The floodgates open...

...and the feces is piling up.

Just what kind of a police force is St. George, Missouri, putting on the street, anyway? It seems all that the town is missing is the corrupt, Boss Hogg-style mayor to make things complete.

Good old Sergeant James Kuehnlein seems to have quite the spotty record for a law enforcement officer:

"A check of court records shows Kuehnlein himself pleaded guilty of assault and stealing in two different cases, in 1988 and 1990. He successfully petitioned a judge in St. Louis County in 1998 to expunge his criminal record, which was making it hard for him to get work as a cop.
The judge ordered those records sealed, as well as records of an acquittal for drunken driving and an assault arrest that did not result in charges."

Two arrests for assault with one conviction, one conviction for stealing, and an arrest for DUI, and this slob somehow gets to be not only a police officer, but a supervisor? It's supposed to be hard for him to get work as a cop for a reason - these types of people aren't generally hired to be cops, because they can't stay out of trouble themselves.

With the exception of this town, apparently. Were they that hard up for candidates? Methinks the "old boy" network was in full play here, from the judge expunging everything in Kuehnlein's past, to the town council hiring him to protect their peasants. I wonder who he has dirty pictures of?

Predictably, Kuehnlein's lawyer, a retired cop himself, is blaming the victim for all of this:

"'This is clearly a case where this young man is baiting police officers,' attorney Travis L. Noble said."

How? By driving to a commuter lot and parking? By asserting his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights? What did he possibly do to justify any claim of reasonable suspicion for Kuehnlein to stop and question him? I know, let's check the squad car cam to see just what exactly Mr. Darrow did to "bait" the officer.

Oh, that's right, the tape is somehow inexplicably missing. The dreaded "glitch" again. Evidence tampering is a felony in Missouri, isn't it, Mr. Noble? Perhaps you should quit while your client is way behind.

Chief Uhrig, Kuehnlein's boss, also apparently has some baggage in his past. This article reports that while he was an officer in another town seven years ago, he was suspended without pay for weeks and put on probation for sexually harassing a teenager. The hits just keep on coming.

Fittingly, the chief has decided to clam up about everything from now on:

"He also said the only thing he will say to the media from now on will be "no comment" or a statement issued via e-mail."

You are a coward, sir, just like your officer. When is he going to lose his job, by the way? We're waiting.

St. George seems to be the final stop on the road out of town for disgraced officers in Missouri. The residents of that town deserve better.

Thanks to Billy Beck for rounding up the new info on this reeking story.