ST. LOUIS COUNTY — A Pine Lawn alderman charged with DWI last week forced the city’s governing board on Monday to discuss its contract with the law enforcement agency that arrested him. The board briefly noted his proposal and took no action.
Gerald Metts, the president of the Pine Lawn Board of Aldermen, was accused of crashing into a crime scene on June 30 in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County. He was charged on Sept. 5 for driving under the influence.
Last week, Metts added an agenda item to the Sept. 9 Board of Aldermen meeting to discuss the Police Cooperative’s contract.
“It’s ironic that this was put on the agenda,†Maj. Ron Martin of the North County Police Cooperative told the Post-Dispatch. “Especially when the contract was just signed for three more years.â€
Metts could not be immediately reached for comment.
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Mayor of Pine Lawn Terry Epps said the city renewed its contract with the North County Police Cooperative last October. The police agency still has two years left in its contract, Epps said.
Epps said any board member may add items to the agenda. He declined to comment on Metts’ DWI charge or speculate if it is why he placed the contract issue on the agenda.
“He met the deadline and put multiple items on the agenda, one of them being the contract,†Epps told the Post-Dispatch.
Prosecutors said Metts crashed through a guard-rail chain link fence at a dead end on Ella Avenue at around 1 a.m. on June 30th.
Metts’ Chevy Equinox stopped with the front wheel hanging off the edge of the end of Ella Avenue, on top of a shooting crime scene on Kienlen Avenue, according to a probable cause statement.
An officer of the North County Police Cooperative Department reported that officers at the scene could smell “a strong odor of alcohol†coming off the alderman, who was the only person in the car.
He was given a field sobriety test and failed all of them. He blew a .154 breath alcohol content — almost twice the legal limit for driving in Missouri.
“I’m just an alderperson. I just came down the wrong way,†he said in response to being asked by an officer if he had any weapons in body camera footage from the North County Police Cooperative.
He was arrested and his car was towed from the scene.
Eleven days later, he went to the North County Police Cooperative to ask for his confiscated driver’s license and asked on-duty command staff if “there is something that could be done,†police reported.
A court hearing in the matter has been scheduled for Oct. 15 in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.