STIFF CRACKDOWN PINPOINTS CRIME LOCALE

The effort by federal and local authorities to clean up gang-related activities in Sikeston got a major boost when a judge declared two businesses run by a Sikeston couple to be public nuisances.

Ruling on a civil suit that sought a permanent injunction against continued operation of Ella's Package Store and Club Scottie in Sikeston, Circuit Judge Gary Kamp ordered the businesses closed. Both had been shut down since police and Missouri Division of Liquor Control agents padlocked them Aug. 19, soon after the Scott County prosecuting attorney's office instituted the public-nuisance action.

The businesses, run by Rufus and Ella Sumlin, have been the scene of numerous illegal activities that included gang shootings, sale of cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana, and after-hours sale of alcohol. The businesses long had been a thorn in the side of law enforcement agencies trying to expel from Sikeston the drug-related violence that typically accompanies unchecked gang activities.

The prosecution had little trouble convincing the judge of all the illicit activities that went on at Ella's and Club Scottie. A number of federal, state and local law enforcement officials told of making undercover drug purchases and after-hours alcohol buys. A nephew of the Sumlins testified about drug dealings. Surveillance videotape recorded by the Sikeston Department of Public Safety showed gang graffiti and activity around the businesses. An early morning shooting last August in which a suspected gang member allegedly shot a member of another gang was recorded on tape. It was the shooting that prompted authorities to get the places declared public nuisances.

Shutting down the Sumlins' businesses gives Sikeston's criminal element fewer places to carry out their activities, and that puts authorities further ahead in their effort to rid the community of crime.