CHAFFEE MAYOR ORDERED OFFICER TO TICKET FORMER POLICE CHIEF

CHAFFEE -- Mayor Ron Moyers late last month ordered a city police officer to write a ticket charging Chaffee Police Chief Ivan McLain with having no license plate on a vehicle he was driving.

After nearly nine years as police chief, McLain resigned last Thursday. He said Wednesday that the ticket had nothing to do with his resignation, no controversy existed, and he expects the ticket to be dropped because he had not broken the law.

"I wouldn't quit a job over a ticket even if I was guilty," McLain said at his Chaffee home. "I'd like to emphasize I have no ill will toward" Moyers or anyone else. "Facts are we've always been friends still are as far as I know."

McLain said that when a person buys a vehicle as he did the person has 30 days to get the vehicle inspected and licensed. McLain said he bought the vehicle, a 1965 Ford station wagon, on Nov. 23 and received the ticket Nov. 29. He said he got the ticket while trying to get the vehicle inspected.

A spokeswoman at the Missouri Drivers License Bureau at Cape Girardeau said a person could be ticketed for driving a vehicle without license plates even if it's being driven to be inspected. A person can transfer a license plate from another vehicle and be legal for 30 days, the spokeswoman said.

McLain said Patrolman Joda Griggs wrote the ticket charging him with the offense as he was driving the vehicle back home. He said he had parked the car at the police station with the intention of getting it inspected at Kiefer's Service Station on Chaffee Route 2, but station owner Donnie Kiefer didn't have time to inspect it.

McLain said Griggs wrote the ticket for no license plate as he drove out of the alley behind the police station at Second and Yoakum. Griggs was behind him in a police car, McLain said, and Moyers, who owns a coin laundry in the vicinity, happened to be there.

Griggs wrote the ticket because Moyers told him to, McLain said.

Moyers was unavailable Wednesday for comment.

The incident happened about 4:30 p.m., McLain said. McLain said he worked from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and that Griggs replaced him from 4 p.m. to midnight.

City Attorney David Summers refused Wednesday to let a reporter see the city's traffic tickets, saying he needed to check the state's statutes to see if a ticket was a matter of public record. Scott County Deputy Sheriff Jim Chambers, who is overseeing the Chaffee police department as the city searches for a new police chief, also refused, referring a reporter to Summers.

Summers said he hadn't seen the ticket and was not aware of it until he was contacted Wednesday morning about it. This morning, he said, he is meeting with Chambers to talk about various matters, one of which would involve the ticket.

Said Summers: "I should have a clear picture of what's happening after my contact tomorrow. If there is an offense there that's chargeable, we're going to have to look at it as we would with anyone else."

Earlier this week, McLain said he had resigned as police chief, would move to Cape Girardeau County, and was considering running next year for Cape Girardeau County sheriff.

But McLain would not qualify to run for the position because he would not meet a residency requirement. Missouri statutes pertaining to qualifications for county sheriffs say a candidate must be a resident taxpayer and voter of the county and "...shall have resided in said county for more than one whole year next before filing for said office."

Filing begins Jan. 14; a primary election will be held in August and the general election in November.

On Wednesday, the 1965 Ford that McLain was ticketed for sat in the driveway of McLain's home at 133 Cook. The car still had no front license plate and a "For Sale" sign stood against the windshield.

"I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it yet," McLain said of the car.