Newly elected St. Joseph School District Board of Education members said they are excited to take on their roles with the district.

Dr. Bryan Green and Tami Pasley were selected out of a total of 10 candidates by voters in Tuesday’s municipal election.

“I’m not coming with an agenda,” Pasley said. “I don’t have anything right away that I want to get started other than maybe stopping the balanced budget approach and just kind of sit back and see where we’re at and where the board is and going through the budget line item by line item.”

Green said he knew he was probably in the top four or five but did not realize he would be the candidate to garner the most votes at 22.74%.

“What I do every day is engage with people and work with people and work with trying to encourage people in moving in a positive direction,” Green said. “I look forward to being able to do that with our schools as well.”

Pasley, who was selected by 17.23% of voters said she feels like her past experience in education will be a positive influence on the board.

“I have been a classroom teacher for 26 years,” Pasley said. “I bring a lot of knowledge that I feel is going to help build back the school district, get the trust back.”

Green and Pasley said they believe they will report for duty next week.

They will replace outgoing board members Brad Haggard and Eric Bruder, who was filling a position left by the resignation of former board member Dan Colgan.

Voters wanting to cast an absentee ballot in the April 5th election only have a few days left to do so.

Buchanan County Clerk, Mary Baack-Garvey said the last chance for voters to cast their ballot absentee is by 5 p.m. Monday.  She said the courthouse will be open Saturday, April 2nd from 8 a.m. to noon for absentee voting.

Then on Tuesday for Election Day voters can head to the polls when they open at 6 a.m., polls close at 7 p.m.

The only issue for St. Joseph residents to vote on is who will fill the two open spots on the St. Joseph School District Board of Education.

Those candidates as they appear on the ballot include:

John Paul Leo Stehr

Eric Bruder

Maggie Elder

Art VanMeter

Sarah Hochschwender

Kathy Northup

Bryan Green

Teresa Simmons

Tami Pasley

Michael Dulcan

Baack-Garvey said past turmoil in the St. Joseph School District makes it difficult to predict voter turn-out.

“I would hope the turnout would be quite higher than the average April General Municipal, which is right around 18.25% over the last 5 years,” Baack-Garvey said. “So I would predict we would roughly hit about the 25%.”

She adds that she hopes her estimate is way too low.

For sample ballots by polling place for the April 5, 2016 General Municipal Election CLICK HERE.

 

A St. Joseph man is facing felony charges after a police pursuit Tuesday ended with a crash on U.S. 36 Highway in Buchanan County.

Kevin Clark, 34 is charged with felonies for resisting arrest and unlawful possession of a firearm in DeKalb County.

According to court documents, Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper K. Cool attempted to stop Clark around 11:30 a.m. for a lane violation on US 36 at Baker Road in DeKalb County.

“A computer check revealed Clark had a felony warrant for assault. I advised Clark he had the felony warrant. Clark’s eyes were bloodshot, his pupils constricted and the skin around the eyes was extremely red,” Cool said. “I conducted several field sobriety tests. Clark admitted to being a methamphetamine user though not recently. He denied me consent to search the vehicle so I requested the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s K-9 unit respond.”

Cool said following the standing field sobriety tests he asked Clark to return to the front seat of his patrol car.

“Clark ran to his silver Honda Accord,” Cool said. “Fled the scene westbound on US 36. Clark drove up to 130 miles per hour, weaving from lane to lane and subsequently crashed his vehicle.”

As we previously reported, Clark was arrested just after noon at the scene of the crash on 36 hwy just east of St. Joseph.

Court documents said a shotgun and syringes were found inside the vehicle.

Clark is currently being held on $250,000 cash bond in the Daviess-DeKalb Regional Jail.

Two people charged after officers were shot at from a moving vehicle during a chase in Andrew County over the weekend made their first court appearance Monday.

Tyler W. Despain, 22 and Jessica J. Harbord, 24, both from St. Joseph, Mo., were each charged in Andrew County with two counts of Attempted Murder, two counts of Assault of a Law Enforcement Officer, Armed Criminal Action, Unlawful Use of a Weapon, Felony Resisting Arrest, Felony Possession of a Controlled Substance and several misdemeanor charges.

According to court documents, around 3:22 a.m. Saturday K-9 Deputy Daniel Glidden with the Andrew County Sheriff’s Department was on patrol on County Road 400 in Andrew County when he saw a Jeep Cherokee with no front plates.

“I initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle on County Road 401 with my emergency lights and siren activated and the vehicle failed to yield to my emergency equipment and fled the scene at which point I began pursuing the vehicle with Deputy Elam following behind me,” Glidden said.

He said the pursuit continued through Andrew County, into Holt County and onto Route U Highway.

“The driver, later identified as W/M Tyler Despain put his hand out of the driver’s window holding a gun in his hand and fired approximately 4 rounds towards myself and Deputy Elam while we were actively in pursuit.  I observed the muzzle as he was discharging the weapon towards us,” Glidden said.

The pursuit traveled onto I-29 at a high rate of speed.

“The pursued vehicle drove off the east side of the road into the timber near the 63.4 mile marker, where the both occupants fled the scene on foot,” Glidden said.

Despain and Harbord were later found and arrested near Davis Road Side Park on 59 Highway in Andrew County.

Harbord appeared in person in Andrew County Monday for an arraignment.  A case review has been set for April 12.

Despain also appeared in person Monday for an arraignment.  Online court document said the arraignment was incomplete due to the defendant being uncooperative.  A new arraignment for Despain has been set for April 12.

 

A candidate for the St. Joseph School District Board of Education reportedly suffered a stroke during a candidate forum Friday.

Tami Pasley said Monday on 680 KFEQ’s Hotline that as soon as the forum was over Friday morning she went straight to the hospital and spent 24 hours in ICU.

“I had been sick all week and so I just thought I was having difficulty with upper respiratory and all that.  I knew going in my voice wasn’t going to be real great in answering questions and getting out my message but then about 20 minutes into the program I knew that something was wrong,” Pasley said. “I wasn’t able to really form my words and I picked up my pen to write down a note on something to speak on and I couldn’t form a letter.

She said because she knew it was live radio and one of the other candidates, Dr. Bryan Green was a physician that she was able to make it through the forum before heading to the emergency room.

“I just hung in there and hopefully communicated some of my message,” Pasley said. “I left the forum and went to the hospital and found out I’d had a stroke.”

Monday morning, Pasley said she is fine now and is ready to continue her campaign.

A total of 10 people are running for two spots on the board. That list includes:

Eric Bruder
Maggie Elder
Michael Dulcan
Tami Pasley
Teresa Simmons
Art VanMeter
Dr. Bryan Green
Sarah Hochschwender
John Paul Leo Stehr
Kathy Northup

All of the candidates met at the Radison Saint Joseph Riverfront Hotel Friday to debate everything from how to fund the district’s budget to community involvement in the district’s future.

Voters will cast their votes for board candidates in the April 5th election.

 

The release of surveillance footage and details on what took place during a robbery investigation can play a big role in the overall case. Sometimes, authorities said it’s better not to release images and in-depth details.

“First of all, is there video to be had? If there is video what is the quality of the video,” said Col. Bill Puett with the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department. “If it’s poor quality we may not be able to enhance or do much with it. What direction are the cameras pointed? Do they even show anything that occurred?”

Sgt. Dan Sweiger with the St. Joseph Police Department Detective’s Division said when authorities release surveillance images it’s for one of two reasons.

“1. Keep the community safe and 2. hopefully to get a tip on identifying the person,” Sweiger said. “If a suspect is covered with masks and stuff like that generally we’re not going to get that tip on who it is because no one is going to know. The tip we would hope to get down the road would be within the circle of that suspect.”

Surveillance footage is evidence in the case. Sweiger and Puett both said sometimes not releasing the images is better for the investigation.

“Things off the surveillance that we know may be real important down the road for the investigation that only hopefully the suspect would also know,” Sweiger said.

“We don’t want to compromise the investigation. Our goal is citizen safety and protection followed secondly by arresting the suspect and presenting that case and that suspect to the prosecuting attorney,” Puett said. “The evidence, if we show things that may tell the suspect that we know who they are, we know certain pieces of evidence that they may have. They may flee the jurisdiction, they may harm other people, they may destroy pieces of evidence.”

And then, there are many times when releasing the images to the public has helped authorities identify the suspect.

When authorities arrive on scene Sweiger said first steps are to secure the crime scene, help any potential victims and try to identify a suspect. Releasing details in the case on what happened to the public before charges are filed can also harm the investigation.

“We’re hoping to get information back from the community at that point,” Sweiger said. “How much money is taken is important investigative information to have for when we do identify the suspect for questioning down the road.”

“There’s certain information that needs to remain confidential so we can continue to investigate and we can ensure we’re actually talking to the right people,” Puett said. “If we put everything out there then we can’t guard against false confessions or we can’t protect the integrity of the investigation. Plus, compromising the prosecutor’s ability to prosecute. When all the information is laid out there and a jury pool is called in and they are asked ‘do you know anything about this?’ And they can refer back to all the information that is released then we have complex issues there.”

After a suspect is taken into custody the name of the individual cannot be released until charges are filed by the prosecuting attorney.

“We have an obligation to protect that individual’s identity and rights, protect that investigation and the prosecutor’s ability to prosecute,” Puett said. “There’s a presumption that if we arrest someone and we put their name out there and we say they’re arrested for this there is a presumption by some people, that that person actually did it before they’re charged or go to trial. So the fairest way to do it to make sure that everyone’s interest are protected and there’s a legal review in this process that until that person has been lawfully charged by the prosecutor then that name and information, picture and things are not released.”

At times law enforcement will released an image of a person being sought as a “Person-of-interest” or an individual’s name will be released if they are arrested on a warrant.

“Just because that suspect is a person-of-interest doesn’t necessarily mean they committed the crime,” Puett said. “A warrant is already a completed charge. A warrant has already gone through the charging process.”

But in every case, tips from the public and information from witnesses is always wanted by authorities. The TIPS Hotline, (816) 238-TIPS is a way for individuals to make anonymous reports.

“If anyone has information that might be helpful for any investigation it doesn’t have to be robbery we ask for information through the TIPS Hotline. It’s all anonymous,” Sweiger said. “And of course if you would like to help further you can contact our detective division.”