BEAT BYTES -- 1/9/09: Candidate Countdown
1) School Board Candidates May Have Legal Troubles
2) Reporter/Blogger Heavin Closes "Class Notes"
3) Lange Teacher/Incumbent Hoppe only filers for City Council
4) Math advocate, former board president, financial consultant file for School Board
1) School Board Candidates May Have Legal Troubles
COLUMBIA, 1/9/09 (Beat Byte) -- The two newest candidates for the Columbia Public Schools board of education may have -- or have had -- some recent local legal troubles, according to court records on file at Casenet and the Columbia Tribune archives.
Adam D. Sorg, 30, variously of 3615 Prescott Dr. and 8 N. Keene Street in Columbia, recently faced Boone County Circuit Court civil lawsuits from four different creditors, including Joe Machens Ford. Finding him to serve court papers has been akin to finding Waldo -- not easy.
Jerry Thomas Taylor, 37, of 1415 West Georgetown Loop in Columbia, did two years of supervised probation for a repeat offense of driving while intoxicated in 2004. Taylor was also given a suspended sentence of one year in the Boone County Jail in addition to home detention. During his probation/detention, Taylor was ordered not to "operate a motor vehicle from 11/23/04 to 11/23/06 unless it is equipped with a functioning ignition interlock device."
Cavalry SPV, a nationwide bad debt collector, has had so much trouble serving papers on Sorg at the address he reported on his candidacy filing -- 3615 Prescott -- they've filed papers in Boone County Circuit Court declaring "NO ONE EVER HOME" and finally, on 10/8/2008 defendant "MOVED" and "NO LONGER LIVES THERE."
Other creditors bearing lawsuits aren't having much luck at Sorg's Keene Street address, either. Trying to serve papers on him for LVNV FUNDING LLC/SEARS/CITIBANK, the Boone County Sheriff reported that Sorg was NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS in September of last year.
Process servers on behalf of New York City's Erin Capital Management declared BAD ADDRESS--EVICTED on their court filings in November, for a case that was actually dismissed and then re-filed this past summer over failure to find Sorg to serve papers.
Sorg has also faced a number of misdemeanors and traffic violations over the past three years, including three times failing to register his vehicle and failure to wear a seat belt.
Earlier declaring that he had "come out of retirement" as a paranormal investigator in Columbia, Sorg can be found on the Web. He maintains two websites:
http://www.adamsorg.freewebspace.com/
http://www.4stateexplorers.freewebspace.com/
RELATED:
Casenet
https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/base/welcome.do
School Board Candidates
http://www.columbia.k12.mo.us/boardcan.php
[Ed. Note: Jerry Thomas Taylor, II sent the following note:
From: JThomas Taylor II
While I know that court records are public domain and my case is public knowledge I do not appreciate that you publicly post my court records to a forum for something that I am not running for. My father Jerry T Taylor not me Jerry T Taylor II, was running for the school board position not me. You need to do better research into who is actually running for these positions before posting their information into a public forum like this. I would appreciate if you would remove this information from your forum and print a retraction stating that the information was false for the candidate who is actually running. I would also like to have a confirmation that you have received this email.
Thank you
Jerry T Taylor II
Our response:
Mr. Taylor:
If your father's name is Jerry Thomas Taylor, as you've said below, that's the name the records report -- not Jerry Thomas Taylor II or Jerry Thomas Taylor, Jr.
http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2004/aug/20040809fort001.asp
Jerry Thomas Taylor, 33, of 1415 West Georgetown Loop, second offense of
driving while intoxicated, $500 bond.
The court records, the Trib articles, and the candidacy filing make no distinction (Jr. Sr. II, III, etc.), even though I see you make it in your name and email address, so you must consider it important. What's really at issue here is inaccurate or incomplete public records, not an article about those records.
Our article also says MAY have legal problems in two places -- a strong qualifier. It gives the age of the person involved, which from what you are saying, would rule out your father. It also gives links to the relevant records, so that people can check for themselves.
School board is a highly public position and there's a lot of scrutiny. Distinctions in a name like you've explained here are extremely important to add to a candidacy filing, especially with two adult Jerry Thomas Taylors residing at the very same address. What's more, all of this information would have been made public during the campaign, and it's probably better that it was made public earlier rather than later. What candidate's children do with respect to the law, especially as adults residing at the same address, is absolutely relevant to a campaign for public office, especially a public office like the school board, and especially a school board like this one, which has had issues with candidates and the law in the past and currently has other management problems.
I'm happy to print the information you've sent. You may also want to get public records and any other public information corrected so that the two of you are not confused. I've put the cases that came up with Jerry Taylor or Jerry T. Taylor residing at 1415 West Georgetown Loop
below.
Best,
Mike
TAYLOR, JERRY T 04CR169137 Defendant ST V JERRY T TAYLOR Criminal/Infract.-see Charges 08/20/2004
COLUMBIA, MO Circuit 13 Boone Circuit Division 60424082
TAYLOR, JERRY T 06BA-CV05009 Defendant A F S V JERRY T TAYLOR AC Breach of Contract 12/08/2006
COLUMBIA, MO Circuit 13 Boone Circuit Division
TAYLOR, JERRY 05BA-CV01127 Defendant COLONIAL CREDIT CORP V JERRY TAYLOR AC Suit on Account 03/21/2005
COLUMBIA, MO Circuit 13 Boone Circuit Division
Jerry Thomas Taylor has since withdrawn his candidacy from the school board.
2) Reporter/Blogger Heavin Closes "Class Notes"
COLUMBIA, 1/9/09 (Beat Byte) -- Columbia Daily Tribune reporter Janese Heavin, who with school board president Michelle Gadbois helped change a decades-long course of debate over CPS school district affairs, has closed her famous blog "Class Notes," to replace former state politics reporter Jason Rosenbaum. Recent MU journalism school graduate Jonathon Braden is taking Heavin's place with a new blog called "Homeroom."
Beloved by her readers but sometimes harshly criticized by her subjects, Heavin opened up the closed corridors of 1818 West Worley Street -- CPS HQ -- for a public audience that for years had been relegated to also-ran status in the world of district politics. Under her reporting, the ongoing struggle between elected volunteer and paid administrator played out as both delicious reality show and community-wide wake up call, heralding a new era of accountability and a new-found sense of public empowerment.
Heavin's blog, Class Notes, became not only a forum for open and often heated debate on all manner of district issues, but also a kind of virtual amphitheatre, by turns brilliantly insightful and subtly tragic, as when dozens of young African Americans, in a unique but isolated lexicon, mourned the senseless 2007 murder of 17 year old Tedarrian Robinson.
In a classic short story about 14 year old Philip Sadler (PS) Wilkinson, punished for cheating on a critical Latin exam, writer CDB Bryan saw in the world "So much unfairness of things." It seems unfair that such a good thing as Class Notes has to end, but in its relatively brief life, it helped a reporter with moxie make some things just a little more fair.
RELATED:
http://blogs.columbiatribune.com/education/2007/04/school_lockdowns.html
3) Lange Teacher/Incumbent Hoppe only filers for Columbia Council
COLUMBIA, 1/9/09 (Beat Byte) -- Sixth Ward city councilperson Barb Hoppe, who won her 2006 seat by a relative landslide, remains the only person to file for the April 2009 city council election in her ward. Several sources have told the Columbia Heart Beat that Hoppe remains a "popular councilperson" who has "worked hard and consistently" on behalf of her constituents. "She would be hard to beat."
Allan Sharrock, an industrial arts teacher at Lange Middle School and Missouri National Guardsman, has filed to replace Second Ward councilman Chris Janku, who announced he's stepping down at the end of a two decade council career. Sharrock, a frequent and outspoken blogger at the Columbia Missourian website, told reporters that public safety and tax-dollar accountability are two important issues.
In a case that could actually be a boon to his candidacy, Sharrock was fined $56.00 twelve years ago for "Operating an All-Terrain Vehicle Within A Stream Or River." (But wait: Isn't that what ATV's are for?)
RELATED:
Service draws guardsman into council race
http://columbiatribune.com/2009/jan/20090106news013.asp
For soldier, water was toughest foe
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Jul/20080718News004.asp
Allan Sharrock Blogs at the Missourian
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/accounts/profiles/allanme79/
4) Math advocate, former board president, financial consultant file for School Board
COLUMBIA, 1/9/09 (Beat Byte) -- Michelle Pruitt, a well-known advocate for traditional public school math who works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, filed for the school board last week, following Jeannine Craig, who served as a school board president in Illinois. Dan Holt, a financial consultant whose wife teaches math at Rock Bridge High School, filed this week.
Pruitt and Craig told reporters they do not support an April levy proposal, Pruitt expressing concerns about district accountability and Craig, a retiree, expressing concerns about taxpayer affordability.
Holt told Trib reporters he supports the levy, "and is looking forward to improving the ongoing math curriculum debate. Holt thinks there needs to be some curriculum changes but said he plans to 'lean on the people with the expertise.'"
RELATED:
Finance consultant files for board of education
http://columbiatribune.com/2009/jan/20090108news002.asp
Math program critic files for school board
http://columbiatribune.com/2008/dec/20081231news051.asp
Former Illinois board president files for school board
http://columbiatribune.com/2008/dec/20081230news002.asp
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