CLAYTON 鈥 Tony Weaver Sr., the 狐狸视频 County employee named last week in a four-count federal indictment, and Rochelle Walton Gray, a former county councilwoman and Weaver鈥檚 former boss, weren鈥檛 the only people with ties to longtime politico Elbert Walton Jr. who received county government jobs in County Executive Sam Page鈥檚 administration.
Two of Walton Gray鈥檚 nieces 鈥 daughters of her sister Sen. Angela Walton Mosley and brother-in-law Rep. Jay Mosley 鈥 were among a group of temporary workers hired at the county Department of Public Health last year as COVID-19 contact tracers, shortly after Page appointed Walton Gray to a county job.
Page hired Walton Gray in January 2021 to a newly created position as COVID-19 vaccine outreach coordinator, at a salary of $89,000 a year.
Two nieces were later hired: Chanel Mosley on March 8, 2021, and Janay Mosley on April 5. Online county public records only identified their roles as 鈥淐OVID-19 response team members.鈥
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County officials said Friday that they were COVID-19 contact tracers, temporary workers hired to track the spread of the virus by finding and contacting people to inform them of possible exposure to COVID-19.
Neither was hired or supervised by their aunt, the former councilwoman, health department spokesman Chris Ave said.
鈥淲alton Gray worked in our health outreach team, and the contact tracing is in a different division,鈥 he said.
Chanel Mosley鈥檚 job was terminated Dec. 31, Ave said. Janay Mosley鈥檚 job was terminated Feb. 17. Their positions were hourly at $15.60 an hour.
According to , Chanel Mosley was paid a total of $46,719 and Janay Mosley was paid a total of $14,789 over 2021 and 2022, including overtime and county-paid benefits.
Ave said the county terminated their jobs, but he did not have more details.
Tracers could be trained on the job and didn鈥檛 need job experience or qualifications other than availability, Ave said. The county months earlier had sought to hire about 100 people for the job amid a rise in COVID-19 cases due the delta variant.
The Mosleys are grandchildren of Elbert Walton Jr., a disbarred attorney and former state representative who founded the influential Unified Democratic Township Organization, also known as Unity PAC.
Weaver, a longtime Spanish Lake Township Democratic committeeman, had helped lead the Unity PAC and also did work with Walton for the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District, which was embroiled in allegations of financial mismanagement a decade ago.
Walton鈥檚 ties to county government came under scrutiny last week after federal charges alleged Weaver, in 2020, filed four fraudulent applications for county grants worth up to $15,000 each on behalf of a businessman identified in the indictment only as 鈥淛ohn Smith.鈥 Weaver was recorded in the indictment as telling the businessman that he would have to correspond with a councilwoman who is identified in the indictment only as 鈥淛ane Doe.鈥
Weaver was Walton Gray鈥檚 legislative aide until Page hired him as a $82,500-a-year special projects coordinator 鈥 鈥渃hange management coordinator,鈥 according to the indictment 鈥 at the troubled jail in December 2019. In January 2021, after Walton Gray lost her council seat to Shalonda Webb, Page hired her as COVID-19 vaccine outreach coordinator for the county.
Page spokesman Doug Moore said Friday that Page knew of the Mosley family but did not know the Walton Gray relatives were hired as contact tracers.
鈥淭o my knowledge he didn鈥檛 know they were working there and applied there,鈥 Moore said.
Walton Jr. and Mosley relatives did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Walton Gray has not responded to requests for comment.
Page fired Weaver on Tuesday shortly after the indictment was unsealed.
Weaver has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Tim Smith, has filed motions for discovery to identify facts and testimony federal officials plan to bring in the case.
Smith said Friday that 鈥渢he law presumes Mr. Weaver is innocent until and unless he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.鈥
鈥淢r. Weaver, for much of his life, has been a pillar of the community,鈥 Smith said. 鈥淗e has done a tremendous amount of service in the community to help various individuals in various walks of life. Mr. Weaver has just been a model citizen in this area.鈥
Based on other records, the Post-Dispatch has identified the 鈥淛ohn Smith鈥 businessman as Mohammed Almuttan, a gas station and convenience store operator who is also the probable 鈥淛ohn Doe鈥 in recent federal bribery charges against three former members of the 狐狸视频 Board of Aldermen. One of the former aldermen, John Collins-Muhammad, has been listed in campaign flyers as a member of Unity PAC.
Almuttan is the owner of a property where a convenience and liquor store is situated at 100 Shepley Drive in unincorporated north 狐狸视频 County. The business at that address, Uptown Market and Liquor, on March 9 donated $600 to a political action committee whose treasurer is Janay Mosley, .
The PAC, Citizens for Excellence in Education, was formed on Jan. 20 (a few weeks before Mosley鈥檚 employment in the county ended) to support two candidates for Riverview Gardens School Board in the April municipal election, both of whom had been endorsed by Elbert Walton Jr.
The PAC took one other donation, also on March 9: $1,025.97 from the Unified Democratic Township Organization, the group founded by Elbert Walton Jr. Both groups share an address at 2320 Chambers Road.
Jacob Barker of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Posted at 6:30 a.m. Monday, June 13.