House plan to toughen ATM ‘smash and grab’ penalties getting results

A House proposal that became law last year, to toughen Missouri’s penalties for “smash and grab” attacks on ATMs, could be slowing down an organized crime ring in the Kansas City area.  Its sponsor says that the ring’s reach, and the repercussions of this new law, could extend into several states.

Representative Rick Francis (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      One of two men arrested for stealing a Richmond, Missouri ATM has been charged under that law, which took effect in August.  It made the theft of a teller machine or its contents a Class C felony, punishable by three to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

      According to a probable cause statement, Montez Sherman was one of the two men who early on New Year’s Day used a stolen truck to pull an ATM from its foundation and used a crowbar to break it open.  More than $15,000 was taken and more than $32,000 in damage was done.

      If not for the work of Representative Rick Francis (R-Perryville), Sherman might face a might lighter penalty. 

      “Both theft or destruction of property … I think they were both misdemeanors,” Francis said.  “That was the whole reason for filing the bill.  The deterrent wasn’t working.”

      Francis worked on this legislation after learning that the Missouri Highway Patrol had recorded a sudden increase in smash-and-grab ATM attacks.  Those numbers went from only two such crimes statewide in all of 2019 to at least 28 in 2021.  When Francis began researching the issue in 2022, more than 20 ATMs had already been targeted in that year and more than $200,000 had been stolen, and that was not for the full year.

      He learned that many of those incidents in Missouri were connected to a crime ring that had originated in Texas and spread from there. 

      “They moved up through Arkansas.  Arkansas put a stiffer penalty to smash and grab ATMs, and it kind of went away there.  It was my hope that putting this into place in Missouri would also deter them from Missouri.”

      Francis and the law enforcement personnel he’s spoken to say the fact that criminal organizations are behind these crimes, anything that could deter them will make Missourians safer.

      “It’s organized crime that is at least doing by far the majority of this, and you never know how far organized crime would go, if they would be seen or if there was a witness or something like that, so certainly the public’s safety is a concern.”

      That Sherman and the others involved in the Richmond incident used a stolen truck to pull the ATM is similar to many of the other smash-and-grabs in Missouri and other states.  Richmond Police believe these individuals are part of a ring that has been committing such crimes in the Kansas City Metro area, but Francis thinks their ties go even further. 

      “They actually have some leads going back into Houston, Texas, so it would be nice to see some arrests where the ring starts,” Francis said. 

      Francis called it deeply satisfying to see an issue on which he and his colleagues spent so much time and effort, making a difference in Missouri, calling it the second such reminder in recent weeks. 

      Two weeks ago, House members heard that for the first time in Missouri, a healthy newborn baby was left in a Safe Haven Baby Box, to be safely surrendered to emergency responders.  That “baby box” is allowed under a 2021 House proposal.

      “That made me feel good as well, and now this week, from the bankers’ point of view, they say actually the good guys won one,” Francis said.

      “Any time that we can share that we’re certainly trying, with legislation and laws and so forth, to better Missouri and keep folks safe, and certainly it is gratifying to know that this legislation, hopefully, will send vibes, not only throughout Missouri but perhaps even into Texas, that we’re not going to put up with it.”

Francis’ bill last year was House Bill 725, the language of which became law as part of Senate Bill 186.

House proposal could close missing persons cases, finally giving answers to families

     For more than four decades, two Missouri families have been among an untold number who are going through the anguish of not knowing what happened to a loved one who simply vanished.  Backers of a proposal coming before a House committee this week say its passage could be the key to immediate answers in those cases and many more, not just in Missouri but nationwide. 

Geneva Verneal Adams has been missing since 1976.

     “I still have hope.  I still hope we can get something done,” Steve Crump said.  He has never stopped looking for his mother, who has been missing for 47 years.  

     53-year-old Geneva Verneal Adams usually didn’t go out at night, and she didn’t drink, but she loved to dance, so on July 14, 1976, she asked her daughter to go out with her.  Lonely after her first husband had died and a second marriage ended in divorce, she was smiling big when she left, hoping to have a fun night out. 

     Her daughter decided to call it a night early, but Adams was enjoying dancing with a man she’d met at the Artesian Lounge in Herculaneum and opted to stay.  Adams left the bar with him around 1 the next morning.  What happened to her after that has never been known.

     Crump, who was 17 when his mother went missing, has never given up looking.  Many years and many disappointments later, a police officer – the son of one of the original detectives on his mother’s case – gave him another glimmer of hope.  He had learned of a body that had been found just weeks after his mother disappeared and in the same general area, went unidentified, and was buried not far away in Illinois.  Many of its characteristics matched those of his mother, and it was going to be exhumed to see if this was Geneva. 

     When the grave was opened, it was empty. 

     Some 90 miles away and three years after Geneva disappeared, 19-year-old Cheryl Anne Scherer called home from her job at a small self-service gas station in Scott City.  She talked to her mother about what would be served for dinner that night and some sewing Scherer planned to do when she got home.  Authorities can account for all but ten minutes of what went on after that phone call, and in that ten-minute window, something happened to Scherer and her family never heard from her again.

Cheryl Scherer in 1977, and an age-progressed photo of how she might appear today.

     More than 14 years passed before Diane Scherer-Morris accepted that her sister might never come. 

     “I can attest to my dad sitting on the stair steps, because the phone was next to the, going up the stairs, and just sitting there and sobbing sometimes because he just wanted that phone to ring … but we never got the phone call that it was her, or that they’d found her,” Diane told House Communications. 

     Both of these are families holding on to hope, and both of them could stand another chance of finally getting closure through the passage of House Bill 1716. 

     Both are asking lawmakers to give them that chance. 

     HB 1716 would require that all law enforcement agencies in Missouri participate in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, better known as NamUs.  It is a nationwide database of cases of missing persons and unidentified human remains.  Each case entry might include physical descriptions or DNA evidence, or both. 

     That database was launched in 2007.  The more data is entered, the more open cases of unidentified bodies and missing persons can be advanced and even solved, and more families like those of Geneva Adams and Cheryl Scherer can finally get answers. 

     Many law enforcement agencies, however, still don’t enter their information on such cases into that database.  Only 12 states require that the agencies within their borders participate.  By proposing HB 1716, Representative Tricia Byrnes (R-Wentzville) wants to bring Missouri into the fold.  

     “Really it’s an awareness bill.  It’s going to create awareness that this tool is available because if everyone participates, the data becomes more reliable,” Byrnes said.  “The more states that can come on board, the better off the entire country of finding missing persons will be, because we won’t have these holes across the country.”

     NamUs currently records that there are about 120 unidentified bodies in Missouri, but the real number is likely far greater. 

     “We don’t know what that unidentified person’s number will climb to once we all work to one database.  We do know that number will go up, we just don’t know what it will go to,” Byrnes said. 

     Getting all Missouri agencies to participate in NamUs would not only lead to answers in this state but anywhere in the U.S.   Data in the System has resulted in connections that span multiple states, such as when a body found in 1982 in Arizona was just three years ago identified as that of a teen who disappeared from St. Louis in 1981.  That case remains unsolved, but her family was “awestruck” to finally know what happened.

     Cheryl Scherer’s brother, Anthony, said he is more than ready for his family to also get an answer.  For these long decades, he has considered the numerous theories that have been proposed about what happened, including that Cheryl was a victim of notorious serial killers Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas, who authorities say were operating in the region at the time.      

     “It could be anything,” Anthony Scherer said.  “[Maybe] a local person might have had something to do with it and has been holding it all these years.  One of the things that we stress when we have get-togethers is the conscience part of it, that they’re getting toward the end of their life and that maybe one day they’re just going to have to get something off their conscience and say something they know or admit to doing something.  As far as that, that’s the best answer I can say because there’s just not a whole lot to go on.”

     Steve Crump wants this bill to pass so that other families might be spared the years and years of pain he experienced.  He still thinks his answer could be found with the body that was supposed to be in that Illinois grave. 

     “Everything matched … she [had] brown hair, hazel eyes, they had all this information about this woman.  The coroner said she was in between 30 and 60, so our mom would fall in there,” Crump said about just some of the details that matched.  “We got our hopes up.  Oh my gosh, I really thought that this was it, we’re going to find her.”

     Geneva Adams’ case is a perfect example of why more agencies need to get active with NamUs, according to Courtney Nelson, Board Member and Advocate of the Missouri Persons Support Center. 

     She said if the System had been in place in 1976, authorities might have sooner made the connection between that body and Adams’ disappearance.  Instead, it wasn’t made until 2018, and poor documentation appears to have led to digging up the wrong grave.

     “We can avoid all of that by really utilizing NamUs,” Nelson said.

     Nelson is one among those who brought the idea to Rep. Byrnes.  She said passing HB 1716 would send a message to families like those of Geneva Adams and Cheryl Scherer, that law enforcement still cares and hasn’t forgotten.

     “Everybody deserves to be found and put to rest, or just found, in general.  If there is an unidentified person, there is a family out there wondering where they’re at or looking for them, and I just think having law enforcement take the time to really care and add all of this information in there is really going to revitalize the hope for these families that have been waiting for so long,” Nelson said. 

Click here at 4pm Wednesday, February 7, to see the hearing on HB 1716

     HB 1716 will be the subject of a hearing by the House Committee on Emerging Issues, on Wednesday at 4:00.  The hearing can be watched live through the House website, but Rep. Byrnes is calling on those concerned with missing persons to come and testify or submit testimony online.

     “When there’s people that show up to show this matters to Missourians it makes it much easier for lawmakers to solve a problem, and I know this matters to Missourians, it matters to law enforcement, and everyone that’s involved in the cases of unidentified people and missing persons, and we need them to show up at 4:00 on Wednesday.”

     Crump said if HB 1716 passes, his family might at last get to do one simple thing for his mother.  

     “We could have a funeral service.  We’ve never had a funeral service for her, and have that closure … I just think that it would be awesome, fighting for all these years and [to have] finally found her.”

     Scherer-Morris and her brother hope for the same thing. 

     “We actually have a tombstone and [Cheryl’s] is between mom and dad’s, so my ultimate goal before I die,” Scherer-Morris struggles to say as the tears come, “and I think we all feel this way, is that we just want to find her and give her a chance to lay next to mom and dad.  She didn’t deserve this.  She missed out on a lot of life and we missed out on having her in our lives, so the ultimate goal would just be [to be] able to find her and lay her to rest between mom and dad.  I just feel like that’s what we owe, to keep trying to find, for her.  We have to keep being her voice, we have to keep being her advocate because she can’t do that for herself.”

HB 1716 would also require additional training for law enforcement on unidentified and missing persons cases; require that fingerprints from unidentified remains be submitted to the Highway Patrol and that a dental examination must be performed on remains; and that an unidentified person record in NamUs be created within 30 days of the discovery of such remains.

Representative, former police chief, proposes tighter stalking laws

      A state representative frustrated by years of having to tell stalking victims he couldn’t help them is sponsoring a bill to toughen Missouri statute.

      Retired Joplin police chief and former Department of Public Safety director Lane Roberts (R-Joplin) says technology has outpaced Missouri law.

Representative Lane Roberts (photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications, 01-29-2020)

      “The use of technology – computers, tracking devices, cell phones – to be able to stalk and terrorize victims has grown exponentially over the last decade and our statute simply does not address it,” said Roberts. 

      “Having to look somebody who’s the victim of stalking in the eye and tell them why you can’t do things to help them out, knowing full well that they’re being terrorized by people, is a pretty uncomfortable and frustrating position,” said Roberts.  “Finally, frankly I’m in a position to maybe do something about it.”

      How Missouri law dealing with orders of protection defines stalking only covers the following of a person or unwanted communication.  Roberts’ proposal, House Bill 292, would broaden it to cover things like the use of cell phones, GPS, cameras, or third parties to observe, threaten, or communicate about or to someone.

      The House Committee on Crime Prevention heard from Janice Thompson Gehrke. She about her experience being harassed by her ex-husband, who is now in prison for shooting his ex-fiancé and her boyfriend.  This included sending his roommate to her workplace multiple times on the pretense of conducting business, having friends monitor her on social media, and using her information to have her phone spammed with contest and prize offers.

      “Now this may not seem like a big deal to some, but when you’re dealing with an abuser like him, you know there is a message being sent:  ‘I am watching you, and short of living your life completely off the grid, you’re not going to get away from me.’”

      She spoke of another victim who is being harassed through threats on social media, but the law does not allow her to seek an order of protection because, as she put it, “it’s not technically him.”

      “What we survivors ask is that you give us as many tools as possible to help set up as many roadblocks [as possible] preventing access to us so we have a chance to escape alive,” said Thompson Gehrke.

      Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence Public Policy Director Jennifer Carter Dochler said her organization backs HB 292.

      “Survivors deserve safety so we must continue to keep pace with the ways offenders find loopholes such as those that are remedied in House Bill 292.  We’re very appreciative of Representative Roberts, who filed this legislation after hearing from constituents the barriers they were experiencing with applying for a stalking order of protection,” said Carter Dochler.  “Our statute needs to be revised to keep up with the technological advances abusers have found to stalk their victims.”

      Roberts has also filed a bill (House Bill 744) that would allow victims to seek a lifetime order of protection against an individual.  Orders of protection are only valid for a year at a time.  That has been referred to a committee.

      He said throughout his career he was frustrated many times that he couldn’t do anything to help a victim of stalking and abuse, but one case frequently comes to mind in which a mother and elementary school-aged child were being abused.

      “It was so outrageous, and this individual was so convinced that because he was a man, it was ‘my way or the highway.’  I think what I said to him probably could be interpreted as a threat,” said Roberts.  “That kind of frustration, I think, exists for every police officer.  Every officer who knows that this victim is depending on them and we’re letting them down.”

      The committee has not voted on HB 292.

Missouri House passes 5 bills in special session called to address crime

The Missouri House has given initial approval to five bills related to crime issues in Missouri.  The bills were filed in a special session of the legislature called by Governor Mike Parson (R).

Representative Johnathan Patterson (photo courtesy: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Republicans say the legislation will help address violent crime in a year when Kansas City is on pace to set a new record for the annual number of homicides, and St. Louis is in the midst of a wave of murders and other violence.  Democrats decried the legislation as accomplishing nothing and said the special session was called only for political reasons.

House Bill 66 would create a fund to pay for law enforcement agencies to protect witnesses or potential witnesses and their immediate families during an investigation or ahead of a trial.

St. Louis City representative Peter Merideth (D) said the bill would be meaningless because there would be no money in the fund until it is appropriated in budget legislation.

“If we really believed this was an emergency wouldn’t we be funding it right now?” asked Merideth.

Bill sponsor Jonathan Patterson (R-Lees Summit) said his bill will create the program and funding can come later, as is usually the case with newly created state programs.

“I trust the mayors of our state.  They say it’s an emergency.  I trust the law enforcement in our state.  They say it’s an emergency,” said Patterson.  “We could have funded it [during the special session].  You’d have to ask yourself, ‘does that fit within [the governor’s call of topics to be addressed in this special session]?’  I don’t know.”

Representative Peter Merideth (photo courtesy: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Merideth said he would still support the bill, but also expressed concern that the offer of state money to pay for a potential witness’ room and board could be used to incent false testimony and lead to wrongful convictions.

The House voted 147-3 to send HB 66 to the Senate.

House Bill 46, sponsored by Representative Ron Hicks (R-Dardenne Prarie), would temporarily lift the requirement that St. Louis Police officers, EMS personnel, and firefighters live in the City of St. Louis.  The residency requirement would be reinstated after September 1, 2023.

“Out of all the things in the governor’s call this is the one really good thing that will immediately improve the conditions of [St. Louis’] crime problem,” said Representative Justin Hill (R-Lake St. Louis), a former law enforcement officer and undercover detective.  “Men and women in blue want to to work in the city.  Right now they don’t feel empowered enough by their city to stay there.”

St. Louis area Democrats say the bill infringes on local control because St. Louis residents are set to vote on whether to remove the  residency requirement in November.

“This comes up about every eight years in our city.  It has never passed,” said St. Louis representative Wiley Price (D).

The House passed HB 46 117-35.

House Bill 11 would increase the penalty for endangering the welfare of a child from a misdemeanor to a first-degree felony.  Bill sponsor Nick Schroer (R-O’Fallon) said criminals are taking advantage of juveniles by giving them guns and encouraging them to participate in violent crime.

“The issue of our youth being involved in horrific violence should be of the utmost importance to everyone in this body.  That is why I fought so hard since I’ve been in this body … to address this in one way, shape, or form,” said Schroer.

The House passed HB 11, 117-33.

House Bill 16, also sponsored by Schroer, would define the unlawful transfer of a weapon to a minor as the lending or sale of a firearm to a minor for the purpose of interfering with or avoiding an arrest or investigation.  It would change current law to allow such transfers to be a felony even if done with parental permission.

Representative Nick Schroer (photo courtesy: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

“It’s very important that we focus on these adults … that are victimizing our youth.  Sometimes it’s resulting in their death, sometimes it’s resulting in them going into the juvenile justice system,” said Schroer.  “Amending this law pursuant to the conversations we’ve had across the state it’s going to lead to a decrease in crime.”

St. Louis representative Rasheen Aldridge (D) said those bills will not reduce crime and won’t help his city.

“We’re not addressing the root cause of crime.  We’re not talking about after school programs.  We’re not talking about real criminal justice reform.  We’re not talking about how we make our neighborhoods not food deserts so we don’t have to travel 20 and 30 miles out.  We’re not talking about how we make education equitable for neighborhoods like ours,” said Aldridge.

HB 16 was sent to the Senate with a 103-45 vote.

The House also approved 133-11 House Bill 2, sponsored by Representative Barry Hovis (R-Whitewater), which aims to clarify current law on the admissibility of witness statements when a witness has been tampered with or intimidated.  If a court finds a defendant tried to keep a witness from testifying and the witness failed to appear, an otherwise inadmissible statement from that witness could be allowed into evidence.

All of these except for HB 16 were passed with a clause that would make them effective immediately upon being signed by the governor.