Travis Jones is not Mark Crumble. But neither the police officers nor Sheriff Jim Murphy’s deputies believed him when Jones told them they had the wrong guy.
On Nov. 7, 2009, police arrested Jones for an outstanding warrant for Mark Crumble and threw him in the St. Louis city workhouse, a medium-security jail. Jones remained there until late January 2010, even though he repeatedly requested that someone verify his identify.
What’s worse, when they arrested Jones, Mark Crumble was already in jail serving time for the same warrant.
In fact, less than two weeks before, the sheriff’s department notified the Circuit Court of St. Louis city that Mark Crumble was in custody for a probation warrant, but somehow the warrant wasn’t cancelled. The court even re-issued the probation violation warrant on Oct. 30, 2009.
Last month, Jones filed a lawsuit against Sheriff Murphy’s department, along with the Board of Police Commissioners, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the St. Louis Division of Corrections.
In the court filing, Jones argues that if the sheriff’s office would have promptly served the warrants, that would have cancelled them in the various law enforcement databases.
Murphy and his deputies “utterly failed to conduct even a rudimentary investigation to determine why two prisoners were booked under the same name and with the same cause numbers,” the lawsuit states.
On Tuesday, Aug. 7, Murphy, who has been sheriff since 1989, will run against two other challengers in the Democratic primary election. Murphy brings some baggage into this race – a 2010 court ruling that found him guilty of upholding a racially hostile work environment and a 2010 state audit that showed his office was wrought with financial inefficiencies and flawed management.
When Democratic challenger Vernon Betts learned about Jones’ case, he said, “This is why these things can happen – because Murphy has become delinquent.”
Betts is a former deputy sheriff. After Betts announced he was going to run for the sheriff’s seat last year, Murphy fired him.
In a July 6, 2011 termination letter, Murphy wrote that Betts violated a procedural order. That order states, “Deputies shall not file for, campaign for or hold any elected public office while an employee of the Sheriff of the City of St. Louis.”
Mike Guzy, Murphy’s executive assistant who worked the 1991 Chain of Rocks Bridge case for the St. Louis police, said the order is intended to keep deputies from electioneering.
“We don’t want our deputies out campaigning,” Guzy said.
Though in 2010, the state auditor found that Murphy paid his deputies to work the elections. When Murphy was up for re-election in 2008, 26 of his employees asked for vacation time to work the polls but were still paid.
Murphy’s order also puts a barrier on the path that most people take to become sheriffs in Missouri, experts say.
John Worden, the director of the Law Enforcement Training Institute at University of Missouri-Columbia, said aspiring sheriffs typically become deputies and then run for sheriff. As long as the deputies don’t campaign on the clock, they should be able to run for office, Worden said.
Michael Covington, executive director of the Missouri’s Sheriff’s Association, said there is no state statute that prohibits deputy sheriffs from running for sheriff. Covington was also not aware of any ordinances that prohibit a deputy sheriff running for sheriff.
When Police magazine, a publication for law enforcers, posted the news of Betts’ termination on its website, several commented that it was not fair. Mike Hagen commented of Murphy, “Sounds to me like he is trying to cut down on the competition.”
Vernon Betts faces incumbent Sheriff Jim Murphy on the August 7 ballot in the city of St. Louis.
