St. George Traffic Warrants Plague Drivers Years On

Correction: Mayor Carmen Wilkerson originally told Patch that she believed the warrants had “expired” but had been “reactivated” by the previous administration. However, she said she now believes that they may have instead only renewed efforts to enforce these citations and collect on the fines. The old warrants may have shown up on background checks regardless of any actions by the previous administration.

Applying for a job or joining the military is challenging enough. Imagine, however, turning in your paperwork only to discover you’ve been flagged by the background check: There is a warrant out for you, for a years-gone traffic ticket you barely remember.

It may sound like an unlikely stressful dream, but for some drivers who were caught in the now-defunct St. George speed trap, it has turned out to be a frustrating reality.

“A grandfather is trying to move his granddaughter to a new treatment facility, but they can’t because there is an open warrant,” said St. George City Clerk Susan Preis of a call she received Thursday. Preis estimates that she has fielded 40 to 50 such calls since taking the job at the end of April.

St. George Mayor Carmen Wilkerson reported at that, to her consternation, city hall regularly receives calls from people shocked to discover a warrant put out for their arrest by the tiny municipality.

“The phone has been ringing off the hook,” Wilkerson told the board. “People are trying to get jobs now,” she said.

Some of these cases were from as far back as 2003, but were, according to Wilkerson, reactivated sometime within the last year as a way to bring funds into the city. In 2009, the city dissolved its scandal-ridden municipal police department and began contracting for police service with St. Louis County. When county police were , city revenue dropped sharply.

Wilkerson said she believes reactivating the warrants was an attempt by the previous administration to make up for this shortfall and preserve the city’s payroll.

“When the speeding ticket revenue dried up, our past attorney and city clerk got old warrants from 2003 and 2004 that had expired and reactivated them,” Wilkerson said in an interview.

Former St. George city attorney John Malec, who was replaced in April, did not return calls from Patch for comment on the warrants.

One woman who called city hall had been stymied in getting her nursing license. A sergeant from the army called when the city’s warrants showed up on a background check for a new recruit. For a student in California, the warrant is causing problems with his scholarship.

According to Preis the warrants that have resurfaced have been for traffic fines or other minor citations once regularly issued to drivers coming off Interstate 55 at Reavis Barracks Road. None of the warrants, Preis said, have been for DWIs or other more serious crimes. Worse, according to Wilkerson, some of these cases were from tickets that may have actually been paid, but were misfiled.

In many of these dusty traffic cases, defendants and arresting police officers have both moved on and would be difficult and expensive to track down. The previous administration had hired someone to follow up on unpaid tickets, Preis said, but those that couldn't be easily settled were left unresolved.

Prosecuting these cases, Wilkerson argues, would cost the city more than collecting the fines could bring in.

“We don’t have the police to back the case up,” Preis added. “Really, we weren’t making anything from them. It was more of a paperwork hassle.

"If they were big offenses, I would understand, but some of these are from years ago,” she said.

City Attorney Paul Martin said that there were more than 300 pending cases in St. George’s court system, most of which are now impossible to prosecute.

Martin recommended Monday that the city drop the pending cases, dissolve their municipal court system and contract for court services with St. Louis County—a move Wilkerson said would save the city money.

“It really doesn’t make any sense to have a local court system,” Martin said.

Martin said he would discuss dropping the cases with city judge Stephen Murphy and would likely draw up a contract adopting the St. Louis County court system for the board to consider next month.