I wasn’t monitoring The Star’s website closely this morning, so instead of learning about Missouri House Speaker John Diehl’s sexual indiscretions from reporter Jason Hancock’s online story, a friend told me as we were driving to Bryant’s for lunch.
One of my first thoughts — besides what a fool John Diehl must be — was that Diehl is the third Missouri House speaker to lose his reputation in the last 20 years, either because he was on the take or couldn’t control his sexual predilections.
Speakers before him who took deep dives into shallow water were Rod Jetton (another Republican) in 2009 and Bob Griffin, a Democrat, in the 1990s. ** In case you haven’t read the Diehl story and would like to, click here.
Diehl
The gist of it is Diehl, a 49-year-old Republican from St. Louis County, took up with a Missouri Capitol intern who’s finishing her freshman year at Missouri Southern University. Missouri Southern recently shut down the intern program a month before it was scheduled to end and pulled its four interns out of the Capitol.
One of the most disturbing parts of this story is that Diehl is married and has three sons, whose ages I wasn’t able to find.
In any event, it’s extremely disappointing that three House speakers in recent memory have been brought down by thievery and indiscretion. In 2011, Jetton pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor assault after admitting he struck a woman in the face and choked her before and during sex at her Sikeston home in November 2009.
Jetton
According to reports, the two had agreed to use a “safeword” (green balloons) if the sex got too rough. Hours after the incident, Jetton allegedly told the woman, “You should have said ‘green balloons.’ “
The woman, who reported the incident two days later, said she had drunk a glass of wine Jetton had prepared for her and then began ‘fading’ in and out. She lost consciousness several times.
A judge placed Jetton on probation and ordered him to pay $950 restitution to the victim.
Then there was Griffin, speaker from 1981 to 1995. During the early 90s, it was well known by many in Jefferson City that when Griffin was approached by people seeking favors or contracts, he referred them to a consultant friend named Cathryn Simmons. If the solicitors followed his recommendations and hired Simmons, they could expect to get what they wanted. And Griffin was making out because he was taking kickbacks from Simmons.
In October, 1996, less than a year after leaving office and returning to his home in Cameron, a grand jury indicted Griffin on six charges of bribery, two of mail fraud one of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly known as RICO.
In the first trial, a jury cleared him of three charges and could not reach a verdict on six others, including the RICO count. In the second trial, Simmons testified against him, and on the second day of the trial Griffin pled guilty to a count of bribery and a count of mail fraud.
In December 1997, he was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $7,500.
On Jan. 20, 2001, however, Griffin got a break: On his way out the door of the White House, President Bill Clinton pardoned 140 criminals. Griffin was among them.
**
With headline-grabbing cases like those, it’s little wonder why many people view all politicians as crooks or people who are motivated by power and prestige.
So, why does Missouri seem to have more than its fair share of these slimy characters? I don’t have the answer, but, at the same time, I don’t think it’s entirely coincidental that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has on its website today a story bearing this headline: “Free food fills Missouri Capitol’s hallways as ethics bill dies.”
The story, by longtime P-D political reporter Virginia Young, began with her reporting that legislators, lobbyists and others queued up for a Gates Bar-B-Q lunch Tuesday outside the office of state Sen. Kiki Curls of Kansas City.
While the legislators were living it up, an ethics bill that includes limits on lobbyists’ gifts was dying in the closing days of the legislative session. Young’s story included a quote from none other than Diehl, who claims he supports the bill. Diehl told Young that the measure, if it became law, would “get rid of the excesses.”
…I had to hit the pause button there for a few seconds to fully absorb the irony.
Clearly, Missouri legislators are very accustomed to their excesses and aren’t about to give them up. And isn’t it likely that because gifts, junkets, meals and tickets to sporting and other entertainment events rain down on them that some feel they can reach with impunity for just about anything they fancy, including nubile college freshmen?
It looks like simple addition to me.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
One of the reasons Griffin went to the pen is because of the last time the legislature voted to raise taxes for roads was 1992 and I and others were attempting to get state funding of transit as part of the package.
To try and advance our cause, transit interests decided to make our case with the speaker of the house Bob Griffin. Don Morrison, a former TWA lobbyist, set up the meeting. It was scheduled for a Thursday, at the end of the legislative week, in the Speaker’s Office on the third floor of the capital. Among those attending in addition to myself and Morrison, was Jack Leary, executive director of Bi-State at the time; Sterling Adams, Bi-State’s lobbyist at the time; and Dick Davis, executive director of the Kansas City Area Transit Authority and now a member of the Kansas City Council.
The Speaker listened to our arguments for inclusion and we felt was sympathetic to what we had to say and the logic of Missouri addressing all transportation needs in one bill. We felt good about the meeting. He said to check back with him the following week.
When we checked back, his answer was no.
Years later the reason for Speaker Griffin’s change of heart about transit became clear. Soon after we met with him, he arranged for the heavy contractors to hire a lobbyist, Cathryn Simmons, to lobby for the six-cent gas tax for roads. She would later testify in federal court that she gave Griffin a kickback from her fee from the contractors. Griffin would go to the federal penitentiary as you outlined.
Were you trying to get funding for the St. Louis MetroLink? So, roads got funding at that point but rapid transit in St. Louis did not?
If that’s the case, what an appalling state of affairs — millions of dollars in state funding and huge projects on the line, and all decided based on hiring the right lobbyist.
What a shithead Griffin was…I remember once when our mutual friend, lobbyist Harry Hill, told me that a similar thing happened with the Missouri Arts Council’s request for more funds for some project and Griffin tried to shake their reps down. Even though I wasn’t covering state government (never did, actually), I made a call to a council executive and he or she put me off. By the halting, equivocal response, I was pretty sure Harry was right.
I am not sure if Simmons said “kickback”. She was convicted, by herself, out of the four named in the first RICO suit. She was convicted because her late daughter wrote “legal fees” in the memo line on the Quicken bookkeeping ledger.
Note: It IS legal to pay legal fees to an attorney to advise a company doing business in the state of Missouri.
The RICO charge was a preposterous legal plan in the first place. Missouri was one of the very few states that still had a RICO statute on the books. (It was there to entrap Mafioso.)
And the rules for filing a RICO charge were a bit like playing bridge–it took four to “make a case”. So they were after Griffin all along. And to get him, they named Simmons, her boyfriend at the time, union organizer Mike Fisher–and then being absolutely desperate for a ‘fourth for bridge”, they named Steve xxxxx, who was a lobbyist for the public schools, for heaven’s sake. Of course they dropped the suit against him as soon as they could. Later the prosecutor admitted, Steve xxxx was ONLY named so they could file under the RICO statutes.
Many believed, Simmons had the worst legal counsel, because the big boys all lawyered up faster than she did, with far more money. They each needed a separate defense counsel. So the only counsel left was not exactly Alan Dershowitz or Robert Shapiro.
I attended the sentencing at first trial. Only Simmons was convicted. In the hallway afterward, the media polled the jury, and the forewoman was a platinum blonde with a beehive hairdo. Her quote was, (and I was gobsmacked when I saw it on Channel 9 and Ch. 5, was: “We didn’t believe a thing she said on the stand.” The problem was, Simmons never TOOK the stand in that trial!!! So much for the impartiality and smarts of the American pool of jurors.
The 2nd trial, they went after Griffin again, since he was the big fish and the original target. And yes, with Simmons forced to testify against Griffin, he was convicted for 4 years. (But I still don’t believe the word kickback was used.) Two years later, when Clinton pardoned Griffin, it was based on “my wife is dying of cancer, and I need to go home and take care of her.” Oh, brother. What’s next? The dog ate my homework??
So Griffin, as I recall, served 2 years out of a 4 year sentence. Mike Fisher served one or two months shy of 4 years. And it was only Cathryn Simmons who served 4 years and 9 months in the same prison in West Virginia where Martha Stewart went: Alderson.
Oh yeah, even more punitively, the state made Simmons sell her condo in the garment district–to pay for housing her in Alderson!!! That is very rare. She was homeless when she got out.
Many claim, the real reason the judge was so tough on Simmons and her sentence was punishment not for hiring Bob Griffin, but because she almost singlehandedly kept the right to an abortion legal in the state of Missouri for 12 years. The judge, from Springfield, was a rabid Right to Life advocate.
That Griffin trial was incredible. As you say, Simmons was convicted, and so was former Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO president Mike Fisher (a former KC firefighter, by the way), who was having an affair with Simmons. Money and sex…the whole magilla.
A Terry Ganey (Post-Dispatch) story said:
“Simmons, 51, and Fisher, 40, were accused of using Griffin’s power as speaker to obtain lucrative political consulting contracts and kicking back some of the money from the contracts to Griffin in the form of bribes.
“Fisher…was found guilty on four charges of racketeering, bribery and fraud. The bribery charge involved $41,000 paid to Griffin in connection with the health care reform legislation…
“The jury found Simmons guilty on 18 of 20 charges involving racketeering, paying $51,000 in bribes to Griffin and $91,000 in bribes to Richard “Rick” Moore, a former member of the Clay County commission.
“Moore, a former associate of Simmons, was a key government witness who earlier had pleaded guilty to federal charges. He testified in the trial in hopes of getting a lighter sentence.”
We both remember Moore very well — good-looking guy, seemed to be smart and have the world at his fingertips..Just another crook, though.
Jim, we were trying to get a small sales tax for transit statewide. KCATA would have benefited as well as OATS, St. Joe Transit, St. Louis Metro and others across the state.
Tracy Thomas. Steve Carroll?
No, I can’t recall–it was someone who went on to represent something like the Chamber or the library. Also, since he was obviously cleared of all charges, I am reluctant to name him, when I do recall–no need to bring up such a painful and expensive saga.
As for Rick Moore, he used to be married to Jeannie Moore, a lovely gal.Like a homecoming queen type. I seem to recall she worked for Bill Cason, who was Missouri State Senator. So could that have been the reason Moore was given such largesse? He didn’t have the schwing, but could his wife’s boss been the beneficiary??
Absolutely power corrupts absolutely.
I went to high school with Rod Jetton. I was surprised at his downfall.
But I think he’s doing well now:
http://www.abcstlouis.com/news/features/allman-report/stories/Pressures-of-Politics-A-First-Hand-Account-116571.shtml#.VTFtRiHBzRZhttp://www.abcstlouis.com/news/features/allman-report/stories/Pressures-of-Politics-A-First-Hand-Account-116571.shtml%23.VTFtRiHBzRZ
That’s an excellent update on Jetton, Kate. I hope a lot of our readers will listen to that interview…You’re right: It sounds like he’s turned the page and has moved into a new, healthy phase of life. It shows personal redemption is always possible.
OK, Fitz…now please remember that when doing future updates on the Coppinger son, personal redemption is always possible.
Of course, generalizations always fall apart.
For example, re Bishop Finn, not so much. I think he burned the last bridge to hell. …after he went there. After all, redemption was his daily business, his full time career. Bishop Finn was the Captain of that Industry.
You make me smile, Tracy…I feel sorry for Virginia and Tom Coppinger, and like you I hope Tim finds his way off the wayward path. I’m sure his parents are offering some sound advice.
…And, yes, I don’t think Finn is going to change his ways; he’s far too headstrong. “I’m right; I’m right; I know I’m right. So there.”