Only In Missouri

Only in Missouri, people. Only in Missouri.

A woman was recently sentenced to 12 years in prison for animal abuse. A Missouri state representative may be sentenced to up to 4 years in prison for a hit-and-run accident where the injured man had to be airlifted to the hospital.

This wasn't a normal hit-and-run. The congressman, soon to be a convict, so we'll call him Con, was driving home New Year's Eve in his tricked out pick-up, hauling his wife, two couples, and a dude. That's seven people in a truck, people. What's up with that?

Con hit something, declared, "I think I hit that guy," and kept driving. Not far. He pulled into the parking lot of a nearby high school, switched seats with his wife, drove home, called the county sheriff, and asked him what to do. Oh, but it gets better.

Con's wife drove back to the accident scene, but not in the truck, which was missing its passenger mirror, said mirror having broken off when colliding with the flesh and bone of the road-walker. Who, by the way, was walking home because he was too drunk to drive.

At some point, a passerby female had called 911 upon seeing the hittee lying in the roadway. Con did not bother to call 911, only the sheriff. The passerby did not stop her own self, because she was afraid the man might be merely drunk, and go all belligerent on her a$$, what with it being after 1:00 a.m. on New Year's Eve, and her being alone in her car.

When the ambulance arrived, it found two women working on the hittee. One was Con's wife, who is a registered nurse, and the other was one of her passengers. Both women told police that they found him on the side of the road, but did not know what happened. There was no sign of a vehicle at the scene. That's because her cowardly husband, Con, sat in it on a different parking lot on the other side of the accident scene, THEY say. From there, Con says he called the sheriff and told him his truck had been involved in an accident. The sheriff got another call on his way there from one of Con's passengers, asking Sheriff to meet them at Con's house.

Wouldn't you just know it? The school has security cameras! Guess what that camera recorded? You got it. The Chinese fire drill after the accident. Con called the couples and the dude to his house a few days after the 'accident'. He told them: "The only way this will work is if we stick to this story. My wife was driving when we hit the guy. She stopped and switched places with me. When we got to the school, we switched back." Con insisted in court that he never left the scene, as he was right there on that other parking lot when he called the sheriff. Except...I saw that school surveillance video online, and Con's truck pulled out of that lot headed toward his house, not toward where the hittee was lying in the road, the direction from which they came.

Funny thing, Con, at his house, gave the sheriff a cell phone that supposedly belonged to the victim, though Con said he didn't know whose it was, but that he found it at the scene. I would like to know more about this cell phone. Makes you wonder if Con's wife swiped it when she went to tend to the hittee, and simply 'forgot' to give it to the EMTs or police. Wouldn't you think that a phone on the road might belong to the victim? And perhaps have phone numbers to notify next of kin? Maybe those women were really just looking for evidence, or a pulse, and heard the sirens and started working on the victim so they wouldn't be caught in their shenanigans.

The passenger witnesses all recanted their original written statements to the police in exchange for not being prosecuted. They sang the song of Con, how he had told them it was an election year, and better if his wife was the one driving. The wife pled guilty to a false police report and was sentenced in October to two years of probation and 60 hours of community service.

Now Con can get up to 4 years in prison. Sentencing is March 26. He should thank the Gummi Mary that he didn't leave any animals without food and water. The penalty for that is 3 times as severe.

Here are some good links about the incident:

Trial 2-18-09
Trial 2-19-08
Trial general info
Surveillance video go to this page and click on link in upper right "Surveillance video shows driver switching places." It is chilling if you know what happened. The lights of cars passing are on a highway just past the outer road where the school is located and where the guy was run over.

As for the animal abuser...