JEFFERSON CITY — A first-term legislator from Lake Saint Louis is facing allegations that as a teenager he attempted to choke his then-girlfriend and that more recently he misrepresented his military record.
The headache for state Rep. Justin Hicks has been brought on by a challenger in the Aug. 6 Republican primary, Max Calfo, who earlier this year unveiled a page on his website called “ with records he says he obtained from an individual no longer active in politics.
Calfo says Hicks, 30, an Army veteran, falsely claimed to have fought in battle. And, he said a woman in 2010 accused the lawmaker, when he was 17, of attempting to choke her.
The woman’s name is redacted from the records posted to Calfo’s website. But Calfo shared the woman’s name with the Post-Dispatch and the newspaper interviewed her by phone Friday.
People are also reading…
“I can’t speak to his character now. I mean, I believe people can change,” the woman said, asking that her name be withheld from publication. “I feel it is in the past for me, but I just hope this isn’t happening to anyone else.”
“I do think that the truth needs to be told because people, especially victims of any kind, deserve a voice,” she said.
As of Friday, Calfo’s accusations have not led to any apparent erosion of support for Hicks, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article. Hicks has been a rising star within the House Republican caucus, earning a freshman legislator of the year award from House Speaker Dean Plocher.
So far, Calfo, 34, a former Wentzville School District teacher who was raised in Connecticut, says his allegations have been met with “general silence.”
“And I think that silence is deafening,” Calfo said.
State Rep. Richard West, R-Wentzville, said this week, “I have not done any investigation and I will not be doing an investigation just because Justin Hicks is a good-standing member in the House of Representatives, and I have no reason to believe that he’s done anything wrong.”
Calfo’s broadsides include an open letter in September drawing two additional members of the House Republican caucus into the fray, state Reps. Tricia Byrnes of Wentzville and Holly Jones of Eureka.
He said both lawmakers had hired him as their legislative assistant, and that Byrnes forced him out of his job in January after a monthslong pressure campaign against him releasing the information on Hicks.
Reached Friday by phone, Byrnes said she couldn’t comment on Calfo’s personnel record, which she said was closed.
Byrnes called Calfo “just a hack” who was “slandering people.
“He’s losing support the more he speaks to people.”
‘You shouldn’t’
The documents that Calfo published on his website say Hicks was the subject of a protective order in 2010 after his female partner alleged that he grabbed her by the neck and attempted to choke her.
a purported protective order issued Nov. 4, 2010, against Hicks along with a petition for order of protection in Ƶ Circuit Court. Also pictured is a final protective order, dated Nov. 19 that year.
John O’Sullivan, spokesman for the Ƶ County Circuit Court, said the forms pictured appeared to be documents used by Ƶ County courts at that time. He said he couldn’t confirm the existence of the records that Calfo posted.
But the woman who sought the court-ordered protection on Friday vouched for the authenticity of the documents.
“The restraining order’s true,” she told the Post-Dispatch.
In the petition for order of protection, the woman, then 19, said she and Hicks had been in a romantic or intimate relationship.
She checked boxes saying the respondent, Hicks, then of Overland in Ƶ County, intentionally “caused physical harm to me,” “harassed me,” and “placed me in fear or apprehension of immediate physical harm.”
The petitioner said that on the day prior, Hicks “grabbed me by the back of the neck and attempted to choke me.”
“Then he dragged me to his car, telling me we were going somewhere. I told him I didn’t trust him, and he said, ‘You shouldn’t.’”
The woman said she exited the car, and that the police were called, “everything was reported,” and that Hicks didn’t go to jail.
In the Nov. 19 order of protection, Hicks was told to stay away from the petitioner’s house. Hicks was also directed to attend counseling with a licensed professional for 12 consecutive weeks unless he “is shipped out.”
Military record, reaction
Calfo also claimed Hicks lied about his military record with statements such as “I’ve spent my life fighting for this country on battlefields” in campaign literature as well as his statement that he “fought in wars” in a 2022 radio interview.
“Hicks repeatedly falsely claimed to have fought in battle. Hicks’ military enlisted record brief proves his overseas deployment was in an HR role in the United Arab Emirates and it shows he was never in Iraq or Afghanistan,” Calfo said on his campaign website.
Bryce Dubee, a U.S. Army spokesman, told the Post-Dispatch that Hicks served as a human resources specialist in the Army between April 2011 and September 2017.
“He deployed to the United Arab Emirates from July 2012 to May 2013 and held the rank of Sergeant at the end of service,” Dubee said, adding that his awards included the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and Overseas Service Ribbon.
With regard to Iraq or Afghanistan, Dubee said “the only deployment record the Army has on file here is the UAE deployment from 2012-13, and do not indicate a deployment to either of those countries.”
Interviews with local Republican officials revealed a distaste for Calfo’s political attacks.
“I don’t know how much validity there is to it.... I don’t believe in mudslinging personally,” said Tom Gallaher, Republican committeeman for the Lake Saint Louis Township.
He said he thinks it’s better when a candidate speaks “of the differences and the positive things that they intend to do.”
Despite his criticism of Calfo’s attacks, Gallaher said he was glad there were two people in the race. He said he opposed “digital currency” legislation by Hicks that over personal liberty and privacy concerns.
“As far as other Republicans talking about Max, you know, when somebody runs a negative campaign, at some point, they got to start talking about what they’re going to do,” said Bob Eno, chairman of the St. Charles County Republican Central Committee.
“What he’s doing now, he’s being a hack, and he’s going about it the wrong way and he’s really upsetting a lot of people,” West said.
Calfo responded: “I think choking a girl should upset some people.”