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St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)

July 20, 2007 Friday

THIRD EDITION

Patrol urged to criticize Nixon

BYLINE: By Matthew Franck POST-DISPATCH JEFFERSON CITY BUREAU

SECTION: METRO; Pg. C3

LENGTH: 396 words

DATELINE: JEFFERSON CITY

Public records suggest that Gov. Matt Blunt's staff urged the Missouri Highway Patrol to issue a statement criticizing Blunt's
political rival, Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon, over his handling of a dam collapse at Taum Sauk reservoir.

That revelation - first reported in the Kansas City Star on Thursday - has prompted Democrats to accuse the governor of an
abuse of power, using a key law enforcement department as a political mouthpiece.

"The Missouri Highway Patrol is the state's lead law enforcement agency and should not be used by the governor for political
attacks," said Jack Cardetti, a spokesman for the Missouri Democratic Party.

Blunt's office denies such allegations, saying the governor wanted to make sure that accurate information about the Taum Sauk
investigation was shared with the public.

The documents, also obtained Thursday by the Post-Dispatch through an open records request, retrace how members of
Blunt's administration urged the patrol to issue a statement June 7 criticizing Nixon for not filing criminal charges in the
reservoir collapse. The December 2005 incident ravaged the Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, injuring the park superintendent and
his family. The reservoir is owned by Ameren Corp.

Nixon decided not to file criminal charges after the Highway Patrol's investigation concluded that there "is no suspect in this
investigation, at this point in time."

The e-mail correspondence suggests that the Blunt administration wanted the patrol to take a more critical view of Nixon and
his decision not to pursue a criminal case.

In one e-mail exchange, Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. James Keathley said Blunt's chief of staff, Ed Martin, wanted to
"chew on us for not getting this thing done to their expectations." The same e-mail suggests the governor's spokesman
believes the patrol was "soft on the message."

A day later, the patrol issued a statement suggesting that Nixon should have more aggressively pursued the case. The
statement takes Nixon to task for not asserting his subpoena power.

Rich Chrismer, Blunt's deputy chief of staff for communication, said in an interview Thursday that the statement was a
collaborative effort with the governor's office, but not the product of pressure from Blunt's staff. He said the goal of the
statement was to make it clear that Nixon still had the authority to pursue criminal prosecution.

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LOAD-DATE: July 20, 2007

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2007 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

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