A new ad targeting Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey from a group backing his rival in the GOP primary places the blame for the shooting death of a police officer last year on Bailey’s tenure as a local prosecutor. 

To deliver the message, the Defend Missouri PAC enlisted Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers, who Bailey is seeking to oust from office on allegations he allowed prisoners to leave jail and smuggle in drugs and alcohol on their return.

The ad garnered a sharp rebuke Friday from a pair of law enforcement organizations, who said it was exploitative of the officer’s death. 

At the heart of the issue is Bailey’s time working in the Warren County prosecutor’s office, where in the fall of 2017 he filed criminal charges against a man named Kenneth Lee Simpson. 

Simpson was no stranger to local law enforcement, having spent the better part of the previous decade in and out of jail on myriad felony and misdemeanor charges.

He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges filed by Bailey, with a different assistant prosecutor handling the case in 2018 when Simpson received six month sentences for fourth-degree assault and unlawful possession of a weapon.

Nearly seven years later, Bailey is Missouri’s attorney general and once again prosecuting Simpson. This time, it’s for the shooting death of Hermann Police Det. Sgt. Mason Griffith, who was killed last year while trying to arrest Simpson for outstanding warrants outside of a Casey’s General Store. 

Another officer was injured in the shooting.

The 30-second TV ad launched this week by Defend Missouri — a PAC formed to support the man challenging Bailey in the Aug. 6 primary, Will Scharf — focuses on those misdemeanor charges from 2017 and accuses Bailey of going easy on a “violent career felon.”

“The same felon Bailey slapped on the wrist allegedly used that wrist to shoot two cops,” Childers says in the ad. 

The Missouri Fraternal Order of Police and the Law Enforcement Legislative Coalition denounced the ad in similar statements released to the media on Friday, arguing it politicizes Griffith’s death and jeopardizes Bailey’s prosecution of Simpson.

“The ad demonstrates a complete and utter disregard for Dt. Sgt. Griffith’s family, including his wife and two young sons,” the FOP, which endorsed Bailey last year, said in its statement. “They have been through enough pain and trauma over the past year and should not be subjected to images of their loved one’s murderer on television.”

Both groups are calling for the ad to be taken off the air and for Scharf to apologize. 

Scharf, who is prohibited from coordinating with Defend Missouri on messaging or strategy, declined comment Friday afternoon. Kristen Sanocki, president of Defend Missouri, did not respond to a request for comment.

Bailey’s campaign called the ad a “last-ditch attempt to score cheap political points” that “demonstrates a complete disregard for the victims.”

“If Will Scharf truly supports law enforcement, he would demand the ad be taken down immediately and issue a personal apology to the families traumatized by these events,” said Michael Hafner, a spokesman for Bailey’s campaign. 

Missouri’s online court records system shows Simpson has faced criminal charges at least 20 times since 2004, when he turned 17. 

That year, Simpson faced 11 felonies after he drove a truck down while a friend shot a BB gun at car windows, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He received probation that was revoked months later when he shot out the window of Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy’s vehicle as it drove down the highway.

After Simpson’s 2023 arrest, the Post-Dispatch interviewed his neighbors, who were not surprised to find out about his involvement in the Hermann shooting. One told the newspaper: “He’s always had problems. That officer should not be dead.”

Kelly King, who served as Warren County prosecuting attorney starting in 2014, told the Post-Dispatch last year that Simpson even threatened to blow up her car.

King now serves as deputy attorney general under Bailey, overseeing the day-to-day management of the office and serving as senior advisor. 

After his 2023 arrest, Simpson told the police he was on the run for several warrants. When officers arrived at the Casey’s, Simpson said he believed he was going to die and decided to commit “suicide by cop,” according to the probable cause statement filed after his arrest. 

Simpson said he didn’t originally intend to kill anyone but himself. 

Ray County Sheriff

The anti-Bailey ad, which is airing on television around the state and was pushed out Friday evening through text message by Defend Missouri, is narrated by Childers. 

In March, Bailey filed a lawsuit seeking to remove Childers from office, alleging he unlawfully allowed prisoners to leave jail, perform work for friends and smuggle drugs, alcohol and other contraband into the jail. 

Childers is on paid administrative leave while the suit works through the courts. He has denied any wrongdoing, alleging in a court filing last month that Bailey’s efforts to oust him are retaliation for Childers threatening to go to the media with accusations the attorney general refused to take action on a sexual assault case.

There’s no mention of Childers’ legal tussle with Bailey in the ad, though he opens it by saying, “as Ray County sheriff, I worked with Andrew Bailey. I can tell you he’s no friend of law enforcement.”

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KFVS) – Missouri Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe hosted an event with first responders and supporters at the rodeo grounds in Sikeston as part of his statewide bus tour as he runs for Governor.

Kehoe is one of four Republicans facing off in the state’s August 6 primary. Three candidates are running on the Democratic side.

This week, Governor Mike Parson announced he’s backing Kehoe as his replacement. Kehoe says he’s in Sikeston to thank first responders for everything they do for the community.

”These are the men and ladies who are running into a situation when everybody else is running out,” said Kehoe. “They’re the ones that keep our community safe, they’re the ones that we rely on for that community safety so we’re just excited to be around them and visit with them. The best is tell them we appreciate them, we want to back the blue, we want to back the firemen, we want to make sure they understand that we value what they do for us.”

Kehoe’s will have a meet and greet on Saturday, July 20 at Center Street Station in Sikeston at 9:30 a.m.

The next stop will be in Cape Girardeau at the Port Cape Girardeau restaurant and lounge lunch meet and greet at noon.

The last stop will be in Perryville at Catalyst Center for business at 2 p.m.

Copyright 2024 KFVS. All rights reserved.

When Kansas City Chiefs president Mark Donovan opened his annual pre-training camp press conference at Missouri Western State University on Friday morning, he was facing a press gaggle that wanted answers about what the team intends to do about its home field — and they wanted those answers right now.

But in multiple responses to similar questions, Donovan said that while the team hasn’t yet decided what it will do, they’re working on figuring that out. In the meantime, there’s one thing that everyone can count on.

“It’s important for everybody to understand,” said Donovan, “that we are playing Kansas City Chiefs football home games — if [they’re] not international games — at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium through 2031. That is our plan; that is what we’re doing.”

After that, however, the picture gets much cloudier. After Kansas lawmakers passed their modified STAR bond proposal that would make it possible for the Chiefs (and possibly the Kansas City Royals) to build new stadiums on the other side of the state line, many fans (and media observers) concluded it was obvious the team would make that move — just because it would be easier to build a new, modern facility.

But Donovan isn’t convinced it’s that obvious.

”I don’t think there’s a simple path on either side,” he insisted. “There’s a lot of work to be done on Kansas to see what the reality of that is. We don’t take that for granted.

“It was amazing what Kansas did. It was good to see. We really appreciate the leadership [from] Ty Masterson, Dan Hawkins, the various people [and] the governor in putting that together. That’s the first step.

“[But] once you get through that, it gets really complicated in how you do that. For us, the good news is that it creates more options.”

Donovan acknowledged that the team is engaged in stadium discussions with Kansas officials. But the team isn’t yet giving up on staying home.

“We continue our discussions with the folks in Missouri,” he said. “Talking to various leaders, there seem to be other options that are coming up now on the Missouri side. So we appreciate that — and it’s consistent with our strategy: if [the April proposal didn’t work], which was our plan, then we’ve got to look at options. And now we’ll have a couple of options to look at.”

Donovan believes that any Missouri solution would eventually come to a public vote. But until that state’s primary elections happen in early August, it will be difficult for state (or county) officials to estimate 2025’s political landscape. That would significantly shape any proposal that would come to a vote in… say… November.

If there is another Missouri vote, Donovan says the proposal will only include the Chiefs — and voters will have a clearer picture of what is on the table.

“We have committed that if we go to a public vote, we’ll do it in a way which is much more ‘final’ before we get to the vote,” he promised. “We’ll have a lot of the facts. We’ll have a lot of the details determined before we go. I think it’s important to acknowledge that we’d have to have agreements on the county side — and have support, frankly, from the county.”

How soon will we know the team’s plans? That’s very hard to calculate.

“We have to have somewhere to play our games for the 2031 season,” explained Donovan. “In order to do that, you’ve got to back up from there. When do you start planning? When do you start building? How do you renovate — or build new? If you’re renovating it, how are you doing it over seasons while you’re still playing there? A lot of those factors play into that.

“That goes back to the option point. We need to have options, we need to have those options to a point of definition to be able to make a decision. So that’s the process we’re in right now.”

So when will that decision point be upon us?

“I think six months from today, we’re going to have a really good idea of where we are,” said Donovan. “We may not be done, but we need to have a really good idea.

”When you’re building a new stadium, there’s a lot more lead time than when you’re renovating. So that’s why that timeline is a little bit longer — and will push us a little bit faster to make a decision. That timeline kind of plays into the Missouri timeline as well. So if we’re on that timeline, we need to make a decision — so Missouri sort of needs to play to that timeline.”

Stay tuned.