Wesley Bell is an American attorney, former
public defender
A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...
, former
municipal
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
prosecutor and judge, former municipal
prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...
and former city council member for
Ferguson, Missouri
Ferguson is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. Per the 2020 census, the population was 18,527.
History
What is now the city of Ferguson was founded in 1855, when William B ...
. Currently, Bell holds the office of Prosecuting Attorney for
St. Louis County, Missouri
St. Louis County is located in the eastern-central portion of Missouri. It is bounded by the City of St. Louis and the Mississippi River to the east, the Missouri River to the north, and the Meramec River to the south. At the 2020 census, th ...
. In a major upset, he soundly defeated long-time yet controversial county prosecutor
Bob McCulloch in the August 2018
Democratic primary election.
Bell became the first black
county prosecuting attorney in St. Louis County history when he took office in January 2019.
Early life
Bell was raised in North St. Louis County, Missouri. He is the son of a police officer father and civil servant mother. Bell is a graduate of
Hazelwood East High School
Hazelwood East High School is one of three high schools in the Hazelwood School District, St. Louis County, Missouri, the others being Hazelwood West High School and Hazelwood Central High School. It is at 11300 Dunn Road in Spanish Lake, Missour ...
,
Lindenwood University
Lindenwood University is a private university in St. Charles, Missouri. Founded in 1827 by George Champlin Sibley and Mary Easton Sibley as The Lindenwood School for Girls, it is the second-oldest higher-education institution west of the Missis ...
, and
University of Missouri School of Law
The University of Missouri School of Law (Mizzou Law or MU Law) is the law school of the University of Missouri. It is located on the university's main campus in Columbia, forty minutes from the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City. The sc ...
.
Career
After graduating from law school, Bell worked as a St. Louis County public defender. He later joined the faculty of
Florissant Valley Community College Florissant may refer to:
* Florissant, Colorado, a census-designated place
* Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, a United States National Monument, Colorado
* Florissant, Missouri, a city
* Florissant Township, St. Louis County, Missouri
S ...
as a professor in the
criminology
Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...
department. Additionally, he also was appointed to be a municipal court judge in
Velda City and municipal prosecutor in
Riverview. While working as a municipal judge in Velda City, Bell was sued by Arch City Defenders, a local nonprofit, for running an illegal bail system. In 2015 during the
Ferguson Protests
The Ferguson unrest (sometimes called the Ferguson uprising, Ferguson protests, or the Ferguson riots) were a series of protests and riots which began in Ferguson, Missouri on August 10, 2014, the day after the fatal shooting of Michael Bro ...
he was elected to the city council with strong support from some activists. During his time on the council he helped to implement the
consent decree to reform the city’s criminal justice system through both police and court reform.
Running for the county prosecutor race on a platform of
community based policing, assigning
special prosecutor
In the United States, a special counsel (formerly called special prosecutor or independent counsel) is a lawyer appointed to investigate, and potentially prosecute, a particular case of suspected wrongdoing for which a conflict of interest exis ...
s in homicides by police, pledging to never seek the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
, reforming cash
bail/bond and never using it for low-level offenses, expanding
diversion program
A diversion program, also known as a pretrial diversion program or pretrial intervention program, in the criminal justice system is a form of pretrial sentencing that helps remedy behavior leading to the arrest. Administered by the judicial or ...
s and the county’s
drug court
Drug courts are judicially supervised court dockets that provide a sentencing alternative of treatment combined with supervision for people living with serious substance use. Drug courts are problem-solving courts that take a public health appro ...
s, and promoting equitable due process, he received significant support from local and national activists and advocacy groups.
Prosecutor-Elect
In December 2018, a month before Bell took office, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Office attorneys and investigators voted to join the
St. Louis Police Officers Association (SLPOA) a chapter of the
Fraternal Order of Police
The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is a fraternal organization consisting of sworn law enforcement officers in the United States. It reports a membership of over 355,000 members organized in 2,100 local chapters (lodges), state lodges, and the ...
which represents police officers in a neighboring jurisdiction. This decision elicited immediate criticism, including accusations of a
conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
. Concerns were raised both locally and nationally, and by the Ethical Society of Police (ESOP), which is composed of, predominantly black, active and retired law enforcement officers. However, at least some of the employees’ concerns seemed to be justified after Bell terminated three veteran prosecutors within hours of beginning his term. These terminated employees were later paid $170,000 by St. Louis County to settle their wrongful termination claims.
County Prosecutor
Bell Plan
On January 8, 2019 Bell released details of his “Bell Plan.” This plan prioritized working to reduce the St. Louis County jail population to give more resources to combating violent crime.
Marijuana Decriminalization
In his first hours in office, Bell ordered his assistant prosecutors not to prosecute marijuana cases under 100 grams without evidence of distribution of the drug. However, he will still prosecute marijuana cases where the person possessing the marijuana is armed with a weapon. They will also not seek warrants on cases which solely involve the possession of marijuana.
Child Support
Additionally, during his first days in office Bell elected to stop prosecuting criminal child support cases.
This led to concerns that he was allowing non-supporting parents to evade their financial obligations to their children. Bell responded that he was trying to ensure that people would not face criminal charges for being unable to pay and that such charges made it harder for debtors to pay their child support.
Bell also stated that he was bringing St. Louis County into line with the rest of the State of Missouri. At the same time it emerged that Tim Swope, Bell’s Director of Operations, owed nearly $19,000.00 in back child support himself.
Death Penalty
Bell campaigned on a platform of opposition to the death penalty. In November 2018, prior to Bell taking office, Thomas Bruce, a resident of
Jefferson County, Missouri
Jefferson County is located in the eastern portion of the state of Missouri. It is a part of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 226,739, making it the sixth-most populous county in Missouri. Its county s ...
, allegedly entered Catholic Supply, a religious goods store in west St. Louis County and ordered three women there to perform deviant sexual acts on him. According to the charges, when one of the women refused to do so he shot her in the head, killing her. There was a major public outcry for Bell seek the death penalty for Bruce, but Bell refused, keeping his campaign promise. Former St. Louis police chief Tim Fitch has urged Bell to turn the case over to federal prosecutors so that they can seek the death penalty. However, the family of the victim supported Bell’s decision not to seek the death penalty.
Officer-Involved Shootings
In April 2019, police with the city of
Ladue
Ladue is an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis, located in St. Louis County, Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 8,989.
Ladue has the highest median household income of any city in Missouri with a population over 1,000.
Ge ...
, a St. Louis municipality, were called to a disturbance at a local grocery store.
The disturbance allegedly involved a woman shoplifting and fighting with store employees.
The Ladue police officer, a white female, confronted the alleged shoplifter, a black female, and the woman fought with the officer and ran from her.
The police officer then shot her, claiming she intended to use her taser instead.
Bell, reversing the trend over the past several years, charged the police officer with felony assault in the second degree.
However, in another case in August 2019, at the
St. Louis Galleria Mall, a man named Terry Tillman was shot and killed after being chased by a police officer.
According to police, Tillman was carrying a pistol with an extended magazine inside the mall, a no gun zone. Police also said that a shopper alerted a police officer who went to stop Tillman. When approached, Tillman took off and the officer chased him. During this chase several other police officers joined the pursuit which took Tillman and officers onto an adjacent parking lot. At some point Tillman was shot after police said he allegedly made a threatening movement in their direction. However, activists in St. Louis later claimed the police planted the gun on Tillman after shooting him and that shooting Tillman was an extreme overreaction on the part of police. Bell was one of the first people at the scene and promised a transparent investigation.
However, after nearly a year and a half, in December 2020, Bell announced he would not charge the officer. Bell blamed the delay on being unable to obtain video due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a police report released by Bell’s office indicated that Bell’s office had the video on November 29, 2019.
Controversies
Reopening the Michael Brown Shooting Case
After his win against incumbent Bob McCulloch, many of his supporters, including
Howard University
Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...
law professor
Justin Hansford, called on Bell to reopen the investigation into the
death of Michael Brown
On August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
Brown was accompanied by his 22-year-old male friend Dorian Johnson, who later stated that Brow ...
. While Bell initially promised to address the issue before his inauguration, it took him nearly 18 months to do so. Bell ultimately found, like his predecessor Bob McCulloch and the Obama DOJ, that there was no probable cause to charge Darren Wilson with murder or manslaughter. This decision was met with anger from his supporters and Michael Brown's family who accused Bell of conducting an incomplete investigation. The St. Louis Post Dispatch, a local paper of record, was also critical of Bell for his apparent disappointment expressed at a press conference, in not being able to indict Wilson.
Sex Discrimination Lawsuit
On October 29, 2020 one of Bell's assistant prosecutors filed a lawsuit under Missouri's Human Rights Act claiming that Bell had fired her and forced out five other female attorneys in favor of male employees. The lawsuit further alleged that Bell had created a hostile work environment for female attorneys at the office. Bell responded by claiming that the prosecutor's attorney was irresponsibly and unethically attempting to litigate his case in the media.
Allegations of Politically-Motivated Prosecutions
In October 2019, Bell charged Dawan Ferguson with two counts of statutory rape and two counts of statutory sodomy and child molestation. The allegations stem from the disappearance of Ferguson’s son Christian in 2003. Ferguson’s public defender filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the case was politically-motivated. She cited Ferguson’s ex-wife working for Bell’s campaign for prosecutor and donating money to Bell as proof of this assertion.
Use of Government Resources
Bell has also been criticized for his use of government resources while in office. In June 2019,
KSDK
KSDK (channel 5) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Downtown St. Louis, and its transmitter is located in Shrewsbury, Mi ...
, a local news outlet, reported that Bell had amassed nearly $800 in parking tickets for parking in no-parking zones and in front of fire hydrants outside of his office, despite the fact that he was provided with a parking space. Bell’s chief of staff, Sam Alton, responded that it was "too tedious" to cross the street to the parking garage.
Bell later paid off the parking tickets using his own money.
In August 2019, it emerged that Bell had hired a former campaign worker as a paid intern with the office. In that position she earned more than many of the career staff employees and legal interns. While Bell refused to be interviewed about the subject, his office responded that she was responsible for community engagement projects. The intern was also observed accompanying Bell to many social and community events.
In October 2019, the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...
conducted an investigation into Bell’s expenditures during the first ten months in office. The investigation uncovered that Bell had spent over $30,000 in government funds on travel and food during his first ten months in office. This included an $816 dinner at an expensive
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
steakhouse and a $300 meal at a
Lake of the Ozarks
Lake of the Ozarks is a reservoir created by impounding the Osage River in the northern part of the Ozarks in central Missouri. Parts of three smaller tributaries to the Osage are included in the impoundment: the Niangua River, Grandglaize Creek ...
steakhouse. In addition to food and travel, the Post-Dispatch determined that Bell had spent over $8,000 of taxpayer dollars on new office furniture, blinds, and an espresso machine for his office. Furthermore, the Post-Dispatch also reported on Bell’s efforts to hide details of his spending, such as omitting thousands of dollars of charges from requested records, charging the Post to provide requested documents, reimbursing expenditures only after records requests for those expenditures were made, and being nonresponsive to sunshine requests. This was criticized as inconsistent with Bell’s campaign promises to be a transparent administration. Under pressure from his supporters, Bell ultimately apologized for this scandal and vowed to spend taxpayer money more appropriately in the future.
See also
*
Larry Krasner
Lawrence Samuel Krasner (born March 30, 1961) is an American lawyer who is the 26th District Attorney of Philadelphia. Elected to the position in 2017, Krasner was one of the first in the United States to run as a self-described "progressive pros ...
*
Kimberly Gardner
Kimberly M. Gardner (born Aug. 2, 1975) is an American politician and attorney from the state of Missouri. She is the circuit attorney for the city of St. Louis, Missouri. She previously served as a member of the Missouri House of Representative ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Wesley
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Lindenwood University alumni
University of Missouri School of Law alumni
Lawyers from St. Louis
Missouri Democrats
Missouri lawyers
Politicians from St. Louis
Public defenders
Shooting of Michael Brown
Politicians from St. Louis County, Missouri
American prosecutors