BOLLINGER COUNTY LAW OFFICIALS AT ODDS; SHERIFF, PROSECUTOR SWAP ACCUSATIONS

MARBLE HILL - The sheriff and prosecuting attorney are at odds in Bollinger County, with each accusing the other of trying to undermine the other's authority, spreading rumors, and having a negative impact on law enforcement in the county.

The prosecutor, Paul Hahn, is a native of Bollinger County and was elected prosecutor in 1986 and re-elected without opposition in 1990. The sheriff, Dan Mesey, moved to the county about five years ago to retire with his family after completing a 23-year career as a police officer, primarily in the St. Louis area. He won a special election for sheriff in the spring of 1991.

Hahn viewed his election as prosecutor as an opportunity to settle down in his home county. "I love Bollinger County and feel fortunate to be able to be here and practice law and be prosecutor in my home county," said Hahn, who lives on a farm that has been in his family for several generations.

Mesey looked to Bollinger County as a retreat from the big city and problems with drugs and crime that he had encountered during his law enforcement career.

But Mesey has viewed with alarm some of the problems in his adopted county. He recalls how he was stunned to see members of the Saddle Tramp and Pharaohs motorcycle gangs - known for selling drugs - ride through Marble Hill.

"The very thing I left St. Louis thinking my family would be immune from," said Mesey. "Somebody has got to protect what we've got. I'm like a mother hen, really. I want to protect the county. A lot of people never see how much drugs can deteriorate a county."

Both Hahn and Mesey express frustration and admit their relationship is strained and lacking in trust.

"Our relationship is one of business," said Mesey, who claims he is being victimized by coffee shop rumors. "I can either keep my mouth shut and do my job, or sit in the coffee shops, run off my mouth and become ineffective to serve.

"It's not my personality to be one of the guys ... I don't go in coffee shops to tell them what a nice guy I am."

Hahn makes it clear that he does not trust the sheriff and fears Mesey will do anything to make him look bad.

"The last two years in office have been far more difficult than the first four," said Hahn. "The price to me and my family has not been worth it since Dan's been in office.

"There is no question that he wants me out of this job," said Hahn. "He hates me so much I don't trust him."

But Hahn adds: "I don't hate him."

Hahn says he has had a great relationship with other law enforcement agencies, like the Missouri State Highway Patrol. "The problem I have had as prosecutor is unique to Dan Mesey," he remarked.

Mesey describes Hahn as an "intelligent man, a good man ... He was raised and grew up in Bollinger County. He has not had the same life experience that I have had."

The sheriff says he has been surprised by the rumors that have haunted him since coming to Bollinger County.

"I wasn't talked bad about until I came here. Once you become a public official it's like everyone has a license to lie about you and say what they want.

"In St. Louis, I was always treated with respect and integrity."

To counteract rumors, Mesey has been confronting people to ask where they got their information. Mesey said when he asks who has been spreading the information, he is told "`they are' ... but nobody knows who `they' are."

Mesey has run ads in the local newspaper encouraging citizens to come to his office or call him about rumors so he can give them the true story. "I want them to say: `Dan, I heard this about you and want to know what is going on,' but they just don't do that."

Hahn contends the biggest rumor of all is being spread by Mesey. Hahn is outraged because the sheriff has accused him of attempting to steal a log book from the sheriff's office on July 25.

"I was shocked when I heard the next day he was making this allegation," said Hahn. "I did nothing that would even remotely resemble trying to take a log book out of his office. It is unfair for him to allege that and for people under his thumb to say that.

"It is an absolute falsehood that I tried to take the log book."

As a result of the incident, Mesey has barred Hahn and Dennis Willis, a Marble Hill police officer who was with Hahn that night, from everywhere but the lobby area of his office.

Mesey said he has documentation from a dispatcher and a jail trustee that Hahn put the book in a folder and attempted to walk out of the office with it. Mesey said he had each person make statements and also had them interviewed by Marble Hill Police Chief Gary Shrum and Circuit Judge Steve Limbaugh Jr.

The spiral notebook, referred to as the "kicker book," is what a dispatcher uses to convey happenings on their watch to the person taking over the next watch.

Mesey acknowledged that Hahn has denied the charge and that he may have a "logical explanation for his actions."

However, the sheriff noted: "It wasn't me who went to his office at midnight - it wasn't me who ended up with one of his record books in my hands."

Based on the accounts of his two witnesses, Mesey is convinced Hahn tried to steal the book. "He had the book in his physical possession; the reason I don't know. There is nothing in that book that is damaging to him or us."

Hahn takes issue with the sheriff's characterization of him lurking around the office after midnight. The prosecutor said the only reason he was there was at the request of a dispatcher, Alan Baker, who suggested as he was ending his shift, that Hahn might want to come in and charge a DWI suspect that a patrolman brought in.

"I was doing my job at the request of one of his dispatchers," said Hahn.

The prosecutor explained that he had been out of town that Saturday at a wedding and arrived back in Marble Hill around midnight. Hahn said he had not checked in for about 10 hours, so when he saw Willis parked in his patrol car, he pulled over to talk with him. He told his wife to go on home and that he would have the officer take him home later.

Willis got a call to the sheriff's office and Hahn rode with him. Baker saw Hahn and told him about the DWI.

While making a copy of the DWI charge in the sheriff's office, Hahn said he noticed the log book and saw his name in it. Hahn said he copied the page in the book, just a few feet from where the dispatcher kept it.

The entry indicated that the sheriff had at 8:02 a.m. "attempted to contact Paul Hahn for warrant application at his home and office to no avail." But Hahn said Mesey knew he had left word to send calls to his parents' home, because they knew how to reach him. Hahn was suspicious of the sheriff's motives in writing the notation.

Hahn said the dispatcher, Mary Lincoln, told him he could not look at the log book. Hahn said he told her he thought it was public record, but after Lincoln questioned him, "I made no further effort to look at that log book."

While this was occurring, Willis had been called to the scene of a fight. "I didn't even have a car. Where would I have gone with the book?" asked Hahn. "I would have been standing outside the door with something that would immediately be identified as missing."

Hahn noted that one of Mesey's witnesses, a trustee named Brad Thele, had "an axe to grind with me," since Hahn had charged him with a parole violation. Hahn also referred to a violation report recommendation from Thele's probation officer, which noted that Thele "has for some time displayed a high degree of irresponsibility and immaturity in his decision making. Making things worse is Mr. Thele's penchant at providing false and misleading information to significant others and myself."

Willis said the next day, he and Hahn learned that they were accused of trying to steal the book and had locked themselves in a report room and tried to listen on the phone.

Willis said he tried to talk with Mesey about the accusations, and even sent a registered letter to the sheriff requesting a meeting. "To this day, we have not talked about it," said Willis.

"It is bizarre that he would even make this kind of allegation," said Hahn. "But it shows how bad he wants to destroy my reputation. People who are supporting this have a motive to lie."

Ironically, it was Hahn who first got Mesey involved in Bollinger County law enforcement. Moved by what Hahn terms as Mesey's "slick and charismatic fashion," the prosecutor convinced the county commission to hire Mesey as an investigator after he offered to help.

"I swallowed it hook, line and sinker, and with the best of intentions," said Hahn. "Talk about something blowing up in your face. I wear to this day the albatross of my mistake in judgment."