No charges against police who used seized World Series tickets

By Bill Bryan
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Apr. 18, 2007

ST. LOUIS — Eight city police officers were wrong to use World Series tickets seized from scalpers, but they did nothing illegal, Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce said Monday in revealing there will be no charges.

She acknowledged public outrage but said she could not find any way to construe their actions as a violation of Missouri statutes given the available evidence.

"I'm very disappointed with their conduct; I think it was ethically and morally wrong, and they breached the trust of the community," Joyce said. "But I simply can't prosecute them in a court of law."

She revealed her decision in an interview with the Post-Dispatch.

On Wednesday, the Police Board is to decide whether to accept Chief Joe Mokwa's suspension and demotion of the officers — or to impose tougher punishment, which could include firing.

Joyce said she concluded that there was no admissible evidence to support any charge, including stealing.

"The only evidence here is the officers' statements to internal affairs, and that's not admissible because it's considered coerced. The officers are ordered to answer or face losing their jobs. I'm forbidden by the Constitution to use coerced evidence to prosecute, or even use for a jumping off point to an investigation."

The eight officers admitted to department investigators that they took some 30 World Series tickets, from among more than 100 seized from scalpers on the street last October, and gave them to family or friends.

Selling tickets at more than face value, or scalping, is barred by city ordinance. Officials said a scalper started the investigation with a complaint that he overheard officers talk about using his tickets.

Busch Stadium scans but does not tear tickets, so they were not physically changed before being returned to evidence for possible city court action against sellers.

Joyce said charging the officers with tampering with evidence was never considered. "There has to be alteration, destruction or concealment of the evidence, and that didn't happen here. The tickets were available for the (city court proceedings)."

Moreover, Joyce said, an evidence-tampering charge has to relate to a felony, not an ordinance violation.

She said she and her office worked with internal affairs detectives and also conducted an independent inquiry, interviewing some scalpers and using a grand jury.

"This was a very complicated legal issue, and I consulted with numerous prosecutors around the state," Joyce said. "Everybody is amazed with the legal complexity of it all, and the public probably things that there's a clear-cut law being broken.

"But legally, I don't have a case. I understand people's strong feelings, but I have no options."

On April 4, Mokwa suspended the eight officers for two weeks without pay and recommended to the board that they be reduced in rank for no less than a year. It would cost each about $20,000 in pay but allow them to keep their jobs.

The Police Officers Association endorsed that penalty but indicated it would fight any attempt to fire the culprits.

Mokwa called the officers' actions "intolerable" but also said they "have shown deep and serious remorse … and can be redeemed."

He said, "They're not thieves; they made a mistake."

Seven other officers, including a lieutenant and three sergeants, face unspecified lesser discipline for lax supervision or violation of procedures.

The names of the involved officers, who were members of the vice-narcotics unit, have not been released, pending final Police Board action.

A University City police officer who had worked with those detectives on the anti-scalping detail recently resigned from his department rather than face possible dismissal, officials said.