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St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited JULY 30 – AUG. 5, 2020
92 years serving, empowering and advocating equity in St. Louis
Vol. 92 No. 18 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
A tale of two prosecutors A murder witness had very different experiences with Mary Pat Carl and Kimberly Gardner By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American Every time Melissa DeBoer speaks to the media about what happened to her family in 1982, it costs her. It makes her want to retreat and takes her to a dark place. But when she learned Mary Pat Carl was running for St. Louis circuit attorney in the August 4 primary election, she felt it was important to share her story about meeting with Carl — and later with incumbent Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner — about her case. DeBoer had spent her whole life believing
Mary Pat Carl
that Rodney Lincoln had brutally murdered her mother, JoAnn Tate, when she was only 7, as well as severely injured her and her younger sister. DeBoer was the only eyewitness in the trial that sentenced him to life in prison. Later, as an adult, DeBoer asked the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office for pictures of the crime scene to give her a sense of closure, but she never received them. In November 2015, she finally saw these images in a television show about Lincoln’s case, and they triggered memories. DeBoer realized that she Kimberly Gardner
See CARL, A7
Reopening schools: is it wise? Jennings Superintendent Art McCoy says it’s risky either way By Sylvester Brown Jr. Of The St. Louis American Superintendents from many area school districts have announced plans to reopen on August 24. Considering that Missouri was recently noted for its largest single-day increase of COVID-19 cases, is it wise to bring kids back to classrooms? One thing we know for sure about COVID-19 is that we don’t know much for sure. We don’t know for sure what percentage of adults and children are asymptomatic. We don’t know exactly how the virus spreads. We don’t know for sure if infected people are immune from reinfection. We don’t Art McCoy know the long-term effects of severely impacted COVID-19 victims. We don’t know if we will ever implement mass testing and quarantining. Yet, with all these unknowns and more, many children are going back to school in a few weeks. Recently, Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, in a private phone call to city officials, warned that St. Louis,
See SCHOOLS, A7
Vote yes on Amendment 2 on Aug. 4 Photo by Wiley Price
Better family food Better Family Life’s Community Outreach Program, along with Colleagues in Solidarity, held a food distribution event at 4533 Arlington Ave. on Saturday, July 25. Cars were lined up all the way back to Union Boulevard.
By Chris King Of The St. Louis American St. Louis County Councilman Ernie Trakas has made public an affidavit and a statement from an ongoing dispute over county leases, he said, because the public should know that two people who were advising the Stenger adminis-
Ed Rhode
Jane Dueker
By Dr. Denise Hooks-Anderson Of The St. Louis American
tration on the leases are now working to elect a new county executive. The affidavit and statement, both made by county employees on May 29, 2019, concern meetings held in January and February of 2018 about whether the leases on Northwest Plaza saved the county as much as then-County Executive Steve Stenger had claimed they saved. Ed Rhode and Jane Dueker were two Stenger consultants present at the meetings, where data appears to have been manipulat-
On August 4, Missouri residents will have the opportunity to vote yes on Amendment 2, which would expand Medicaid for approximately 230,000 Missourians. Access to Medicaid would allow individuals to receive timely n Access to Medicaid would allow individuals preventative and emergency care to receive timely preand not delay ventative and emerlife-saving treatments. gency care and not Since delay life-saving treatPresident Trump ments. took office, the number of uninsured increased nationwide. Per U.S. Census data, Missouri’s uninsured rate was 13% in 2013 and fell to 8.9% in 2016, but in 2018 it rose to 9.4%. Missouri and a handful of other states refused to expand Medicaid, leaving
See MANTOVANI, A6
See VOTE, A6
People working to elect Mantovani glimpsed in ‘08 Stenger contract meeting Rhode, Dueker deny any wrongdoing, then or now
It would expand Medicaid for 230K people in Missouri