Judge denies order of protection for woman accusing deputy of stalking her

Editor's note: The following story has been edited to correct the attribution of the officer to whom the first complaint was filed, and also to correct that the judge, while hearing a case in Scott County, is from Mississippi County. The Southeast Missourian regrets the errors.

BENTON, Missouri -- A Mississippi County judge denied a woman's request Thursday for an order of protection against a sheriff's deputy she said had been stalking her.

Judge Rob Barker, a former law enforcement officer in Southeast Missouri, issued the ruling Thursday afternoon, hours after hearing from the woman and the deputy in a Scott County courtroom.

During the ex parte hearing at the courthouse in Benton, an emotional Sarah Marie Valenzuela told the judge she was in fear for her life.

A single mother with a 9-year-old daughter, she said, "I feel very scared that something will happen to me and my child."

But deputy Travis Keller testified he had approached her in connection with a drug investigation. She said afterward the officer lied.

Valenzuela filed for an order of protection June 7. The accusations against Keller were detailed in the courtroom Thursday.

Valenzuela said she and her daughter were living in Morley earlier this year in a house owned by her mother. The house was for sale by owner at the time.

She said Keller knocked on her door at 10 p.m. April 1 and expressed interest in buying the property. He asked for her phone number. Valenzuela said she gave him her phone number thinking he was a potential buyer.

She said he then asked her if she was alone. After hearing Valenzuela's daughter was with her, Keller asked if he could come inside, Valenzuela told the judge.

In a written petition for an ex parte order, she wrote she told Keller it was late and she "didn't feel comfortable" letting him in the house.

Keller left, but then immediately started texting her and "requesting me on social media," Valenzuela wrote.

She told the judge she later realized the same officer had driven by her residence more than 200 times. After the hearing, Valenzuela told the Southeast Missourian that Keller first started driving by her Morley house last December and continued to do so until April.

Two days after Keller visited her home in April, Valenzuela said she made a complaint to the sheriff's department about Keller's conduct. She wrote in her petition that she spoke to Capt. Ron Meredith who indicated he would address the issue.

Chief deputy Ryan Dennis testified at the hearing that Keller subsequently was been moved to a different patrol zone as a result of the complaint.

But Valenzuela said that Keller later returned to patrolling in Morley.

Valenzuela, who moved with her daughter to Oran, Missouri, last month, said after the hearing the sheriff's department had not addressed the situation and had "ignored" her complaints.

The judge would not let Valenzuela submit letters from Tiffany and Landon Klaffer of Morley, Missouri, citing it as hearsay.

The two letters, which Valenzuela showed a Missourian reporter and whose authorship has been confirmed by the newspaper, state Keller asked them about the woman. "He asked Tiffany and I numerous times if she, Sarah, was single. He seemed very interested in her almost as if he was looking for any excuse to go see her," Landon wrote in his letter.

"I feel he cannot be trusted," he wrote of Keller.

Tiffany Klaffer told the Southeast Missourian that Keller frequently stopped by her residence, which is in the same neighborhood where Valenzuela was living. She said he made inappropriate statements to her, implying he was interested in her sexually.

In her letter, Tiffany Klaffer wrote, "I am beside myself that an officer of "the law" can be so intrusive and feel that it is OK or will go unnoticed."

Keller told the judge in mid-March he received a tip from an informant a "large quantity of marijuana" was being distributed out of the Morley house. "I started watching the residence," he told the judge.

Keller said he saw a "black male" on the front porch of the house April 1. Keller said he drove back around the block. Keller said he did not see the man when he subsequently walked up to the door.

He said he inquired about the house being for sale because he was "looking for drugs."

Valenzuela disputed Keller's account. She said there was "no black gentleman at my house" April 1.

She said there were no illegal drugs in her house.

Under questioning from the judge, Keller testified patrol officers "do our own investigations" in drug cases.

But multiple sources close to the sheriff's department said since Drury took office, the department's policy has been the department no longer conducts drug investigations. All drug investigations would be handled by the SEMO Drug Task Force, according to the sources.

The Southeast Missourian sought comment from Drury, but by late Thursday afternoon he had not responded to email and phone messages.

After the hearing, Valenzuela said she "never had a drug charge" filed against her and doesn't use marijuana or other illegal drugs. A search of online court records did not reveal any criminal cases against her.

Valenzuela said June 3, Keller followed her and her boyfriend after he spotted them driving through Morley. She said they went to her mother's home in Morley. "He followed me for at least 45 minutes, circling my mother's residence," she wrote in her petition to the court.

Valenzuela wrote in her petition that she subsequently complained to Dennis, the chief deputy, who "stated he was going to correct this type of behavior."

The woman's mother, Brenda Valenzuela, was in the courtroom for the hearing but was not called to testify. After the hearing, she echoed her daughter's comments. She said Keller repeatedly drove by her house on June 3 and "waved" at them.

Dennis, the chief deputy, said Keller told him he passed by Valenzuela's mother's house "two or three times."

Dennis testified GPS records at the sheriff's department do not indicate Keller was patrolling near Sarah Valenzuela's house in Morley as frequently as she stated. But he said Keller did patrol in the Morley area as well as other areas of the county at various times.

Keller, dressed in his deputy uniform, displayed little emotion as he sat in the courtroom, alongside Scott County Prosecutor Paul Boyd. The prosecutor told the judge he was there to represent the county government.

Keller is one of more than 20 officers and reserve officers hired at the sheriff's department since Wes Drury became sheriff in 2017, according to department records obtained by the Southeast Missourian in a Sunshine Law request.

Another of those hires, deputy Brandon Cook, was charged last month with felony second-degree statutory sodomy. He is accused of having oral sex with a 15-year-old boy whose father is a commissioned reserve officer on the same sheriff's department. Cook was terminated after his arrest.

Keller started working for the department July 31, 2017.

He previously worked for the Jackson Police Department, but resigned amid an investigation into alleged departmental policy violations, police chief James Humphreys said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641