Wellston, a speck of a city in north St. Louis County, has bungled court records for years and mismanaged thousands of dollars, including fees that were supposed to go to a domestic violence shelter but never did, according to a new audit.The review of the city's one-judge municipal court found "widespread problems," says Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway, who rated the court's performance as "poor"— the worst distinction her office makes.
"We found widespread problems that directly impact citizens and do require immediate action," Galloway told reporters today.
The court's record-keeping was so bad that state investigators found that 90 percent of the paper case files didn't match what clerks had entered into the computer system. The judge and prosecutor often didn't sign off on cases, and auditors found 21,000 active warrants that should have been recalled as part of statewide court reform but weren't, leaving people vulnerable to mistaken arrests, Galloway says.
"These warrants are not just numbers on paper," Galloway says.…
