It’s October. The air is cool, the leaves are crisp, and the children are looking forward to Halloween. With luck, we can all enjoy hayrides, carving pumpkins, spooky ghost stories, and the thrills of a local haunted house.
But this week, a truly scary story appeared in the press about the ownership of the new haunted house in St. Peters —The House of Terror. Reportedly, this enterprise is owned by a motley crew that includes St. Peters Mayor Shawn Brown. Sit back dear readers and listen to the story of Shawn’s Haunted House of Fraud…
Not so long ago, on a dark and creepy night, Shawn Brown and his partners decided to cash in on the innocence of Halloween. This unholy trio decided to use an empty building in St. Peters to create a haunted house. Shawn, in appropriately Halloween deviousness, decided that he should be the silent, “ghostly” partner. How nice. How neat. How fraudulent.
One of Shawn’s cohorts went before the St. Peters Planning and Zoning Commission to obtain permission for the haunted house. His partner claimed that the proceeds of the haunted house would go to charity. But he neglected to mention that the business had been set up as a business for profit, not a not-for-profit. The owners, including Shawn, get to keep the money. How nice. How neat. How fraudulent.
Shawn sits on the Planning and Zoning Commission. He has a vote. But Shawn can’t legally vote on something he owns. So Shawn abstained. But he lied about why he had to abstain. He never mentioned that he owned part of the business. Instead, he said he was abstaining because the proceeds from the business would be going to two charities with which he was involved. How nice. How neat. How fraudulent.
Apparently, after the permit was secured and the House of Fraud came into being, Shawn quietly traveled about town to herald this wonderful “charitable” cause. Ever so quietly, like a ghost in a graveyard, Shawn promoted his latest business venture as Mayor without mentioning that he owned it. How nice. How neat. How fraudulent.
This past weekend, we learned that one of Shawn’s partners in the House of Fraud is a convicted thief. Because of another business deal that did not go so well, he has been ordered to pay $14,000 in restitution by December 31st. Maybe he can use the profits from the House of Fraud to cover it. How nice. How neat. How fraudulent.
We also learned that in an effort to be the “ghostly” partner of this House of Fraud, Shawn lied on a government form. When he filed the form to start his business, he used a Monroe City address. The address he used was fictitious. And according to the Secretary of State’s office, because the form was signed under penalty of perjury, lying on the form is a felony. How nice. How neat. How fraudulent.
But a clever reporter uncovered the scam. When the reporter asked Shawn why he had put a false address on the form, he said that “nobody needed to know it was the Mayor.” How nice. How neat. How fraudulent.
Shawn is trying to act like this is just a “little mistake.” After all, he has gotten away with a remarkable number of “little mistakes.” He just didn’t know any better.
Remember the “little mistake” he made when he forgot to pay his property taxes and got kicked off the ballot during his run for Mayor. Even though the St. Charles Court and the Court of Appeals said that Missouri law clearly requires you to pay your taxes to run for office, the Missouri Supreme Court forgave little Shawn and ordered him put back on the ballot. He just didn’t know any better.
Remember the “little mistake” he made during the campaign when he forgot about his outstanding arrest warrant for filing a false police report. But that was old. No reason to hold that against little Shawn. He just didn’t know any better.
Remember the “little mistake” he made in using his city office to run his re-election campaign fundraising operation. But the press quickly forgave little Shawn—it was just a paperwork thing. He just didn’t know any better.
How many “little mistakes” with the law does Shawn get to make before we all stop forgiving them as just “little mistakes?”
Perhaps our favorite ghoul, Glenn Jamboretz can spin little Shawn’s latest “little mistake.” After all, as the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance’s political spin wizard, he has saved little Shawn before. And Ghoulish Glenn knows something about setting up sham businesses to defraud taxpayers. He might be the right ogre for the job. But as this paper showed last week, he has made a few “little mistakes” with his own paperwork.
And this time, little Shawn has admitted that he made his “little mistake” because he wanted to hide that he owned the haunted house: “nobody needed to know it was the Mayor.” Prosecutors call that evidence of “intent.” (Okay, maybe I watch too much Law and Order.)
Perhaps our county prosecutor, Jack Banas, will look into this messy witches brew and seek the truth. But he recently closed an investigation against little Shawn about his business dealings with a local builder. However, our esteemed county prosecutor may be “duck” blind: he concluded that the home builder in question made no donations to Shawn’s campaign. He apparently chose to ignore that company’s big contribution to little Shawn’s illegal little PAC.
Dear readers, this Halloween please be careful in our dark political woods. And I humbly suggest that to avoid sleeplessness and nightmares, you steer clear of Shawn’s Haunted House of Fraud. Take the kiddies to the Haunted Hotel in St. Charles instead. It is open and actually run by a not-for-profit. Let Mayor Shawn “Trick or Treat” some other poor soul.
