News 150 arrests, 11 DWIs and, now, 1 dead 4-year-old

Marcellus · 10-26-2012, 08:37 AM

This story just blew me away. This is completely unfathomable.What basically amounts to laziness by people in the legal and justice system this guy was allowed to continue to drive drunk and killed yet another person.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...43e77aec0.html

October 13, 2012 11:30 pm • Jeremy Kohler jkohler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8337 and Joel Currier jcurrier@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8256
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Gregory Wynn came to in a hospital room in September 1983, battered from a car crash. His buddy Steve was in the next room in a coma. A nurse deflected questions about two friends in the car, who were dead.

St. Louis police detectives told him a driver named Ricky Weeden had sped through a red light and plowed into their car.

“They said they thought he had been drinking,” said Wynn, who escaped serious injury.

Police did not document any alcohol use. Prosecutors passed on filing a manslaughter charge.

It was the start of a trend. For the next three decades, Weeden drove recklessly. He was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving 11 times. But police, prosecutors and judges never kept him off the road for very long.

Now authorities say he has killed a child.

Authorities said Weeden kept driving after hitting two brothers as they crossed St. Charles Rock Road in Pagedale on Oct. 5. Traye-shon Williams, 4, died at the scene. Jay’Shard Conner, 10, was released Tuesday from St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Wearing a leg cast on Friday, Jay’Shard used a walker to approach his brother’s casket for a final goodbye.

Weeden, charged with murder and assault, is being held at the St. Louis County Jail in lieu of $250,000 cash bail. Through jailers, he declined to be interviewed.

His son, Ricky Weeden Jr., said his father was “not a monster” but a “pillar of the community” who provided many people in north St. Louis County with jobs in their family construction business. He said his father did not have a drinking problem.

The record says otherwise. The state revoked Weeden Sr.’s drivers license in 1993, but Weeden kept driving, without insurance, speeding, running stop lights, swerving out of his lane, throwing beer cans out of his car window, giving police chase. He was arrested by 21 police departments in St. Louis County, sometimes berating and threatening officers. His ex-wife said he was pepper sprayed so many times, he was losing his vision.

In the last 30 years, he has been arrested about 150 times, almost always while driving in north St. Louis County. Six of his 11 DWI arrests resulted in convictions: four times on misdemeanors and two on felonies. He has served fewer than two years total in prison on the DWI charges. (He also has served time in prison on gun charges.)

Wynn, who is now 50, couldn’t believe it when Weeden’s name surfaced in news reports last week. It made him think of the friends he lost in 1983: Avance Wilson, 23, and Doris Ann Jones, 20. Steve Stanback, the other survivor, now 50, walks with a cane from his injuries.

“It is ridiculous,” Wynn said, “that it took this long for them to catch him. A child had to die.”

PROBLEMS EXPOSED

In 2009, a Post-Dispatch investigation showed how chronic DWI offenders routinely avoided felony charges.

The newspaper exposed a culture of cutting deals in municipal courts, where prosecutors and judges let many persistent drunken drivers escape convictions.

Weeden could have been a poster child. Courts missed several chances to convict him on felony charges. And at least five times, Weeden refused to have his blood-alcohol content tested and DWI charges were never filed.

After the series, the Missouri Legislature passed a law closing some loopholes and requiring judges to get training on state DWI laws.

But even as lawmakers sought to strengthen DWI laws, authorities missed two chances to take Weeden off the streets.

Wellston Police Officer Joe Brugmann stopped Weeden’s car on April 4, 2010, for missing a taillight. He said he could smell a “very strong” odor of alcohol on Weeden’s breath, and said his speech was slurred, police records show.

“I had a couple of beers, but I’m fine to drive,” he said Weeden had told him.

Brugmann said Weeden had failed a series of sobriety tests: the walk-and-turn, the one-leg stand and the follow-the-finger test. Weeden refused a breath test, and Brugmann arrested him on suspicion of DWI.

Because of previous convictions, Weeden could have been charged with a felony, but prosecutors downgraded the case to a misdemeanor. Weeden pleaded guilty and served just 90 days in jail.

St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch said Friday that prosecutors had agreed to a plea bargain because they lacked evidence that Weeden was legally intoxicated.

“There were issues with the field sobriety tests,” McCulloch said. “In all honesty, the officer was not at the time the most cooperative. He failed to appear for a couple of depositions. And there was no evidence of blood-alcohol level.”

When a driver refuses a breath test, police can seek a warrant for a blood test. That was not done in this case.

Brugmann could not be reached for comment. He no longer works for Wellston, and his Missouri peace officer’s license is currently suspended.

G.T. Walker, the Wellston police chief, said he stood by Brugmann’s work. “I don’t see any serious problems with the report,” Walker said. “It seems like he (McCulloch) had enough to make his case.”

This June, Wellston Officer Mark P. Matlack clocked Weeden driving 59 mph in a 35 mph zone on Page Avenue. Weeden changed lanes suddenly without using a signal, and Matlack pulled him over, the police report shows. The officer said he saw Weeden pour out a 24-ounce can of Bud Ice and noted that his breath smelled of grain alcohol.

Weeden was booked on municipal citations for careless and reckless driving, speeding, driving in an improper lane, drinking alcohol while driving, and driving with a revoked license, no seat belt and no insurance. He also had 14 active warrants for his arrest.

Police did not test Weeden’s breath or blood for alcohol, nor did they notify county prosecutors of the arrest, McCulloch said.

“The officer knew he was drinking but felt he wasn’t sufficiently drunk to go further with it,” Walker said.

McCulloch learned of the arrest Friday. “It’s not the law that failed,” he said, “it’s the failure of that department not doing what should have been done.”

Walker noted that the department sent a sergeant to be certified in DWI investigations over the summer and that he will train other Wellston officers.

MISSED CHANCES

Pine Lawn police arrested Weeden for DWI three times — in 2000, 2001 and 2002. In each case, Weeden refused to take a breath test. Any one of the cases could have been charged as felonies with the potential to put Weeden in prison for up to 15 years.

None of the cases resulted in a conviction. Pine Lawn court officials did not respond last week to a reporter’s request to review the files.

Pine Lawn Police Chief Rickey Collins said he was reviewing files to determine why none of the three DWI arrests had resulted in a conviction.

In the 2002 case, Pine Lawn Patrolman Michael Waisner saw Weeden swerving as Weeden drove north on Jennings Station Road. The police report says Weeden threw a beer can out of the window during a brief pursuit. He pulled into a Shell station on Lucas and Hunt Road and tried to stumble away. Waisner sprayed Weeden with pepper spray when he refused to be handcuffed. In the squad car, officers shackled Weeden’s legs after he tried to kick out the rear windows of the car.

Interviewed on Friday, Waisner, who now works for the Warson Woods Police Department, said he remembered this case distinctly out of the hundreds he handled in Pine Lawn because Weeden was so violent. He said it was often frustrating to learn that an arrest did not result in a conviction. “If it was up to me, they would all get a mandatory sentence on the first one,” he said. Drunken driving is “an epidemic in society.”

In the north St. Louis County neighborhoods that Weeden menaced for decades, traffic came to a halt on Friday as a black and gold horse-drawn hearse carried Traye-shon’s casket to a grave in Laurel Hill Cemetery, near where he was run over.

Directing traffic were police from Pine Lawn, Wellston and Beverly Hills, some who knew Weeden long before Traye-shon’s death.

Denise Hollinshed of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

DMAC · 10-26-2012, 08:42 AM

I know someone personally who has 6 DUIs in the past 3 years. Still drives.

**gblowfish** · 10-26-2012, 08:45 AM

They should make a Bud Light commercial with this guy in it.

Dante84 · 10-26-2012, 08:46 AM

X-Factor has like 6 DUI's

Still manages to get to Arrowhead every Sunday.

Micjones · 10-26-2012, 08:46 AM

That's insane.

Not sure how they can keep him off the roads though, short of locking him up.

**Old Dog** · 10-26-2012, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Micjones

short of locking him up.

Well, there's a novel ****ing concept

Frazod · 10-26-2012, 09:21 AM

The line from Usual Suspects pops into my head - "Protected from up on high by the Prince of Darkness." This guy must be deeply connected.

I assume that will all blow up now.

bishop_74 · 10-26-2012, 09:24 AM

... and we're putting people in jail for marijuanna possession.

Micjones · 10-26-2012, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Dog

Well, there's a novel ****ing concept

You don't get much time for DWI's though do you?
The involuntary manslaughter I'm sure, but beforehand?

L.A. Chieffan · 10-26-2012, 09:53 AM

They still have Bud Ice? I used to pound that shit back in HS

mikey23545 · 10-26-2012, 09:55 AM

I can't believe it took nearly an hour for the first pot sympathizer to veer off the road, over-correct and plow into this thread about DUIs.

Imon Yourside · 10-26-2012, 10:17 AM

Sounds like a Pillar of the community....strange days these are.

Molitoth · 10-26-2012, 10:19 AM

okoye35chiefs · 10-26-2012, 10:20 AM

is drinking bud ice considered HIPSTER?

Chief Roundup · 10-26-2012, 10:30 AM

tax dollars hard at work there. WOW
Officers and Judges having to be sent off for training. Shouldn't that training be part of attain said position?

10-26-2012, 08:37 AM
Marcellus Diablo Negro Join Date: Sep 2003 Casino cash: $3122662	150 arrests, 11 DWIs and, now, 1 dead 4-year-old This story just blew me away. This is completely unfathomable.What basically amounts to laziness by people in the legal and justice system this guy was allowed to continue to drive drunk and killed yet another person. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...43e77aec0.html October 13, 2012 11:30 pm • Jeremy Kohler jkohler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8337 and Joel Currier jcurrier@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8256 Loading… Gregory Wynn came to in a hospital room in September 1983, battered from a car crash. His buddy Steve was in the next room in a coma. A nurse deflected questions about two friends in the car, who were dead. St. Louis police detectives told him a driver named Ricky Weeden had sped through a red light and plowed into their car. “They said they thought he had been drinking,” said Wynn, who escaped serious injury. Police did not document any alcohol use. Prosecutors passed on filing a manslaughter charge. It was the start of a trend. For the next three decades, Weeden drove recklessly. He was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving 11 times. But police, prosecutors and judges never kept him off the road for very long. Now authorities say he has killed a child. Authorities said Weeden kept driving after hitting two brothers as they crossed St. Charles Rock Road in Pagedale on Oct. 5. Traye-shon Williams, 4, died at the scene. Jay’Shard Conner, 10, was released Tuesday from St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Wearing a leg cast on Friday, Jay’Shard used a walker to approach his brother’s casket for a final goodbye. Weeden, charged with murder and assault, is being held at the St. Louis County Jail in lieu of $250,000 cash bail. Through jailers, he declined to be interviewed. His son, Ricky Weeden Jr., said his father was “not a monster” but a “pillar of the community” who provided many people in north St. Louis County with jobs in their family construction business. He said his father did not have a drinking problem. The record says otherwise. The state revoked Weeden Sr.’s drivers license in 1993, but Weeden kept driving, without insurance, speeding, running stop lights, swerving out of his lane, throwing beer cans out of his car window, giving police chase. He was arrested by 21 police departments in St. Louis County, sometimes berating and threatening officers. His ex-wife said he was pepper sprayed so many times, he was losing his vision. In the last 30 years, he has been arrested about 150 times, almost always while driving in north St. Louis County. Six of his 11 DWI arrests resulted in convictions: four times on misdemeanors and two on felonies. He has served fewer than two years total in prison on the DWI charges. (He also has served time in prison on gun charges.) Wynn, who is now 50, couldn’t believe it when Weeden’s name surfaced in news reports last week. It made him think of the friends he lost in 1983: Avance Wilson, 23, and Doris Ann Jones, 20. Steve Stanback, the other survivor, now 50, walks with a cane from his injuries. “It is ridiculous,” Wynn said, “that it took this long for them to catch him. A child had to die.” PROBLEMS EXPOSED In 2009, a Post-Dispatch investigation showed how chronic DWI offenders routinely avoided felony charges. The newspaper exposed a culture of cutting deals in municipal courts, where prosecutors and judges let many persistent drunken drivers escape convictions. Weeden could have been a poster child. Courts missed several chances to convict him on felony charges. And at least five times, Weeden refused to have his blood-alcohol content tested and DWI charges were never filed. After the series, the Missouri Legislature passed a law closing some loopholes and requiring judges to get training on state DWI laws. But even as lawmakers sought to strengthen DWI laws, authorities missed two chances to take Weeden off the streets. Wellston Police Officer Joe Brugmann stopped Weeden’s car on April 4, 2010, for missing a taillight. He said he could smell a “very strong” odor of alcohol on Weeden’s breath, and said his speech was slurred, police records show. “I had a couple of beers, but I’m fine to drive,” he said Weeden had told him. Brugmann said Weeden had failed a series of sobriety tests: the walk-and-turn, the one-leg stand and the follow-the-finger test. Weeden refused a breath test, and Brugmann arrested him on suspicion of DWI. Because of previous convictions, Weeden could have been charged with a felony, but prosecutors downgraded the case to a misdemeanor. Weeden pleaded guilty and served just 90 days in jail. St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch said Friday that prosecutors had agreed to a plea bargain because they lacked evidence that Weeden was legally intoxicated. “There were issues with the field sobriety tests,” McCulloch said. “In all honesty, the officer was not at the time the most cooperative. He failed to appear for a couple of depositions. And there was no evidence of blood-alcohol level.” When a driver refuses a breath test, police can seek a warrant for a blood test. That was not done in this case. Brugmann could not be reached for comment. He no longer works for Wellston, and his Missouri peace officer’s license is currently suspended. G.T. Walker, the Wellston police chief, said he stood by Brugmann’s work. “I don’t see any serious problems with the report,” Walker said. “It seems like he (McCulloch) had enough to make his case.” This June, Wellston Officer Mark P. Matlack clocked Weeden driving 59 mph in a 35 mph zone on Page Avenue. Weeden changed lanes suddenly without using a signal, and Matlack pulled him over, the police report shows. The officer said he saw Weeden pour out a 24-ounce can of Bud Ice and noted that his breath smelled of grain alcohol. Weeden was booked on municipal citations for careless and reckless driving, speeding, driving in an improper lane, drinking alcohol while driving, and driving with a revoked license, no seat belt and no insurance. He also had 14 active warrants for his arrest. Police did not test Weeden’s breath or blood for alcohol, nor did they notify county prosecutors of the arrest, McCulloch said. “The officer knew he was drinking but felt he wasn’t sufficiently drunk to go further with it,” Walker said. McCulloch learned of the arrest Friday. “It’s not the law that failed,” he said, “it’s the failure of that department not doing what should have been done.” Walker noted that the department sent a sergeant to be certified in DWI investigations over the summer and that he will train other Wellston officers. MISSED CHANCES Pine Lawn police arrested Weeden for DWI three times — in 2000, 2001 and 2002. In each case, Weeden refused to take a breath test. Any one of the cases could have been charged as felonies with the potential to put Weeden in prison for up to 15 years. None of the cases resulted in a conviction. Pine Lawn court officials did not respond last week to a reporter’s request to review the files. Pine Lawn Police Chief Rickey Collins said he was reviewing files to determine why none of the three DWI arrests had resulted in a conviction. In the 2002 case, Pine Lawn Patrolman Michael Waisner saw Weeden swerving as Weeden drove north on Jennings Station Road. The police report says Weeden threw a beer can out of the window during a brief pursuit. He pulled into a Shell station on Lucas and Hunt Road and tried to stumble away. Waisner sprayed Weeden with pepper spray when he refused to be handcuffed. In the squad car, officers shackled Weeden’s legs after he tried to kick out the rear windows of the car. Interviewed on Friday, Waisner, who now works for the Warson Woods Police Department, said he remembered this case distinctly out of the hundreds he handled in Pine Lawn because Weeden was so violent. He said it was often frustrating to learn that an arrest did not result in a conviction. “If it was up to me, they would all get a mandatory sentence on the first one,” he said. Drunken driving is “an epidemic in society.” In the north St. Louis County neighborhoods that Weeden menaced for decades, traffic came to a halt on Friday as a black and gold horse-drawn hearse carried Traye-shon’s casket to a grave in Laurel Hill Cemetery, near where he was run over. Directing traffic were police from Pine Lawn, Wellston and Beverly Hills, some who knew Weeden long before Traye-shon’s death. Denise Hollinshed of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Posts: 69,168

10-26-2012, 08:42 AM	#2
DMAC MVP Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Springfield, MO Casino cash: $10008735	I know someone personally who has 6 DUIs in the past 3 years. Still drives.
Posts: 11,651

10-26-2012, 08:45 AM	#3
gblowfish Be Kind To Your Pets Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Glorious Independence, MO Casino cash: $17686178 VARSITY	They should make a Bud Light commercial with this guy in it.
Posts: 40,830

10-26-2012, 08:46 AM	#4
Dante84 Tossed Salad & Scrambled Eggs Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: ATX & OPKS Casino cash: $1821996 VARSITY	X-Factor has like 6 DUI's Still manages to get to Arrowhead every Sunday. __________________ ..
Posts: 19,588

10-26-2012, 08:46 AM	#5
Micjones Whose house? Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: KCMO Casino cash: $10005180	That's insane. Not sure how they can keep him off the roads though, short of locking him up. __________________ It's like when I'm right I'm right, when I'm wrong I could been right, so I'm still right cause I coulda been wrong.
Posts: 15,344

10-26-2012, 09:21 AM	#7
Frazod WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS Join Date: Aug 2000 Casino cash: $3165085	The line from Usual Suspects pops into my head - "Protected from up on high by the Prince of Darkness." This guy must be deeply connected. I assume that will all blow up now.
Posts: 119,484

10-26-2012, 09:24 AM	#8
bishop_74 Veteran Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Denver, CO. USA Casino cash: $8684993	... and we're putting people in jail for marijuanna possession.
Posts: 3,642

10-26-2012, 09:53 AM	#10
L.A. Chieffan PLAY GOOD FOOTBALL Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: American Gardens Building Casino cash: $4088654	They still have Bud Ice? I used to pound that shit back in HS
Posts: 17,367

10-26-2012, 09:55 AM	#11
mikey23545 MVP Join Date: Aug 2000 Casino cash: $10015321	I can't believe it took nearly an hour for the first pot sympathizer to veer off the road, over-correct and plow into this thread about DUIs.
Posts: 12,314

10-26-2012, 10:17 AM	#12
Imon Yourside WhatUneed2Hear Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: AllSoulsMatter Casino cash: $2663181	Sounds like a Pillar of the community....strange days these are. __________________ "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" Peter 5:8 "Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay" Isaiah 29:16 "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20
Posts: 44,145

10-26-2012, 10:19 AM	#13
Molitoth Mahomes Fanboi Join Date: Apr 2004 Casino cash: $2994969
Posts: 19,473

10-26-2012, 10:20 AM	#14
okoye35chiefs Starter Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Death Valley Casino cash: $10004900	is drinking bud ice considered HIPSTER?
Posts: 674

10-26-2012, 10:30 AM	#15
Chief Roundup Admitted Planet Junky Join Date: Oct 2000 Casino cash: $2101627	tax dollars hard at work there. WOW Officers and Judges having to be sent off for training. Shouldn't that training be part of attain said position? __________________ Fanaticism is nowhere. There is no tenderness or humanity in fanaticism.
Posts: 19,195