By Katie Moore
The Kansas City Star
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Corrections has been held in contempt for refusing to release an 82-year-old man whose conviction was vacated in June.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office has stopped the release of Howard Roberts from South Central Correctional Center, about four hours southeast of Kansas City.
This is the third time this summer that Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office has intervened to keep a wrongfully convicted person in prison.
“I think it’s politics,” said Roberts’ attorney, Jonathan Sternberg.
Sternberg went on to say that he believes Bailey wants to be seen as a crime fighter, and keeping the wrongfully convicted behind bars is one way he has tried to build that image.
But Bailey, a Republican, has lost those cases in recent weeks and was even threatened with being held in contempt himself last month.
Sandra “Sandy” Hemme was declared innocent in June after spending over 43 years in prison. Livingston County Circuit Judge Ryan Horsman ordered her release on July 9. Bailey’s office called the warden and instructed him to continue holding Hemme. Though there wasn’t a stay in place, she remained behind bars an additional 10 days while the AG’s took the case to the Western District Court of Appeals and the Missouri Supreme Court. Both courts struck down their efforts to keep her in prison.
On July 19, Horsman threatened to hold officials with the AG’s office in contempt, including Bailey, if Hemme was not freed.
“I would suggest, counsel, you never do that again,” Horsman told Assistant Attorney General Andrew Clarke regarding their calls to the warden, adding that it was “wrong, absolutely wrong.”
Hemme walked out of prison a couple hours later.
Three days later, a judge overturned Chris Dunn ’s conviction in the City of St. Louis. Again, the AG’s office stopped his release. The judge threatened to hold the prison warden in contempt. Arguments again reached the Missouri Supreme Court, which cleared the way for Dunn’s release.
Dunn, who spent 34 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, was freed July 30.
Roberts was charged in 2016 with financial exploitation of an older or disabled person. The offense was a felony because the property value was $50,000 or more.
During an evidentiary hearing in November, Sternberg argued that Roberts received ineffective counsel during his 2018 trial that led to a 20-year sentence.
A judge in Geene County agreed in a June judgment. Senior Circuit Judge David C. Jones wrote that Roberts’ original attorney failed to get records and testimony introduced that could have convinced the jury that he was operating a legitimate business with the funds he had received and that he was innocent. Jones ordered Roberts “to be immediately released from the Department of Corrections.”
But Roberts is still in a cell.
On Wednesday, Jones issued an order of contempt against the Department of Corrections’ acting director Trevor Foley. He has a week to comply or will face a $1,000 daily fine.
Bailey won the Aug. 6 primary and will face Democrat Elad Gross in the November general election.
The AG’s office and the Department of Corrections did not respond to requests for comment.
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