, appeared in court Friday. A motion seeking to have Markwell held in jail until trial says he was fired by the cruise line in September of 2023. According to the motion, Markwell was in Argentina when his indictment was filed, did not return as scheduled and was planning to marry an Argentinian citizen. Markwell was arrested in Argentina on an Interpol Red Notice on Feb. 23. Markwell agreed to waive extradition and was surrendered to the United States. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs secured the arrest and yesterday’s extradition of Markwell.

Dettman appeared in court in October and Boyd, of Deschutes County, Oregon, appeared in November. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The indictment says that from June 2021 to September 2023, Markwell misused his position as senior director of events at the cruise line company. Markwell approved numerous fraudulent invoices totaling more than $1 million from a company in the St. Louis area that assists corporate clients with procuring gifts for their employees, customers and business partners, the indictment says. Boyd co-owned the gifting company and Dettman, also known as Joanna St. Gemme, worked for them as a contractor. Boyd and Dettman either inflated legitimate invoices or created fictitious invoices, some of which contained the personal expenses of Markwell, Dettman, Boyd or Markwell’s romantic partners. They also issued numerous fraudulent invoices to the cruise line that included their personal expenses and the personal expenses of Markwell’s romantic partners that had been charged to the gifting company's corporate credit cards.

Dettman also owned GEM Consulting LLC, which issued $100,000 in fraudulent invoices to the cruise line, the indictment says. Markwell approved GEM as a vendor and approved a fictitious business that was associated with one of his romantic partners, which then billed the cruise line $500,000, the indictment says.

The indictment says that Markwell issued fraudulent invoices totaling $180,000 to the gifting company from a fictitious business associated with another of his romantic partners to get his share of the proceeds.

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 FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – Six St. Louis area residents have been accused of involvement in a $8.3 million pandemic fraud. Three were arrested Friday.

Raymond Porter Jr., 64, of St. Louis, was indicted Wednesday with 28 felonies: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud, eight counts of aggravated identity theft and four counts of money laundering. David Holmon, 54, of Olivette, was indicted on conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, five counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of money laundering. Monica Butler, 59, of St. Louis, was indicted on conspiracy to commit wire fraud, four counts of wire fraud and seven counts of money laundering. Dana Kelly, 47, and Alexander Sampson, 39, both of St. Louis, were indicted on one count of conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Latrice Davis, 40, of St. Charles County, now faces one count of conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Porter, Holmon and Davis were arrested Friday and appeared in court.

The indictment accuses the conspirators of submitting at least 40 fraudulent applications between March 2020 and December 2024 for Paycheck Protection Program loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans that yielded at least $8,387,593. The loans were U.S. Small Business Administration programs intended to support small businesses and their workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Porter and Holmon, with Davis’s help, prepared and submitted fraudulent PPP and EIDL applications for their own businesses and for other people’s businesses, including businesses owned by Butler, Kelly and Sampson, the indictment says. In return, Porter and Holmon typically would receive 10%-20% of any approved loans, the indictment says, disguised as payments for equipment or consulting services. They would then pay Davis a portion of those fees, it says.

As part of the conspiracy, Porter, Holmon and/or Davis used the personal information of business owners to impersonate them during the loan application process, created fake websites and business email addresses if the businesses did not have them, used false or inflated financial and payroll figures, created fake financial documents, instructed the business owners to open business bank accounts to receive the loan proceeds and falsely claimed that the money would be used for approved purposes, the indictment says. Davis sometimes registered sham businesses with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office to aid the scheme, the indictment says. On multiple applications, Porter, Holmon and Davis concealed the identity of the business owners to hide it from the SBA and third-party lenders, the indictment says, such as by falsely identifying family members as the businesses’ owners.

At Porter's direction, Kelly caused falsified federal tax documents to be filed with the IRS through her tax preparation business, The Firm, for some of the businesses, the indictment says. Porter and Holmon submitted fraudulent loan forgiveness applications for some of the loans, it says.

The indictment says that Porter and Holmon directly received more than $1.4 million of loan money, plus an additional $900,000 through “preparer” fees. They also obtained more than $1 million in loan money for Butler, nearly $400,000 in loan money for Kelly and Sampson, and more than $95,000 in loan money for Davis.

The conspirators used the money to buy vehicles, make personal payments to themselves, pay personal debts and bills, fund home renovations, buy designer merchandise, and cover expenses of businesses other than the ones to which the money was lent, the indictment says.

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.

“Since 2020, IRS-Criminal Investigation has investigated thousands of instances of alleged waste, fraud and abuse of CARES Act programs,” said St. Louis Field Office Special Agent in Charge William Steenson. “These programs were meant to provide economic stability to small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. When someone uses fraudulent means to gain access to government funds they’re not entitled to, we take that very seriously and will investigate the allegations to the fullest extent to bring the fraudsters to justice.”

“The alleged scheme involved submitting fraudulent loan applications on behalf of others as a paid service,” said Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. “The perpetrators allegedly submitted dozens of false loan documents to bilk millions of dollars from the taxpayer-funded pandemic relief programs.”

The FBI, IRS Criminal Investigations and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf is prosecuting the case.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division. The core mission of the Fraud Division is to zealously investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars.  Department of Justice efforts to combat fraud support President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Albus on Thursday announced the hiring of eight experienced legal professionals, including a judge, law clerks and state prosecutors.

“I am very pleased to welcome this group of talented lawyers to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.  I know they are anxious to dig in and assist the great, cooperative law enforcement community in the St. Louis region,” said U.S. Attorney Albus. “The good news is that we have even more people in our hiring pipeline and anticipate adding more AUSAs and much needed support and administrative staff to our team in the coming months.”

Dereck Basinger will join the civil division.  Basinger will come to the office at the completion of his clerkship to the Honorable Matthew T. Schelp, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri. Basinger is a graduate of St. Louis University Law School.

Teresa Bomkamp will join the national security unit of the criminal division.  Bomkamp comes to the office from the Hesse Group. Before entering private practice, Bomkamp served as a prosecutor for more than 20 years with the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office and the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Bomkamp is a graduate of St. Louis University School of Law.

Thomas Farrell will join the homeland security task force of the criminal division.  Farrell will come to the office at the completion of his clerkship to the Honorable Stephen P. McGlynn, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Illinois.  Farrell is a retired officer of the United States Navy. He is a graduate of Washington University School of Law.

Samuel Freedlund will join the violent crime unit of the criminal division.  Freedlund comes from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office where he served as a deputy solicitor general. Freedlund is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School.

Joseph Green will join the violent crime unit of the criminal division.  Green has given more than ten years of service as an Associate Circuit Judge for St Louis County.  Before becoming a judge, Green had an extensive criminal practice in state and federal court. Green is a graduate of St. Louis University Law School.

Onalee Irwin will join the civil division.  Irwin joins the office from the litigation section of Armstrong Teasdale LLP in St. Louis. Irwin is a graduate of St. Louis University Law School.

Sila Karacal will join the national security unit of the criminal division.  Karacal comes to the office having served more than twelve years in the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Karacal is a graduate of Syracuse University College of Law.

Jeffrey Pauck will join the homeland security task force of the criminal division.  Pauck comes to the office having served more than twelve years in the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Pauck is a graduate of the University of Illinois School of Law.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri represent the people of the United States by investigating and prosecuting federal crimes, enforcing civil rights and remedies and protecting the interests of the United States, including representing the federal government, its agencies and employees in civil court actions and collecting judgments on debts to the federal government, including unpaid restitution and unpaid fines. The district covers 49 counties in the eastern half of the state.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Cristian M. Stevens on Thursday sentenced a man who recorded his sexual abuse of a five-year-old to 30 years in prison.

When Marshall Williams, 41, pleaded guilty in November to one count of production of child pornography, he admitted sexually abusing the victim and recording the abuse with his cell phone in March of 2024. After the victim’s aunt found the videos, she alerted the victim’s mother and they confronted Williams, who fled to Columbia, Missouri, where he was arrested.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the 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 – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Wednesday sentenced a man to 170 months in prison for grooming and engaging in illegal sexual contact with a minor.

Nathaniel Rod Gibson, 34, gave the victim a phone and sent her via more than 18,996 text messages from March 10, 2023, to Sept. 6, 2023, while grooming her with romantic and flirtatious statements. Gibson also told the victim to delete the messages so that her mother would not find them. In June of 2023, Gibson drove the then-13-year-old victim from Missouri to a campground in Arkansas, where he engaged in an illegal sex act with her. He also did so at his home in Crawford County.

Gibson pleaded guilty in January in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and one count of coercion and enticement of a minor.

The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office, the Diamond City (Arkansas) Police Department and the FBI investigated the 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 – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Wednesday sentenced a chiropractor who committed healthcare fraud and issued fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substance to 100 months in prison and ordered him to repay $4.7 million to Medicaid, Medicare and Tricare.

Jerry Dale Leech, 53, of Clayton, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in 2021 to one count of conspiracy, one count of obtaining controlled substances through fraud, one count of receiving illegal kickbacks for referrals and one count of health care fraud. Two of his co-conspirators, Dr. Stanley L. Librach, now 65, of Chesterfield, and Dr. Asim Muhammad Ali, 55, of Creve Coeur, pleaded guilty to similar charges.

In court during Wednesday’s hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Sestric called Leech “the ringmaster of the conspiracy.”

All three men admitted that Dr. Ali and Dr. Librach wrote prescriptions for the powerful pain medication oxycodone and other controlled substances when there was no legitimate medical purpose and while acting outside the usual course of professional practice. As Leech knew, the doctors had not examined the patients, rarely looked at their charts and should have known via drug tests that they were not taking the drugs that they were prescribed or were taking non-prescribed or illegal drugs. Leech actively encouraged the doctors to prescribe controlled substances despite the aberrant drug test results.  He also exchanged fraudulent prescriptions to other conspirators for cash or other items of value. The conspirators knew that pharmacies would seek reimbursement for the medications from Medicare and Medicaid. Leech admitted responsibility for at least 94,971 oxycodone pills that had been distributed with no legitimate medical purpose.

In another scheme, they agreed to send urine samples for testing to a lab operated by Dr. Ali, Central Diagnostic Laboratory, in exchange for illegal kickbacks that went to business entities owned by Leech and another co-defendant, Denis J. Mikhlin. CDL then sought reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid for the testing. CDL paid Midwest Marketing, a company run by Leech, at least $150,795 in bribes for the reimbursement CDL received from federal health care programs, which was at least $861,600.

“Jerry Leech and his co-conspirators exploited Medicare and Medicaid and put patients at risk solely for their own financial gain,” said Special Agent in Charge Linda T. Hanley of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG). “Even as our nation continues to address the opioid crisis, these fraudsters executed their schemes by pushing opioid medications without a legitimate medical purpose, thus siphoning critical resources from Medicare and Medicaid and undermining federal health care programs designed to protect vulnerable individuals. HHS OIG, alongside our federal and state law enforcement partners, will continue to pursue those who defraud our health care system to ensure they are held fully accountable.”

“Jerry Leech and the individuals he conspired with misled patients and in essence stole from the healthcare system,” DEA St. Louis Field Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Davis said. “These acts are unacceptable. We hold practitioners to high standards for a reason and Mr. Leech took advantage of his title helping himself to profits while hurting others along the way. The DEA will not stand for these types of actions.”

Eleven defendants were indicted in 2020, including three doctors, their staff and purported patients. A twelfth was added in 2022. All have pleaded guilty.

Mikhlin, 47, of Chesterfield, was sentenced in 2021 to nine years in prison and ordered to repay $181,265. Dr. Librach was sentenced in June of 2025 to 60 months in prison and ordered to repay $2.87 million. Dr. Ali was sentenced in September to 70 months in prison and ordered to repay $1.8 million.

The HHS-OIG, the DEA, the Missouri Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amy Sestric, Derek Wiseman and Jonathan Clow prosecuted the case.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division. The core mission of the Fraud Division is to zealously investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars.  Department of Justice efforts to combat fraud support President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Monday sentenced a woman to 90 months in prison for embezzling $3.8 million from her employer with the help of co-conspirators in China.

Judge Clark also ordered Bridget Thebeau, now 46, of St. Charles County, to repay the money. Her lawyers brought checks totaling $104,500 to court.

As part of her scheme, Thebeau struck a deal with some of her employer’s suppliers in China to inflate purchase orders in exchange for kickbacks. She altered some purchase orders and issued others that were fictitious. Between 2015 and 2023, she altered 152 purchase orders and issued 82 completely fictitious purchase orders, for a total of $3.82 million. In return, her co-conspirators wired more than half of that money to her personal bank account. When asked at sentencing to explain what she did with money, Thebeau provided what Judge Clark deemed to be incomplete and untruthful answers.

It was a crime motivated purely by greed, Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf wrote in a sentencing memo. Thebeau did not have a drug problem, financial issues or mental health problems that might have motivated her to steal from her employer. Judge Clark characterized Thebeau’s embezzlement scheme as one of the worst he’s seen during his time on the bench.

Thebeau tried to hide her crime with fraudulent shipping labels and fraudulent bills of lading issued by the China-based suppliers, fraudulent invoices that she created and claimed she had issued to the company’s customers and false information she supplied to the company’s owner and accountants. When her embezzlement was discovered, she deleted records from the company’s server, submerged her laptop in a sink full of water, tried to destroy evidence on her cell phone and deleted information that was stored in the cloud, according to testimony in Monday’s hearing.

The owner of Thebeau’s former company is no longer able to retire and has been forced to sell assets to try and keep the company afloat, the sentencing memo says.

Thebeau pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in May of 2025 to five counts of wire fraud

The U.S. Secret Service and the Chesterfield Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Cristian M. Stevens on Monday sentenced one of the men who stole guns from two Jefferson County, Missouri businesses in 2020 to 46 months in prison and ordered him to pay restitution of $3,875.

Judge Stevens ordered Jynell Edward Luss’ sentence to run consecutive to his 20-year sentence for second-degree murder in an unrelated case.

Luss, 25, of Jennings, pleaded guilty in January to one count of theft of firearms from a federal firearms licensee. His co-defendant, Carnell Robinson, 24, of Jennings, pleaded guilty in November of 2023 to the same charge.

Both men admitted to breaking into a pawn shop in Imperial, Missouri on July 12, 2020, at about 1 a.m. They stole four AR-style rifles, a shotgun, ammunition and jewelry. The next day, also at 1 a.m., they broke into a gun store near Arnold and stole two rifles and numerous boxes of ammunition.

Luss pleaded guilty in St. Louis Circuit Court in 2025 and admitted fatally shooting a man five days after the second robbery and stealing the victim’s gun.

Robinson was sentenced in February 2024 to 13 months in prison for the gun thefts. He pleaded guilty in Jefferson County Circuit Court in 2023 to burglary and stealing and was sentenced to eight years in state prison.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Boyce prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri has finalized a civil settlement to resolve allegations that a Missouri manufacturer was not eligible for a $2 million pandemic-era loan, U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Albus announced Thursday.

As part of the settlement, VSM Abrasives Corp. will repay $2,022,250 to the United States. The amount represents a $2 million Paycheck Protection Program loan that VSM received in 2021. The loan, which was intended to save jobs and provide relief to small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, was later forgiven.  

The settlement resolves allegations brought under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Blockquote Inc. The qui tam action alleges that VSM was not eligible for the loan because although it certified that its headcount was under 300 employees, VSM and its affiliates, including its German parent company, Vereinigte Schmirgel- und Maschinen-Fabriken AG, employ more than 300.

VSM disputes the allegations. The settlement contains no admission of liability.

“We appreciate the efforts of Blockquote and other companies that are ferreting out problematic pandemic loans, as well as VSM’s cooperation,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Albus. “This settlement shows our commitment to ensure that government funds are spent appropriately.”  

This civil settlement was a result of the combined work of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The qui tam case is captioned United States ex rel. Blockquote Inc. v. VSM Abrasives Corp., Case No. 4:24-cv-00805 in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.  Under those provisions, a private party can file a civil action on behalf of the United States, thereby bringing allegations of fraud to the Government’s attention, and share in any financial recovery. Blockquote will receive $224,694 from the settlement and Blockchain’s attorneys will receive $20,000.

ST. LOUIS – Three men from Texas have admitted stealing controlled substances from three pharmacies in Missouri and Kansas last year.

Erik Dewayne Lyons Jr., 21, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substance and entering a pharmacy with the intent to steal controlled substances. Jonathan Fore, 30, and Anthony Ray Venwright, 33, pleaded guilty on March 30 to the same charges.

All three admitted traveling from the Houston, Texas area to Lee’s Summit, Missouri on July 29, 2025. The next day, Lyons waited in a Toyota RAV4 nearby while Venwright and Fore broke into a pharmacy and stole drugs. They then broke into a pharmacy in Overland Park, Kansas. On July 31, 2025, they broke into a Maryland Heights pharmacy. Maryland Heights police identified the RAV4 and learned that it was in Arkansas. The Arkansas State Police stopped the RAV4 and a companion vehicle, and investigators later found two trash bags containing the drugs that the men had stolen from the third pharmacy and evidence linking them all of the burglaries.

The men admitted stealing a total of 25,610 doses of various pain pills and other controlled substances.

Lyons is scheduled to be sentenced on July 13. Both Fore and Venwright are scheduled to be sentenced on July 6. Each count is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The case was investigated by the Maryland Heights Police Department, the Arkansas State Police, the Clark County (Arkansas) Sheriff’s Department, the Lee’s Summit Police Department and the Overland Park (Kansas) Police Department.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul D’Agrosa is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.

ST. LOUIS – A man who was once on the FBI’s Most Wanted list pleaded guilty Thursday and admitted providing sexual access to a child in exchange for cash and other items of value.

Donald Eugene Fields II, 61, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of child sex trafficking. He admitted accepting items of value from a friend and co-defendant, Theodore “Ted” John Sartori Sr., in exchange for access to the victim beginning when she was 14 years old. From the winter of 2013 through the summer of 2016, Sartori engaged in illegal sexual activity with the minor and provided Fields cash, a car, a motorcycle, Christmas presents and vacations. In the summer of 2016, Sartori financed a vacation to Florida and drove the victim there with the intention of engaging in sexual activity with her. Fields instructed the minor to engage in sexual activity with Satori.

Fields was indicted on Dec. 7, 2022. He was arrested on Jan. 26, 2025, after a traffic stop by police in Lady Lake, Florida, when officers learned that he was on the Most Wanted list.

Fields is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15. The crime carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years, with a maximum term of life.

Sartori, now 65, is serving a 10-year prison term. He pleaded guilty in August of 2024 to one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

The case was investigated jointly by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI, with assistance from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Missouri State Technical Assistance Team. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Edwards 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.
 

ST. LOUIS – The owner of a fossil replica company was indicted Wednesday and accused of fraudulently seeking disability benefits.

Scott A. Taylor, 50, is still on probation from a prior disability fraud case. The new indictment, on one count of making a false statement, accuses him of applying for Social Security disability benefits on Jan. 28, 2026, claiming that he had not worked since 1993. The indictment says Taylor has been self-employed since 2014.

A charge set forth in an indictment is merely an accusation and does not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Taylor’s disability benefits were initially discontinued after an investigation by the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General. Taylor pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in September to one felony count of theft of government money. He admitted opening Taylor Made Fossils, which made fossil recreations, after having been granted disability benefits. Taylor’s plea agreement says that while he repeatedly falsely claimed to be too disabled to work or perform many normal daily activities, he carried large or heavy objects, did yard work and walked normally while unassisted. On Dec. 9, 2025, he was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to repay $106,923 to the Social Security Administration. 

“Individuals who exploit disability programs for personal gain undermine critical support intended for those who truly need it,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Chancellor Melvin, SSA OIG, Chicago Field Division. “Our office remains committed to identifying and investigating fraud, and we will continue working with our law enforcement partners to protect the integrity of Social Security programs and safeguard taxpayer dollars.”

Department of Justice efforts support President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

The core mission of the National Fraud Enforcement Division is to zealously investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars. The National Fraud Enforcement Division will fulfill that mission by coordinating with agencies responsible for administering benefit programs; partnering with federal, tribal, state, territorial, and local law enforcement on fraud-fighting efforts; developing systems and processes that ensure efficient identification of fraud against taxpayer dollars; and equipping prosecutors and law enforcement with state-of-the-art tools and resources needed to bring criminal actors to justice.

The SSA-OIG investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jolene Taaffe is prosecuting the case.

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Tuesday sentenced a fentanyl dealer from St. Louis to prison for 155 months in prison, days after sending a co-defendant to prison for 210 months.

Sentenced Tuesday was Toneisha D. Smith, 27, who sold fentanyl to the Drug Enforcement Administration and nearly hit three DEA task force officers with her car when they were investigating her. Trequan A. Dotson, 25, was sentenced on April 2. Three others have also been convicted.

Police responding to a violent domestic dispute at Dotson’s home in the 4600 block of Newport Avenue in St. Louis in August of 2023 found fentanyl, a money counting machine, $10,111 in cash and two AR-style rifles, one AK-style pistol and four AR-style pistols, many with large-capacity magazines. Police then found more fentanyl and drug paraphernalia at an apartment in the 2300 block of South 7th Street, which Dotson used for manufacturing and distributing fentanyl. Police found more fentanyl after Dotson led them on a high-speed chase on Oct. 16, 2023.

After being jailed, Dotson told another member of the drug trafficking conspiracy to supply fentanyl to Smith and taught Smith how to mix fentanyl with cutting agents before selling it. Smith admitted that she and her co-defendants, including Larry C. Hayes III, sold fentanyl to the DEA from March to June of 2024.

During a court-approved search of Smith’s home on Miami Street in St. Louis on April 1, 2024, investigators found Smith, Hayes and Marcel Harris along with fentanyl, cash and an AR-style pistol. On June 18, 2024, investigators were preparing for another court-approved search of a residence on Sidney Street in St. Louis. Smith left the home and got into her vehicle before officers and agents arrived. When she saw task force officers approach her vehicle, she sped away, aiming her Kia K5 at three of the task force officers. The officers were able to jump out of the way. Smith drove over the parking lot curb and through an adjoining yard and trees before flattening all four tires when she drove off a small embankment. She ultimately escaped. Investigators found fentanyl, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in the home. They also found a Rock River Arms AR-15 that had been stolen from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

“This investigation is a prime example of the dangers DEA personnel face on a daily basis protecting our communities from drug-related violence and the drugs that are poisoning our citizens,” said Special Agent in Charge Michael A. Davis, DEA St. Louis Division. “We remain relentless in our pursuit of drug traffickers wreaking havoc on the American people, as we work towards a Fentanyl Free America.”

Smith was charged by complaint on June 18, 2024, and investigators found her and Hayes in a home on California Avenue the next day, along with fentanyl and drug paraphernalia.

Smith pleaded guilty in December to one count each of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, assaulting or resisting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Dotson pleaded guilty in September to one count of possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He also pleaded guilty to one count of possession of fentanyl in a separate, 2023 case and admitted violating his supervised release in a 2019 case.

Hayes, 25, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting the possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Harris, 23, of Jennings, Missouri, pleaded guilty in June to a fentanyl conspiracy charge. In addition to the conduct described above, he admitted being caught twice by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department with fentanyl, including after an Aug. 10, 2023, high-speed chase. U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp sentenced Harris to 10 years in prison in September.

The Drug Enforcement Administration investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Voss prosecuted the case.

ST. LOUIS – A man from St. Louis County on Monday admitted committing disability fraud and pandemic loan fraud totaling $637,000.

Preston Randall, 62, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to five counts of wire fraud, two counts of theft of government property and one count of concealment from the U.S. Social Security Administration.

Randall admitted applying to the U.S. Small Business Administration for a series of Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) for various businesses using various names. The EIDL program was intended to support small businesses that had been negatively affected by the pandemic. On the applications, Randall falsely inflated revenue and workforce figures to get more money. Randall sought a total of $8,506,000 in loans and received $620,000.

Randall also fraudulently obtained $17,906 in Social Security disability benefits. On his application for benefits, Randall hid the fraudulent EIDL income, his ownership of five vehicles and the ownership of a $500,000 home near Florissant. Randall quitclaimed the home to a shell company to hide the home’s ownership.

Randall was indicted in May of 2024 and jailed later that year after he was accused of threatening a potential witness and placing utility bills in that man’s name without his consent.

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

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Friday sentenced a woman who committed an armed carjacking in St. Louis to 114 months in prison.

On the evening of March 12, 2024, in the 3400 block of Grace Avenue in St. Louis, Jonniece Wilson, now 21, of St. Louis, pointed a firearm at the driver of a Hyundai Accent and demanded the keys to the car. She then got in and drove away.

About 30 minutes later, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers spotted the car and tried to pull it over. The vehicle sped up instead of stopping and weaved through traffic and red lights before crashing into a light pole and striking a pedestrian. Wilson, who was not driving the stolen vehicle, was arrested after fleeing on foot with a backpack containing a handgun.

Wilson pleaded guilty in October to one count of carjacking and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Szczucinski prosecuted the case.