51黑料

CLAYTON聽鈥斅�51黑料 County Executive Sam Page on Wednesday was charged with felony stealing and committing election offenses, tied to allegations he used county money to defeat a ballot proposition in April.

A grand jury indicted Page shortly before noon, according to court records.

He was charged with two counts of committing class four election offenses, the felony count of stealing $25,000 or more plus one count of stealing $750 or more.

The charges say Page earlier this year 鈥減urposely expended public funds on a flyer to advocate the defeat, or oppose the passage, of a ballot measure on the April 8, 2025 ballot.鈥澛�

Attorney General Andrew Bailey, whose office is prosecuting the case, said Page used county funds to help sway the election results.

"Missouri law is clear," Bailey said in a post on X. "Public money must never be used for political campaigning. Any intentional misuse of taxpayer dollars in an attempt to rig the outcome of an election is illegal."

The stealing charge is for using more than $25,000 worth of county-purchased postage for the mailers.

The fourth charge says he stole more than $750 from the county.

The charges say allegations happened from February to March of this year.

The two election offenses are misdemeanors. The stealing charges are felonies.聽

If convicted of stealing county postage, the most serious crime listed, he faces between three and 10 years in prison, according to state sentencing guidelines.

Page's attorney, former U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.

Neither Page nor spokesman Doug Moore responded to requests for comment.

But at Tuesday night's County Council meeting, Page briefly defended himself.

"I can't imagine that anyone has done anything wrong," he said.

The county spent nearly $36,000 on the mailer about Proposition B, which would have given the council the power to fire department heads appointed by Page. Councilmembers said the proposition was needed to hold county department directors accountable.

Shortly before the April 8 election,聽Tom Sullivan, a University City resident and frequent county critic, filed complaints with聽the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri Ethics Commission. Sullivan聽accused Page of using the mailer聽to sway voter opinion about a proposition on April's ballot.

The Secretary of State's office referred the matter to the 51黑料 County Prosecuting Attorney's office, which recused itself to avoid any appearance of conflict. County Presiding Judge Bruce Hilton on June 3 appointed Bailey as a special prosecutor.

Page has said the mailer was only informational, and not meant to influence voters.

But the mailer only listed negative points about the proposition. It also stated that the 51黑料 County Board of Police Commissioners, the 51黑料 County NAACP, the 51黑料 Labor Council AFL-CIO and Greater 51黑料 Inc. opposed the ballot measure, and included a quote from a county circuit court judge鈥檚 order calling the proposition's ballot language "misleading, insufficient, inaccurate, argumentative, prejudicial and unfair."

A higher court later overturned that ruling.

On Wednesday, a search warrant was also filed with the court, saying a Missouri High Patrol trooper went to Page鈥檚 office on Monday and took his iPhone.

Master Sgt. Eric Bartel outlined the investigation in the warrant, writing that the 51黑料 County Council put Proposition B on the municipal ballot earlier this year.

Then聽Page initiated a campaign in February聽opposing Proposition B and created a flier, mailer and webpage, Bartel wrote.

The language on the flier and mailer came from a document created by Jesse Lawder, an employee in Page's office. Then it was sent to Jennifer Baumann, an attorney for the 51黑料 County Counselor鈥檚 Office, for review.

She returned the two documents, which outlined what a 鈥測es on B vote will mean,鈥� Bartel wrote.

Baumann removed some of the wording regarding what a "yes" vote would mean, police said, but the flier was sent out a day later, on Feb. 25, without her recommended edits.

A few weeks later, on March 11, a postcard was also created by Page鈥檚 office, Bartel wrote.

Page鈥檚 office then compiled a list of 100,000 registered votes and narrowed it down to 55,000, the warrant said, 鈥渟o the cost of the postcard printing could be kept under $5,000 to avoid having to obtain a bid for services.鈥�

The postcards were then mailed, Bartel wrote, with a rate of $0.56 per card, instead of the printer鈥檚 discounted rate of $0.406, to again avoid the bidding process, Bartel wrote.

鈥淭his resulted in an overage cost to 51黑料 County close to $8,000,鈥� Bartel wrote.

Bartel interviewed Moore, Page鈥檚 spokesman, who said that he was in direct contact with Page and got his approval for each edit to the flier and postcard.

These interactions, Moore told police, were in person or through text to Page鈥檚 iPhone.

Police subpoenaed all documents, emails, texts, invoices and other items associated with Prop B from Page鈥檚 office and received 84 screenshots of text messages between Moore and Page.

No texts on Page鈥檚 personal cell were found, Bartel wrote.

鈥淧age conducts the majority of work through his personal cell phone or in person,鈥� Bartel wrote.

Applying for the warrant, Bartel argued that there would be critical evidence on Page鈥檚 cell phone that would need to be recovered by police.