(Note: This is my column from the January 7 Turner Report Newsletter and was also the basis for the video on the Inside Joplin Facebook page that accompanies this post.)
Last year, the Missouri General Assembly passed a bill setting the minimum salary for classroom teachers at $40,000 a year.
The move was long overdue.
In my final year of teaching in the Joplin R-8 School District, my 14th year in the classroom, I was making $36,000 a year.
Why did it take so long for our elected representatives to do this?
Would it surprise you to know that the legislature had already ensured that some clerical workers in state offices were making more than $40,000 a year?
For example, one employee who has worked in the Missouri State Public Defender’s Office for the past nine years as an administrative clerk received a pay increase a couple of years ago to $40,288 a year. This particular employee, like many other employees in many other offices across the state, got his job because he knew someone.
In this case, he knew someone in the public defender’s office because he needed the office’s services.
The girl, Rowan Ford, was a fourth grader at Triway Elementary in Stella.
The man who confessed to raping and killing her was her stepfather David Spears. Spears not only confessed to the crimes, but told investigating officers how the crime was committed and led them to the girl’s body.
His partner in crime, Chris Collings, was executed December 3. Collings claimed Spears had nothing to do with the crime, something that could have caused enough reasonable doubt for a jury to declare Spears not guilty.
So they reached a plea bargain. In exchange for his testimony against Collings, Spears was allowed to plead guilty to child endangerment and hindering prosecution and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Of course, by that time he’d already been behind bars for five years while awaiting trial, so it wasn’t long before he was free and on probation.
During that probation period, Spears used his connections, in this case, the husband of the public defender who handled his case, to land a job with the Public Defender’s Office where he has worked for more than eight years.
As the time drew close to Chris Collings’ execution, Bobbie Pottorff, the news director for KSNF and KODE, followed up on the other man who confessed the crimes that led to Collings’ execution.
What she discovered and what sources connected to the public defender’s office have told me since that time is that no one in the West Plains office where Spears worked had any idea about his background.
While it’s not unusual for the public defender’s office to give people a second chance, my guess is Spears is the only one who ever confessed to rape and murder and led law enforcement to the victim’s body.
As you can imagine, the KSNF/KODE story caused quite an uproar in this area and it was picked up by Nexstar’s sister station in Springfield.
Today I learned that one former law enforcement officer, former Missouri Department of Public Safety director and Joplin Police Chief Lane Roberts, who is now my state representative, sent a letter to the Public Defender Commission demanding that David Spears be fired and that steps be taken to prevent any “monumentally foolish” hirings like this from ever happening again.
“Monumentally foolish” is the term Rep. Roberts used. I can think of some stronger, more descriptive terms.
Roberts says he is not the only legislator who wants something to be done about this injustice.
Think about it.
From the time Chris Collings was arrested until he was executed more than 17 years later, taxpayers paid for his room and board.
We did the same thing for David Spears after he was arrested until he completed his sentence and that should have been the end of it.
Instead, Spears has been hiding in plain sight, collecting more than $40,000 a year of taxpayer money.
And there’s no end in sight.
As Lane Roberts noted in his letter to the Public Defenders Commission, at some point taxpayers will also be paying for his retirement.
Seventeen years ago, a little girl who was much loved was taken away by a horrific act of violence.
It was a tragic loss for the staff and children at Triway Elementary and for the Stella community.
The only one who benefited was the stepfather whose job was to protect her. For us to have to pay for his salary, benefits and retirement is a slap in the face.
The move was long overdue.
In my final year of teaching in the Joplin R-8 School District, my 14th year in the classroom, I was making $36,000 a year.
Why did it take so long for our elected representatives to do this?
Would it surprise you to know that the legislature had already ensured that some clerical workers in state offices were making more than $40,000 a year?
For example, one employee who has worked in the Missouri State Public Defender’s Office for the past nine years as an administrative clerk received a pay increase a couple of years ago to $40,288 a year. This particular employee, like many other employees in many other offices across the state, got his job because he knew someone.
In this case, he knew someone in the public defender’s office because he needed the office’s services.
That’s what happens when you confess to raping and murdering a 9-year-old girl and dumping her body in a sinkhole.
The girl, Rowan Ford, was a fourth grader at Triway Elementary in Stella.
The man who confessed to raping and killing her was her stepfather David Spears. Spears not only confessed to the crimes, but told investigating officers how the crime was committed and led them to the girl’s body.
His partner in crime, Chris Collings, was executed December 3. Collings claimed Spears had nothing to do with the crime, something that could have caused enough reasonable doubt for a jury to declare Spears not guilty.
So they reached a plea bargain. In exchange for his testimony against Collings, Spears was allowed to plead guilty to child endangerment and hindering prosecution and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Of course, by that time he’d already been behind bars for five years while awaiting trial, so it wasn’t long before he was free and on probation.
During that probation period, Spears used his connections, in this case, the husband of the public defender who handled his case, to land a job with the Public Defender’s Office where he has worked for more than eight years.
As the time drew close to Chris Collings’ execution, Bobbie Pottorff, the news director for KSNF and KODE, followed up on the other man who confessed the crimes that led to Collings’ execution.
What she discovered and what sources connected to the public defender’s office have told me since that time is that no one in the West Plains office where Spears worked had any idea about his background.
While it’s not unusual for the public defender’s office to give people a second chance, my guess is Spears is the only one who ever confessed to rape and murder and led law enforcement to the victim’s body.
As you can imagine, the KSNF/KODE story caused quite an uproar in this area and it was picked up by Nexstar’s sister station in Springfield.
Today I learned that one former law enforcement officer, former Missouri Department of Public Safety director and Joplin Police Chief Lane Roberts, who is now my state representative, sent a letter to the Public Defender Commission demanding that David Spears be fired and that steps be taken to prevent any “monumentally foolish” hirings like this from ever happening again.
“Monumentally foolish” is the term Rep. Roberts used. I can think of some stronger, more descriptive terms.
Roberts says he is not the only legislator who wants something to be done about this injustice.
Think about it.
From the time Chris Collings was arrested until he was executed more than 17 years later, taxpayers paid for his room and board.
We did the same thing for David Spears after he was arrested until he completed his sentence and that should have been the end of it.
Instead, Spears has been hiding in plain sight, collecting more than $40,000 a year of taxpayer money.
And there’s no end in sight.
As Lane Roberts noted in his letter to the Public Defenders Commission, at some point taxpayers will also be paying for his retirement.
Seventeen years ago, a little girl who was much loved was taken away by a horrific act of violence.
It was a tragic loss for the staff and children at Triway Elementary and for the Stella community.
The only one who benefited was the stepfather whose job was to protect her. For us to have to pay for his salary, benefits and retirement is a slap in the face.
6 comments:
Crime doesn't pay?
Bullsh*T!
Unbelievable!
Is this guy related to someone with political pull?
Or does he just have helpful friends?
He will get fired. Then his buddies at the courthouse will convince him to sue. He will receive a quiet settlement AND once again, the taxpayers will fill his pockets.
So thankful you and others brought this to area tax-paying citizens' attention. Hopefully, he is terminated immediately. Shame, shame on that public defender's office. Please keep us updated.
This is what happens when you allow Liberals and their Views to Cloud the Truth or Right and Wrong. David Spears, First of all should have gotten minimum life in jail for his Testimony - Not such a light sentence - but with our WOKE, DEI, PRONOUN SHAMING, CRT (CRITICAL RACE THEORY) - SOCIETY - Murders and Criminals can get Cushy Jobs with the Government and the Hardworking Taxpayers have to flip the Bill - - Funny Pedophiles have to Register their Location, Job, even their Vehicles - But Murders get off Free and can Hide under the Nose of Justice in Our Public Defender's Offices - Our Country is SCREWED UP - THIS PUBLIC DEFENDER'S OFFICE NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED FOR OTHER WRONGDOINGS TOO.
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