Silent Epidemic Of Corruption Plagues Law Enforcement In Trump's America

In San Mateo County, California, Sheriff Christina Corpus has now been formally indicted by a civil grand jury of willful or corrupt misconduct. The Missouri AG has filed a lawsuit seeking to remove the Sheriff of St. Louis County who violated Missouri's constitutional prohibition from nepotism. Former Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez is facing multiple charges for involvement in a massive central Florida gambling operation. We have to hold these people to account. They work for us.

Subscribe to stay connected to our stories

Support us by becoming a member on YouTube

Or Support us on Patreon

Buy Ring of Fire merch

Find us on social media!

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

The Missouri Attorney General has filed a lawsuit seeking to remove the Sheriff of St. Louis County. According to the 87 page quo warranto Sheriff Alfred Montgomery violated Missouri's constitutional prohibition from nepotism by hiring his stepbrother. He unlawfully detained the acting Jail Commissioner Tammy Ross, unlawfully detained and unarmed a security guard, failed to transport detainees from the city jail for medical care, unlawfully or fraudulently benefited from the misuse of public resources by having an employee pick up the sheriff's children from school in an office vehicle and failed to responsibly manage the finances of his office. Sheriff Montgomery refused the allegations and is refusing to step down. Scandal has plagued the sheriff during his tenure, allegations that the sheriff made a deputy roll dice to determine whether or not he would be fired. The sheriff refused to assign sufficient deputies for courthouse security and for transporting in need of medical care were also raised in a letter by non-profit transparency organization.

More recent reporting has determined that despite $630,000 over budget, Montgomery has authorized new uniforms, golf carts and a Tahoe for the department. St. Louis County isn't the only one having problems with one of their top law enforcement officials. In San Mateo County, California, Sheriff Christina Corpus has now been formally indicted by a civil grand jury of willful or corrupt misconduct. The allegations include one count of conflict of interest and three counts of retaliation. The conflict of interest allegation pertains to the hiring of former executive director of administration who reportedly had a close personal relationship with the sheriff. The retaliation charges pertain to the firing of the assistant sheriff, the transfer of another deputy and the arrest of a third. Importantly, these charges are civil in nature, not criminal. On a separate front against the sheriff, the board of supervisors unanimously voted to remove her, though she is appealing their decision.

The vote of the board followed a report by a retired judge who had been hired to investigate the sheriff. The judge found that the sheriff had engaged in nepotism, retaliation, intimidation, false arrests, and had made racial and homophobic slurs. These two are in, of course, addition to the case of former Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez, who we did an earlier episode on. Lopez is facing multiple charges for involvement in a massive central Florida gambling operation. I know it seems we live in a post shame society, and maybe we do. Certainly, we cannot hope that people will do the right thing on their own. Even people who hold positions of trust in our community. It is my hope, however, that we learn from these cases. That we make it easier to remove public officials for their malfeasance. That we hold them to account. We should not be waiting for an election to toss a bum out on their ear, especially those local officials who have so much sway over our lives. There's a silent epidemic in this country with law enforcement. We've been doing episodes a while for you guys and over and over we see sheriffs who do not believe that they're accountable to the law.