Tony Messenger
Metro columnist
SALEM, Mo. • Janice Bote is a drug addict.
Don’t take my word for it. It’s right there in black and white on her court record. Eleven times since she was arrested in August, she has been tested for drug use by private probation company MPPS. Eleven times, MPPS has posted those results for all to see on CaseNet, the state’s public system for tracking court cases.
Twice the results showed up as positive. Both times, the company charged Bote an extra $25 to send the test to a lab in California. One of them was confirmed. Now she has a warrant out for her arrest for violating the conditions of her bond release.
It is part of the cycle that intertwines the criminal justice system with poverty in Dent and other rural Missouri counties that operate similarly.
It works like this:
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You get arrested. Maybe it’s a misdemeanor like shoplifting, or theft. Perhaps it’s a felony drug possession charge. The judge sets a high, cash-only bail, that . After some time in jail, the judge agrees to lower your bond, but only on conditions that will be overseen by a private probation company. That company has a built-in financial incentive to keep you in the system.
If you fail a test, or miss one, you end up back in jail and the cycle continues.
“They make you jump through hoops,†Bote says, “and then they keep moving the hoops higher.â€
Until Aug. 12, when the South Central Drug Task Force busted down her door, Bote, 48, knew nothing of that system. She didn’t have a record. She hadn’t been in jail.
She was, however, using meth.
It started after she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2014.
“When I got cancer, I turned to meth as a coping mechanism,†she says. “I became an addict. That doesn’t make me a bad person.â€
According to court documents, she was found with about 1.5 grams of meth in her pocket. Her boyfriend, Bill Martin, had 4 grams. According to the probable cause statement, both Martin and Bote told police that Bote intended to sell some of the meth.
She says that’s not true.
“I never sold any dope,†Bote says.
Bote, who grew up in St. Charles, was charged with two felonies, and locked up in the Dent County jail.
A couple of weeks later, her bond was reduced, but only if she agreed to drug testing by MPPS, which provides the test results to the court, where they get posted without a hearing to determine their authenticity.
For Brendan Roediger, , this practice, which he finds “despicable,†has the potential to violate a defendant’s civil rights.
“There is no time prior to trial where it is appropriate for anyone to just file evidence with the court. The court is not a repository for good or bad information about the client,†Roediger says. He compares the uploading of drug-test results without a hearing to a defense attorney discovering evidence beneficial to a client, and just filing it with the court without a written motion or any proper legal foundation.
For Roediger, the issue is personal. The law professor is a recovering drug addict. He knows first-hand how public consumption of one’s drug history can have consequences.
“I’ve been in recovery for 19 years and I’ve seen shame kill a lot of addicts, but I’ve never seen it keep someone clean,†Roediger says.
The public shaming of Bote could also affect her ability to get a fair trial, says former Missouri Supreme Court Judge Mike Wolff.
“Before trial, the defendant has not been convicted of anything, but when pre-trial drug tests are posted online, the judge will ‘know’ that the defendant is a drug user,†Wolff says. “How can the judge fairly preside over a case where that defendant is accused of a drug offense?â€
For Bote, the immediate consequence is that when she turns herself in, or is picked up on the warrant, she knows she’s going to jail, and will probably be there until her case is adjudicated. She’s not confident the court is going to give her a fair shake.
Her court-appointed attorney, Wes Weber, is a former state trooper and sheriff’s deputy who worked for a drug task force. She’s not convinced that he is willing to take on the system.
So she waits. And she frets.
“I feel like they’ve already decided I’m guilty,†Bote says, “And I haven’t even had my day in court.â€
Jailed for being poor is Missouri epidemic: A series of columns from Tony Messenger
Tony Messenger has written about Missouri cases where people were charged for their time in jail or on probation, then owe more money than their fines or court costs.Â
The Pulitzer Prize board considered these columns when it decided to award the prize for commentary to metro columnist Tony Messenger.Â
In a twist of irony, one judge no longer calls them “payment review hearings.†Instead, he’s even more direct. Now they are called “debt colle…
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Weiss wants the Legislature to make it illegal for counties to charge defendants for their time behind bars.
“How can they cancel a court date then issue a warrant without even telling you the new court date?†Sharp wonders.
His bill would stop the practice in ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ of state police agencies avoiding state jurisdiction by seeking asset forfeiture under guise of f…
"He sat in jail because he was poor," public defender Matthew Mueller said of his client.
The two defendants are Exhibits A and B of why Missouri has become the front line in a national war on poverty and the courts.
She knows what she did was wrong. She knows she should have been punished.
“It's been a hard road,†she told me recently. “Really hard.â€
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“We’re hamstringing the very people who we want to go out and get a job,†Lummus says. “It’s self-defeating.â€
In his regular appearance on the McGraw Milhaven show on KTRS radio, Metro columnist Tony Messenger discusses his ongoing debtors' prison series.
He did his time. Then he got the bill: $3,150 for his stay behind bars.
A year-end update on some of the cases Tony Messenger wrote about during 2018.
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The Court of Appeals in the Western District of Missouri determined that the practice of using the courts to try to collect board bills is ill…
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I did my time and then some. This is how they get people. They keep them on probation and then if they don't pay their board bill they violate…
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Every week in Missouri, a judge somewhere holds a crowded docket to collect room and board from people who were recently in jail. The judges c…
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Because Precious Jones was late to jail, prosecutor and judge seek to add to her sentence.
The Missouri Supreme Court and Missouri Legislature should revisit their 2015 and 2016 efforts to reform courts. More work is necessary.
Other than now being required to meet federal standards for that drug testing, private probation companies face nearly no oversight in Missour…
“I messed up on probation,†he says. “It was my fault.†Still, he doesn’t think it makes sense that he’s still hauled to court once a month wi…
Murr owed Dent County about $4,000 for her “board bill†for the 95 days she had been jailed.
The domestic violence victim, Gaddis says, wouldn’t make a report to police because she feared going to jail herself and losing her child.Â
“They make you jump through hoops,†Bote says, “and then they keep moving the hoops higher.â€
William Everts stole from a church. Almost immediately, he knew it was a bad idea.
Bergen has the sort of back story that would inspire one of the movies or television episodes based in the Ozarks that seem to be all the rage…
Clark ended up spending 495 days in county jail awaiting a trial that still hasn’t come.
Pritchett first called me last year, after I wrote about a St. Francois County woman who was sent to prison for failing to pay court costs. He…
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The bills are that high because the two criminal defendants couldn’t afford to pay for an initial sentence behind bars for relatively minor of…
“The practical reality is that people are being arrested for being poor,†Mueller says. “And there’s nothing they can do about it. They just s…
At least twice in recent years, the Missouri Supreme Court has overturned harsh sentences issued by a judge after she sent people to prison so…
Branson, in early 2018, was in Desloge, Mo., now, living with her 15-year-old son, checking in with her parole officer, hoping never to go bac…
Officially, Victoria Branson’s probation was revoked because she never paid the state the past due support and the court costs, which rang up …
