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Missouri: Edmundson Ran Debtors' Prison, 'Extorting' Poor Black Residents, Lawsuit Says
The President Called Me Weak Hat Retweeted.@ArchCityDefense this week sued a tiny .25 square mile town that acted as "extortionists and racketeers” to extract cash out of the humans they captured. The mayor, in a letter to cops, explicitly tied ticketing to raises.
Link to tweet
Edmundson Ran Debtors' Prison, 'Extorting' Poor Black Residents, Lawsuit Says
Posted By Doyle Murphy on Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 4:58 pm
The City of Edmundson ran its courts and police department like a debtors' prison, over-ticketing poor black people and using the terror of jail to squeeze them for high fines and fees, according to a lawsuit. ... The class-action suit was filed today by lawyers from ArchCity Defenders and Arnold & Porter on behalf of people who have spent years locked in a maze-like municipal court system.
"If private parties had created and implemented this scheme, enforced it by threatening and imposing indefinite incarceration, and milked poor families of millions of dollars, the law would punish them as extortionists and racketeers, and the community would take steps to prevent them from exploiting the most vulnerable of its members," reads the fiery introduction of the suit.
Tiny Edmundson, population 830, covers less than a quarter mile of land adjacent to St. Louis Lambert International Airport, but its court still collected more than $2.2 million in revenue between 2012 and 2016, according to state records. ... It is one of thirteen small north county municipalities previously targeted in a 2016 lawsuit that alleged many of the same abuses. A judge later ruled the suits could go forward but clients would need to file separate cases. This is the second of those suits to be re-filed, following a complaint against Normandy.
The two named plaintiffs, 30-year-old Quinton Thomas and 26-year-old Bradley Jiles, claim the city and surrounding cities ganged up on them, burying them in fines and repeatedly jailing them for failing to pay fines they could never afford. ... Individually, the men picked up traffic tickets for offenses that included invalid license plates and running a stop sign in Edmundson and neighboring municipalities. The alleged incidents may have seemed minor, but the suit alleges run-of-the-mill tickets quickly spiral in north county.
....
We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at doyle.murphy@riverfronttimes.com or follow on Twitter at @DoyleMurphy.
Posted By Doyle Murphy on Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 4:58 pm
The City of Edmundson ran its courts and police department like a debtors' prison, over-ticketing poor black people and using the terror of jail to squeeze them for high fines and fees, according to a lawsuit. ... The class-action suit was filed today by lawyers from ArchCity Defenders and Arnold & Porter on behalf of people who have spent years locked in a maze-like municipal court system.
"If private parties had created and implemented this scheme, enforced it by threatening and imposing indefinite incarceration, and milked poor families of millions of dollars, the law would punish them as extortionists and racketeers, and the community would take steps to prevent them from exploiting the most vulnerable of its members," reads the fiery introduction of the suit.
Tiny Edmundson, population 830, covers less than a quarter mile of land adjacent to St. Louis Lambert International Airport, but its court still collected more than $2.2 million in revenue between 2012 and 2016, according to state records. ... It is one of thirteen small north county municipalities previously targeted in a 2016 lawsuit that alleged many of the same abuses. A judge later ruled the suits could go forward but clients would need to file separate cases. This is the second of those suits to be re-filed, following a complaint against Normandy.
The two named plaintiffs, 30-year-old Quinton Thomas and 26-year-old Bradley Jiles, claim the city and surrounding cities ganged up on them, burying them in fines and repeatedly jailing them for failing to pay fines they could never afford. ... Individually, the men picked up traffic tickets for offenses that included invalid license plates and running a stop sign in Edmundson and neighboring municipalities. The alleged incidents may have seemed minor, but the suit alleges run-of-the-mill tickets quickly spiral in north county.
....
We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at doyle.murphy@riverfronttimes.com or follow on Twitter at @DoyleMurphy.