Men with past felonies compete for Ward 3

The two candidates vying for the vacant Ward 3 seat on the Cape Girardeau City Council were both prosecuted for felony crimes in the past 15 years.

Both candidates -- Stan Wicks and R. Todd McBride -- pleaded guilty to felony crimes in the 1990s in cases prosecuted by the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor's office. Wicks was charged with driving drunk and McBride with conspiring to commit arson.

But state law allows both men to seek political office. In addition, the Cape Girardeau city charter includes nothing about criminal records in its eligibility requirements. City attorney Eric Cunningham said it would go against state law to bar convicted felons or those with a criminal history from seeking election to the city council.

The city charter requires candidates be registered voters, at least 21 years of age, a resident of the city for at least two years prior to the election and a resident of the particular ward for at least 90 days prior to the opening of the filing period.

Wicks pleaded guilty to drunken driving charges in 1990, while McBride entered an Alford plea on an arson charge in 1997. Under the plea, which Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said amounts to a guilty plea, McBride admitted the court would be able to find him guilty of paying a man to set fire to one of his rental houses in Marble Hill.

Both men ended up on probation. But Wicks' probation later was revoked and he served about two years in the Western Missouri Correctional Center near Cameron, Mo.

McBride served 30 days in the Scott County Jail at Benton and had to pay $22,263 in restitution.

"I had to pay off the bank loan," he said.

But because the judge suspended imposition of sentence and McBride successfully completed probation, there's no actual conviction in court records due to the Alford plea.

"I do not have a criminal record," he said. "I can vote."

But Wicks, a convicted felon, can vote too, and has voted in previous elections.

Under state law, people convicted of felonies can vote and hold elected office once they have completed their prison sentences and any terms of probation, Swingle and county election officials said.

The only exception involves violations of voting laws. Anyone convicted of a voting-law crime is forever disqualified from voting.

Such individuals wouldn't be able to run for Cape Girardeau City Council because they couldn't be registered voters as required by the city charter, Cunningham said.

State law also prohibits convicted felons from owning or possessing firearms, Swingle said.

Both Wicks and McBride said they're hardworking businessmen. Wicks owns and operates General Maintenance Co., while McBride owns and operates Century Mortgage.

McBride, 43, said he decided to enter an Alford plea because he was bankrupt and couldn't continue to pay legal fees. "I had already spent $25,000 on my defense," he recalled.

He said it would have cost him another $20,000 to $25,000 in legal fees if the case had gone to trial.

The judge in the case, then Scott County circuit judge Anthony Heckemeyer, said at the time of sentencing that he rarely suspended sentences but did so because McBride didn't have any previous convictions and he had received more than 50 letters of support from area residents.

"I was given a second chance," McBride said.

McBride insists his only crime was to trust Frank Kimes, then 45, of Piedmont, Mo., who admitted to authorities he set the house on fire Feb. 2, 1996.

Kimes told authorities he was paid $1,000 by McBride to burn down the house to collect money from an insurance policy. Prosecutors insisted McBride planned the crime.

"It hurt me deeply,' McBride said of the charge against him. At the time, McBride was a well-known Cape Girardeau landlord and Democratic political leader.

McBride said he entered an Alford plea in hopes of receiving a suspended imposition of sentence. "Basically it gives you a clean slate, just like it never happened," he said.

Wicks, 42, pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated and careless and imprudent driving in April 1990 in Cape Girardeau County. It was his third DWI conviction in less than three years. As a result, he was charged with a class D felony as a persistent offender.

He ultimately was sentenced to four years in prison, but served only four months before the judge released him on probation.

But in 1991, his probation was revoked. Wicks said his probation terms barred him from driving for any reason. He was spotted driving one day by his probation officer.

Wicks spent the next two years behind bars. He was released in spring 1993 and soon was in trouble again.

He was charged with third-degree assault stemming from a fight with his wife on May 30, 1993.

His wife, Debbie, shot him in the chest as he approached her. He was drunk.

"It was just a misunderstanding," Wicks recalled.

Wicks admitted he was armed with scissors when he approached her. But he said he never intended to hurt her.

In September 1993, a judge sentenced him to 15 days in jail, but suspended execution of the sentence and placed him on probation. His wife wasn't prosecuted in connection with the shooting after police determined she had acted in self defense.

Wicks said the incident was a wake-up call for him to clean up his life. "I cried for about three days," said Wicks, who was treated for the chest wound at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

"When someone shoots you and you realize nobody would have really cared if you died, it hurts," he said.

Wicks said he no longer drinks. He credits his faith in God in turning his life around.

"Look at who I used to be and look at who I am today," he said.

McBride has similar sentiments. "I have gone on with my life," he said.

Nevertheless, prosecutor Swingle won't vote for either candidate in the April 5 election.

"This strikes me as an election where a write-in candidate without a criminal history would have a realistic chance of winning," Swingle said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123