Motion to withdraw Boggs, Boggs & Bates; they withdrew after my motion was filed to disqualify them

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI
TWENTY-FIRST JUDICIAL CIRCUIT

JAMES STEWART,

Plaintiff, Cause No.: 08SL-CC00421

v..


THOMAS SHELTON, Division: 19



MICHAEL PAYNE, and

Defendants.L.L.C., and for their Motion to Withdraw as counsel for Defendants Harris Taxi and

Michael Payne, state as follows:


2. A development has recently occurred that creates a potential conflict of
interest on behalf of the above named counsel.
3. This motion is not intended to delay these proceedings or harass any parties.

4. We have advised defendants Harris Cab and Michael Payne of the Motion to Withdraw and the hearing date.

WHEREFORE, counsel requests this honorable court to grant it leave to withdraw

and for any other and further relief that this court deems fair and just.

The above-referenced counsel is counsel for Harris Taxi and Michael Payne.


Respectfully submitted,

Michael Payne and Harris Taxi


By:


H. Edward Ryals, #49191
Beth C. Boggs, #4389 Michael Payne and Harris Taxi


On this 24th day of November, 2008, a true and correct copy of the foregoing
document was forwarded by first-class U. S. Mail, postage pre-paid , to the following :
Mr. James Stewart

1580 East Swan Circle

Brentwood , MO 63144



Z:\LOK_data\2432\1 01\NOH.wpd/HERlmd

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI
TWENTY-FIRST JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
JAMES STEWART,

Plaintiff,

v..

THOMAS SHELTON,

MICHAEL PAYNE, and

HARRIS TAXI,

Defendants.

Cause No.: 08SL-CC00421

Boggs, Avellino, Lach & Boggs, L.L.C.

Attorneys for Defendants

7912 Bonhomme Ave., Suite 400

St. Louis, MO 63105

Eryals@balblawyers.com

(314) 726-2310 Phone

(314) 726-2360 Fax

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

TO: Mr. James Stewart

1580 East Swan CircleBrentwood, MO 63144Division: 19

NOTICE OF HEARING


PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that Defendant, STANLEY HANSEN, will call up forhearing his Motion to Withdraw on December


Michael Payne and Harris J;axi


H. Edward Ryals, #49191
Michael Payne and Harris Taxi



CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

On this 24th day of November, 2008, a true and correct copy of the foregoing
document was forwarded by first-class U. S. Mail, postage pre-paid , to the following:
Mr. James Stewart

1580 East Swan Circle

Brentwood, MO 63144

Pro Se Plaintiff

Copy: Shermand Palmer
Harris Cab Co.


Boggs, Avellino, Lach &Boggs, L.L.C.

Attorneys for Defendants

7912 Bonhomme Ave., Suite 400

St. Louis, MO 63105

Eryals@balblawyers.com

(314) 726-231 0 Phone

(314) 726-2360 Fax



HARRIS TAXI

Louis County Courts Building, 7900 Carondelet, Clayton, Missouri, or as soon thereafter

as counsel may be heard.


4, 2008 at 9:00 a.m., in Division 19 at the St.

Respectfully submitted,


MOTION TO WITHDRAW

COME NOW Beth C. Boggs, H. Edward Ryals, and Boggs, Avellino, Lach &Boggs,


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http://justiceseeker.bloguni.com/motion-to-withdraw-boggs-boggs-bates-they-withdrew-after-my-motion-was-filed-to-disqualify-them/

http://justiceseeker.bloguni.com/series-of-deaths-at-clayton-law-firm-leave-some-wondering/

http://justiceseeker.bloguni.com/the-unsolved-murder-of-ernie-brasier-a-clayton-attorneys-death-nearly-two-years-ago-continues-to-mystify-police-and-colleagues/

Emails by attorney Smith stating he is entering his appearance

Jim,



Thanks for the email. Those records will be helpful. Is he looking for records and bills? He can have as much time as necessary. Just keep me posted.

I’m entereing my appearance on the case today. I’ll forward the same to Page Cagle. Also, I will send a protection letter to William Londoff per their request.

If you need anything, over the next couple days, just send me an email and I’ll try to respond

right away.

-Neil

The Smith Law Firm, LLC

225 South Meramec, Suite 532

Clayton, Missouri 63105

(p) 314-725-4400

(f) 800-805-4563

CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT: This electronic communication is confidential, privileged, and intended only for the use of the recipient named above. If you are not the intended recipient, or agent responsible for delivering the information to the intended recipient, unauthorized disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this transmission is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender and delete all copies from your system. The Missouri Bar Disciplinary Counsel requires all Missouri lawyers to notify all recipients of e-mail that (1) e-mail communication is not a secure method of communication, (2) any e-mail that is sent to you or by you may be copied and held by various computers it passes through as it goes from us to you or vice versa, (3) persons not participating in our communication may intercept our communications by improperly accessing your computer or our computer or even some computer unconnected to either of us which the e-mail pass through. We are communicating to you via e-mail because you have consented to receive communications via this medium. If you change your mind, and want future communication to be sent in a different fashion, please let us know immediately.

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http://justiceseeker.bloguni.com/series-of-deaths-at-clayton-law-firm-leave-some-wondering/

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Email to Attorney Malloy

From: “jim stewart”
To: amalloy@malloylawoffices.com Friday, October 10, 2008 3:35 PM

Our Conversation today at St. Vincent Depaul


See Attached
I have Pics of the office I need to have
developed.

Jim Stewart

Our Conversation today at St. Vincent Depaul – Yahoo! Mail Page 1 of 1
http://us.mc621.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showMessage?fid=Attorney%2520Malloy&sort=date… 1/27/2009

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http://justiceseeker.bloguni.com/motion-to-withdraw-boggs-boggs-bates-they-withdrew-after-my-motion-was-filed-to-disqualify-them/

http://justiceseeker.bloguni.com/series-of-deaths-at-clayton-law-firm-leave-some-wondering/

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ATTORNEY FEE AGREEMENT

THE SMITH LAW FIRM

A LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY

22, SOUTH MERAMEC. SUITE 532

SAINT LOUIS. MISSOURI 63105

TELEPHONE (314) 72,-4400

FACSIMILE (800) 805-4563

neil@neilsmithlaw.com

October 14, 2008



Mr. James Stewart

1580 East Swan Circle

Brentwood, MO 63144

Re: James Stewart v. Harris Cab, et al.

James Stewart v. Public Storage, et al.

Sent via U.S. Mail

Dear Mr. Stewart,

Thank you for retaining my office to represent you in the above matters As always, call with any questions. You can reach me via cell phone at (314) 974-3266.

Sincerely,

Neil Smith

Attorney at Law

ATTORNEY FEE AGREEMENT

This agreement is entered into on October 14,2008, by and between THE SMITH LAW FIRM, LLC (hereinafter “Attorney”), and James Stewart (hereinafter “Client”). Attorney agrees to provide representation on behalf of Client in relation to Client’s claim.

Client agrees to pay Attorney one-third (33.33%) of any and all money recovered.

Attorney will not receive any compensation unless there is a recovery. Client shall be Responsible for all costs including, but not limited to, medical records, deposition costs And filing fees. In the event the matter is submitted for trial, Client agrees to pay Attorney forty percent (40%) of any recovery. Client will not be required to pay Attorney on a by-the-hour basis. Client agrees that Attorney may destroy Client’s file upon the expiration of five (5) years From the date when the case is resolved, or within five years from the date when all work Is completed, whichever occurs sooner. In lieu or keeping a hard copy of Client’s file During that five year period, Attorney may store any and all documents in electronic fom1at. Client agrees to keep Attorney abreast of any changes in Client’s whereabouts, including Home address, mailing address, telephone number, email and place of employment.

Attorney agrees to keep Client abreast of all major developments related to Client’s case. Attorney agrees to use his best efforts to secure the most favorable result on Client’s Behalf.

This is another blog I have.

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http://justiceseeker.bloguni.com/motion-to-withdraw-boggs-boggs-bates-they-withdrew-after-my-motion-was-filed-to-disqualify-them/

http://justiceseeker.bloguni.com/series-of-deaths-at-clayton-law-firm-leave-some-wondering/

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The Unsolved Murder of Ernie Brasier: A Clayton attorney's death nearly two years ago continues to mystify police and colleagues

If you look at the posting Stewart V Harris Cab and read the paragraph in bold you could see why something like this could happen. If this attorney did to someone else, what his firm did to me; it would make sense. His firm had an Attorney that worked for their firm get me to fire my original Attorney and hire one of their friends, as soon as they received my file and had a chance to review & copy said file, this Attorney resigned. Leaving me without council. I immediately filed a pro se motion to disqualify this firm. Before the Jude could rule this firm resigned, sighting possible conflict of interest...


The Unsolved Murder of Ernie Brasier: A Clayton attorney's death nearly two years ago continues to mystify police and colleagues
Comments (2) By Kathleen McLaughlin Wednesday, Oct 1 2008
Just after 10 p.m. on December 19, 2006, the pot-bellied corpse of Ernest F. Brasier arrived at the St. Louis County morgue. Brasier had been working late at his office in Clayton, and police said he appeared to have suffered a heart attack. Surveying the body, a coroner's investigator noticed a wound above the 57-year-old lawyer's left ear.

Obscured by Brasier's gray hair, the wound turned out to be a tiny hole, just three millimeters wide. Investigator Joe Lebb ordered an X-ray, which revealed a bullet lodged in Brasier's brain.

"It was not until the body came here that it was evident it was a gunshot wound," says St. Louis County Chief Medical Examiner Mary Case. She declined to say what caliber of bullet was found, as that information remains part of the Clayton Police Department's ongoing investigation into Brasier's murder.

That same Tuesday night in December, police noted a small amount of blood on the desk and the office floor. Case says they presumed that Brasier struck his head as he collapsed. "The officer at the scene did not see anything suspicious."

A janitor found Brasier's body shortly before 7 p.m. Two minutes later, Clayton police received a "man down" call and quickly converged on the Guild Building at 7912 Bonhomme Avenue, a block south of police headquarters.

Police told Brasier's law partners that he'd had a heart attack, but Lebb soon informed Brasier's coworkers of the police's mistake. In a sparse, routine incident report at 10:21 that night, police listed the death a homicide.

Dr. Case issued a full autopsy report on Brasier the following afternoon. By then, two dozen detectives with the county's Major Case Squad had descended on the firm, Boggs, Boggs & Bates, and fanned out to interview friends and family.

"They were interested to know if he had any skeletons in his closet," recalls Martin Hadican, Brasier's longtime golf buddy. Detectives visited Hadican, a criminal-defense lawyer in Clayton, on two occasions.

Skeletons? Not Ernie, Hadican told police. "He was just a good person."

To this day, the murder remains unsolved and police will not say whether they have a suspect or motive. Captain Kevin Murphy, who heads the investigation, keeps a prayer card from Brasier's funeral Mass on his desk. It is a daily reminder of his duty to solve the case.

Brasier was a civil litigator representing insurance companies. "I never worried about Ernie getting hurt – not in insurance defense," his widow, Pat Holtmeier, says. "How much more boring can you get?"

On the evening Brasier was killed, Holtmeier didn't notice that it was past 7 p.m. and her husband had not yet come home. She remembers standing in her kitchen, chatting with her 26-year-old daughter and a friend about making Christmas cookies.

The two young women had just left to shop for ingredients when Holtmeier, who uses her maiden name, heard a knock at the door. Beth Boggs, the managing partner at Brasier's firm, was standing on the front porch, along with her husband, Darin Boggs, and two uniformed police officers.

"He's dead, Pat, he's dead." Holtmeier recalls Beth Boggs telling her. "She said he had a heart attack."

Relatives and friends rushed to the house in Town & Country where Holtmeier and her three children grieved. Later in the night, a longtime neighbor, Cheryl Cova, offered to help Holtmeier make arrangements to retrieve the body of the man she'd been married to just ten days shy of 30 years.

Slipping into the master bedroom, Cova placed what she figured would be a routine call to the coroner – that is, until the man who answered the phone told her, "There's a problem. I found a bullet in his head." Then, Cova remembers the man asking her, "Would you tell his wife?"


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The portraits that line Pat Holtmeier's dining room walls and snapshots covering the refrigerator tell the story of her life with Ernie Brasier. In one black-and-white picture, a young, dark-haired Brasier sits at a barroom table with his arm around his tall, blond wife. In almost every frame, Brasier grins and looks at the camera with dark brown, puppy-like eyes.

Brasier's mother-in-law used to say that he was cut out for the priesthood. "He was just good as gold, very patient," Holtmeier says.

Brasier grew up in Robertsville, Missouri, and graduated from the University of Missouri's law school in 1974. After finishing Army Reserve duty at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, he started his practice in San Antonio, concentrating for the most part on immigration law.

Much to his new bride's frustration, Brasier wasn't terribly diligent about billing clients. Holtmeier recalls him saying, "Oh Pat, they just don't have the money."

In San Antonio, Brasier was trying to learn Spanish and would spend time with nuns who were serving a poor Mexican-American community. Holtmeier remembers: "He was very fond of this one particular nun, who said to him: 'Ernie, before you can take care of anybody else, you have to take care of yourself.'"

Eventually, Brasier's law career helped put his daughter and two sons through Catholic prep schools. But, explains Holtmeier, "Anyone who knew Ernie knew he wasn't motivated by money. If it were up to him, we'd live in a tent."

Holtmeier, 59, found success as a part-owner of a nurses' staffing agency. She says Brasier encouraged her career. "He was the most unchauvinistic man I ever met." Keeping her maiden name, she adds, "seemed to bother everybody but Ernie."

The couple moved to St. Louis in the 1980s, and Brasier devoted himself to his growing family. His life revolved around St. Clement of Rome, where his children went to school.

Brasier volunteered for all the kids' school activities – Indian Princess with Kelly, Boy Scouts with Jeff and Zach. He coached soccer on the tiny field next to the church parking lot.

Brasier's professional life moved along smoothly, until he was abruptly fired from a national insurance company, The Hartford, in 2003. He'd worked in the company's downtown St. Louis office as in-house counsel for about two years. "He just couldn't believe it," Holtmeier says.

Holtmeier speculates that Brasier's boss didn't appreciate his unhurried manner. "Ernie is slow and deliberate in what he says," she explains. One coworker, Holtmeier remembers Brasier telling her, complained that he took too long to get his point across.

The termination shattered Brasier's ego. "He was so beaten down," Holtmeier says. "He was destroyed." Brasier reached out to colleagues, who pointed him toward Beth Boggs, who hired him right away. "He just took something quickly."

Working at Boggs, Boggs & Bates was a more high-pressure environment than he'd experienced before. After the firm named Brasier as a partner, Holtmeier says her husband was told he would have to increase his billing to 50 hours a week or take a pay cut.

Brasier strained to keep up. Many of his cases were based in southern Illinois. Holtmeier would sometimes ride along in his blue BMW convertible to keep him company. "He'd be dictating and driving, and trying to get all this stuff done," she says. "That billing consumed him."

The week before he was killed, Brasier brought his wife a dozen long-stemmed roses. It was to celebrate the news that the firm was putting him in charge of a new client, the Fireman's Fund. He wouldn't have to sweat the 50 hours of billable work each week, Holtmeier says. "What it really translated to was that Ernie wasn't going to have to work so hard."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gretta Treiber reported for work shortly after 8 a.m. the day after the murder. Walking through the front doors of the Guild Building, the young secretary was surprised to find one of the law partners, Mark Bates, standing sentry.

Bates told her that Brasier was dead and that Beth Boggs wanted everyone to stop in at the first-floor conference room. "I go in there, and there are like a half a dozen cops," Treiber recalls.

Treiber sat at a desk right outside the third-floor office where Brasier was killed. "My alibi was rock-solid," she says. She was working at her second job, a Hollywood Video store.

The Guild Building in downtown Clayton is a utilitarian-looking, four-story structure, adorned with relief elements of muscled laborers. Inside, dingy tan carpet covers the narrow hallways that lead to various law offices, located behind windowless doors.

Listing 23 partners and associates, the Boggs firm takes up the fourth floor, as well as two-thirds of the third floor, where Braiser's office overlooked Bonhomme Avenue. The firm's name – now Boggs, Avellino, Lach & Boggs – is spelled out in tall letters over double doors that lead to the office suites.

"Usually, Ernie and I were the last two to leave at night," says Jeffry Thomsen, a senior attorney who retired in 2007. Thomsen left at 5:30 that December evening. It was raining when he stepped out the back door and onto the parking lot. "If someone specifically wanted to kill Ernie," he still wonders, "why wouldn't they just wait until he went out to his car, and hide in the lot, instead of taking the chance of being seen in the building?"

Frank Anzalone, a criminal defender on the second floor, was visiting with a client in his office at around 6:30 p.m. the night of the murder. "We didn't hear anything," he remembers.

Then, shortly before 7 p.m., the janitor, an older man whom Anzalone calls "the reverend," came in to his office. He looked worried. He said a lawyer was laying on the floor upstairs. An attorney who worked in Anzalone's office grabbed his cell phone and went with the janitor to take a closer look.

Brasier lay on his belly. His head and shoulders were under the desk, and his legs stuck out in full view. He didn't breathe or move. "It was pretty silent," says the lawyer, who assumed Brasier suffered a heart attack. He immediately called 911. The lawyer asked that his name not be used for fear of drawing the killer's attention. "There's a weirdo out there."

At the Boggs firm, a fearful and suspicious atmosphere lingered for months, Thomsen says. "Everybody still thought, 'Maybe the murderer is sitting next to me, or maybe they're going to come back.'"

Brasier wasn't shot in his own office. He was one door down, using a computer in the office his colleague Dan Bennett left vacant after taking a leave of absence that September. Thomsen remembers Bennett saying he felt burned out. "He was going to go down to Central America with his son and open a bar."

Bennett spent less than a year at the Boggs firm, and in that time his personal problems became obvious. Fellow attorney say he would pace around the parking lot and scream into his cell phone. Bennett's wife, Sharon Cliffe, filed for a legal separation in October 2006, while he was in Costa Rica.

Bennett was due back at work in mid-December, but didn't return. Some lawyers gossiped that he had gambling debts and speculated that a professional hit man was looking for him. Cliffe vigorously denies the allegation. "There was no gambling debt," she says. "I don't even know who started that."


Bennett, who died in September 2007, didn't fit the buttoned-down lawyer mold. He started law school in his late 30s, after an eighteen-year military career. He hung out in blue-collar bars. Tattoos covered his forearms.

Clayton detectives interviewed Bennett as soon as he returned to St. Louis, early in 2007, Cliffe says. They asked Bennett whether the killer might have been looking for him, she says. Bennett told them no.

Bennett remained separated from his wife. Never returning to the Boggs firm, he took by-the-case work from a lawyer downtown. He spent his evenings at Wagner's Sports Bar, a smoke-filled watering hole in the gritty southern tip of St. Louis.

Then in September 2007, Bennett didn't show up at Wagner's for a few days. The Post-Dispatch reported that a drinking buddy found him dead in his apartment on West Courtois Street.

Cliffe says she's aware that many people wonder whether her husband's death was somehow connected to Brasier's. An autopsy showed that Bennett died of heart disease at the age of 48. "Life brought some changes for us," says Cliffe, a 52-year-old schoolteacher. "Unfortunately, it ended with him dying. It's just that simple."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The noise of her barking dogs rousedNancy Quackenbush out of a deep sleep in the wee hours of December 20, 2006. Two detectives with the county's Major Case Squad were at her door. They wasted no time in finding the lawyer who'd been fired from Boggs, Boggs & Bates that October.

Quackenbush has cropped brown hair and fingernails bitten to the quick. Chain-smoking over a lunch of Chinese food, she recalls standing outside her home in Maryland Heights in sweats, and shivering in the cold as detectives told her that Brasier was dead from a gunshot wound. "I started shaking and crying," she says.

Brasier had been her confidant at the firm, and they would take long walks together at lunchtime. Quackenbush says she told the detectives, "I loved that man!"

Detectives thought Quackenbush might be a jilted lover. But she told them, "If you knew Ernie, you'd know how stupid that was." She let police search her car for the receipts that would show she'd been out running errands the evening of the murder.

Later that same day, Quackenbush recalls getting a phone call from yet another detective. "Did I know anything about an anonymous memo accusing the firm of billing fraud?" After Quackenbush departed in mid-October, Beth Boggs became the target of anonymous complaints about her billing. First, some of the firm's insurance-company clients received a letter that claimed, according to people familiar with the matter, that Boggs logged as many as 400 hours in a single month.

Then in December 2006, after Brasier died, the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel in Jefferson City notified Boggs that it had received a similar letter.

Quackenbush denies that she's the source of the letters.

Brasier's widow, though, says she's often wondered whether they came from her husband. "If he saw something dishonest," Pat Holtmeier says, "I will tell you, he'd turn me in."

Treiber, the former secretary, says, "I know he didn't agree with Beth's billing practices." Boggs had a policy of reviewing all attorneys' correspondence before secretaries sent it out on letterhead. Brasier would type quick, routine letters himself, Treiber says. "He would hand-write at the bottom, 'You were not billed for this letter.'"

Beth Boggs declined Riverfront Times' request for an interview. Instead, her media representative, Geri Dreiling, coordinated the firm's response via e-mail. The firm flatly denies that Boggs overcharged clients, stating, "There was no finding of overbilling."

The ethics complaint resulted in a "letter of admonition" to Beth Boggs on March 17, 2008. Signed by Cheryl Walker, a St. Louis attorney appointed to the local disciplinary committee, the letter says there was "reasonable cause" to believe that Boggs violated Supreme Court Rule 4-8.4(c), which prohibits "conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation." Specifically, the letter says, the infraction was "a result of your billing clients under your name for work done by other attorneys in your office."

"The matter was fully investigated with Beth's complete cooperation," states an e-mail sent through Dreiling. The firm's e-mail adds that an "issue" related to "an antiquated billing system" has been fixed, and reiterates, "There was no finding of overbilling."

Lawyers know Beth Boggs as an aggressive marketer who keeps a tight rein on day-to-day business. At one point, ex-employees say, attorneys weren't allowed to have individual e-mail accounts. John Cooney, a Clayton lawyer who also does insurance work, says he hears stories from Boggs' alumni. "She runs that place with an iron fist."

In the wake of Brasier's murder, Boggs hired Scott Rosenblum, a prominent criminal defense lawyer. The firm explains, again via e-mail, that the purpose of hiring outside counsel was to "coordinate all requests for information" from police. The firm stressed that it retained Rosenblum only after the Major Case Squad had finished its work.

Thomsen says he wanted no part of the plan. "I wanted to cooperate freely with the police," he says. "I think it made it more difficult for the police to do it on Beth's schedule, rather than theirs. It might have slowed things up for them."

Brasier's killing, meanwhile, took an emotional toll on Boggs' employees. Treiber went to work the day after the murder planning to have lunch with Brasier, attorney Jamie McCune and Brasier's secretary, Mary Dalton. She'd even brought Brasier a Christmas gift, a DVD of Good Night, and Good Luck., the movie about broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow. "Ernie was so cool," she says.

When she learned that Brasier had been shot in the head, Treiber says, "I lost my mind. I was crying. I couldn't handle it."

She returned to work the next day, but started crying again at the sight of fingerprint dust on the door frame to Bennett's office. "Beth yelled at me in front of three or four other people," she recalls. "If I couldn't pull myself together, I should just go home."

The Boggs firm submits, via e-mail, that it was not at all insensitive. In fact, the firm allowed workers to stay home as long as necessary. They also hired a grief counselor and security guards who would escort people to their cars. Computers were purchased for attorneys who didn't already have them at home, so they could spend less time in the office after hours. "The firm," states the e-mail, "attempted to deal with employees' needs as comprehensively as possible."

Treiber left the firm in April 2007 and says she doesn't hold a grudge against her former boss. "Beth is a good person. She's just extremely difficult to have a professional relationship with. She gets carried away."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vince Venker, another of Brasier's associates, did not answer his cell phone on Saturday, August 9, 2008. The next day, his friend Iggy Yuan says, a cousin found him in bed at his apartment.

Yuan and others close to the 51-year-old lawyer assume he died of natural causes. But Brasier's widow wondered publicly how two of her husband's colleagues could turn up dead in a year's time. In a widely disseminated Post-Dispatch article, Holtmeier said, "There's something crazy going on at that law firm. It's almost like a John Grisham novel."

Thomsen, the retired Boggs attorney, says he too found Venker's death troubling. "It's too much coincidence, I think."

Venker came from a big Catholic family, which has run St. Louis-based Barnard Stamp for four generations. The line at his wake extended out the door of Assumption Catholic Church. "That was a good tribute to Vince," says Yuan, a friend since law school at Saint Louis University.

Venker's friends say he was smart – he finished college in three years – and sociable. It was his drinking, they say, that finally pushed his wife to file for divorce, finalized in June 2007.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At his son's high school graduation party this year, Venker seemed to be his usual self, Yuan says. He was rail-thin and had a cigarette in his hand. For that, Yuan reminisces, "I was giving him grief, always."

Yuan is one of the Kirkwood City Council members who escaped troubled resident Cookie Thornton's shooting rampage in February. After the Kirkwood ordeal, Yuan and Venker talked again about the senseless nature of Brasier's murder. "There was no motive," Yuan says. "People do crazy things for money. There was no money involved. Why would he do it?"

At first, police leaned hard on Venker. He was the last to leave the third floor that night, and he owned a .22-caliber gun. "I think they even took him into custody for a bit," Thomsen says. "He was real shaken up by that."

Captain Murphy will say nothing about what significance, if any, Venker had in the case. The Monday following Venker's death, Murphy visited Holtmeier at the Kumon Math and Reading center that she owns in west St. Louis County.

The police captain has visited Brasier's widow several times since the murder. "He just came to tell me about it, which was a very nice courtesy once again, so that I wouldn't read about it in the paper," Holtmeier says.

Venker's death stirred up Holtmeier's anxiety. She began to worry that the investigation was stalled, and police were giving up. Frantic, she called Murphy the next day and told him, "You cannot let the death of this wonderful man just drop. You cannot!"

Murphy maintained his usual professional silence. Still agitated, Holtmeier drove to Clayton, and demanded that Boggs let her see the office where her husband was killed. She wanted to know: "Ernie, did you see the person? Or did they come behind you?"

Holtmeier saw that the office was being used to store shoes, which the firm collects for needy children. Reality settled in. "I asked a couple of questions. Then I left," she says. "Sometimes I just blow my gasket."

Dark circles surround Holtmeier's bright blue eyes. She now avoids Mass because it carries too many reminders of Ernie. "It sends me to tears," she says. Instead, she sits on the memorial bench that some of his friends bought and placed outside St. Clement's prayer chapel. "I ask God, Why? Why? Why?"

Answers are not forthcoming. "I've been telling myself to be patient," Holtmeier says. "There's this part of you that just has to know."




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News Release 12/21/2006
Slaying of lawyer in Clayton office is mystery

This story was published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch (online edition), on December 21, 2006. It is of interest to the Major Case Squad and it is reported here, verbatim.


Slaying of lawyer in Clayton office is mystery
By Margaret Gillermanand Tim O'Neil
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Dec. 21 2006

CLAYTON — Ernest Brasier was a dedicated family man who enjoyed golf and jogging. On Wednesday, detectives were trying to figure out who shot him to death in his office at a Clayton law firm, and why.

Whatever police might be learning, they were not sharing. The Major Case Squad reported this morning that it had no new leads.

A janitor found Brasier's body about 7 p.m. Tuesday in his office on the third floor of a building at 7912 Bonhomme Avenue, just south of the St. Louis County Courthouse. Police say a single gunshot killed him.

Clayton Police Chief Tom Byrne said officers found no signs of forced entry or robbery. He sought help from the Major Case Squad, which put 30 detectives on the case.

A spokesman for the squad said Wednesday night that it had no developments.

Brasier, 57, of Town and Country, was a partner with the firm of Boggs, Boggs & Bates, where he specialized in defending clients against personal-injury suits.

He and his wife, Patricia Holtmeier, have one daughter and two sons: Kelly Holtmeier-Brasier, 26, a college graduate who lives at home; Jeff Holtmeier-Brasier, 19, a student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale; and Zach Holtmeier-Brasier, 17, a student at Chaminade Prep High School.

Brasier's murder is the first in Clayton since July 2005, when a supervisor for a janitorial service was murdered inside another law office, at 10 Brentwood Boulevard. A co-worker was charged with murder in that case. Before that, Clayton had gone almost 10 years without a murder.

People who work in the building on Bonhomme said the janitor who found Brasier's body thought he might have suffered a heart attack. The janitor went for help and returned with a lawyer from another firm, who noticed blood on the victim's mouth. They called police.

Keith Liberman, a lawyer with another firm in the same building, said he and Brasier had been on opposite sides in a legal case. "He's a good guy, always very pleasant, and he tried a lot of cases."

In an interview, Patricia Holtmeier said the family had no idea why her husband was killed.

"His wallet was on him," she said. "Nothing was taken. It was just a senseless act."

She said they were married in 1976, five years after they met while he was a law student at the University of Missouri at Columbia. They were to have celebrated their 30th anniversary on Dec. 30. She said they lived in San Antonio, Texas, for nine years before moving 24 years ago to their home, off Bopp Road.

"He was wonderful," she said. "He coached all the kids in every one of their sports, whether he knew about the sport or not. Ernie enjoyed doing everything, and he was interested in everything and everybody, and he was so kind. He never had an enemy."

Two friends who did not want to be quoted by name said Brasier was a weekly golfer and a regular jogger.

"He liked to run because it relaxed him," said one friend, who noted that Brasier didn't get upset when he didn't golf well. "He'd talk about his family. They were very involved in the kids' sports and their educations. He was just a great person."

The family is active at St. Clement Catholic Church in Des Peres, where the children attended grade school.

Their home is decorated for Christmas with white snowflake lights across the front. Inside is a gingerbread house, a Christmas tree and a vase of red roses that Brasier had given his wife only a few days ago. The family had been planning holiday celebrations including Brasier's birthday on Dec. 28.

Tina Rickell, a neighbor, said Brasier tended a garden with daughter Kelly, "and would bring us tomatoes and other vegetables." Her husband, Barry, said Brasier's family is "one of the reasons I like being here."

Brasier was born in Chicago and grew up in Robertsville, Mo., in Franklin County. He graduated from Pacific High School. He graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1970 and from the Law School in 1974.

Patricia Holtmeier grew up on a farm near Washington, Mo. A nurse by
profession, she has worked in recent years as an instructor for Kumon Math and Reading, a private tutorial service. She also is a member of Town and Country's Public Health and Environmental Commission, an advisory body.

Harry Levins and William C. Lhotka, both of the Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.



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Copyrighted (2006) St. Louis Post Dispatch

Reprinted with permission of the Post Dispatch

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Series of deaths at Clayton law firm leave some wondering.

Related Topics:
Lawyers | Coroners Courts & Offices | Shootings | Employee Leave | Homicide | Investigations | Diseases & Disorders | Legal Services | Law Courts & Tribunals | Violence & SocietySeries of deaths at Clayton law firm leave some wondering.
Publication: Daily Record (Kansas City, MO)
Date: Monday, August 18 2008
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Byline: Kelly Wiese

Most think it's just an odd set of coincidences. But they still scratch their heads and can't help but wonder if there's more to the story. The civil defense firm of Boggs, Avellino, Lach & Boggs has hadthree of its lawyers die suddenly in less than two years. The firm continues

to claim about two-dozen lawyers, but the individuals working there have changed greatly in that time frame.

Count among the personnel turnover Mark Bates, who helped found the firm with managing partner Beth Boggs in 1999. Bates, who left the firm in April, said part of the turnover is the nature of the industry. But he also cited the firm's management style and people's wanting to start fresh after one of the firm's partners was shot to death in the law office in Clayton. For whatever reason, the small firm has been through a lot. InDecember 2006, partner Ernest Ernie Brasier was fatally shot in the firm's law office. His death remains unsolved, though robbery was ruled out as the motive. Add to that, last fall, another lawyer who hadworked at the firm with Brasier, Dan Bennett, died. The medical examiner's office said the cause was heart disease, according to media reports at the time. Then, this month, Boggs firm partner Vincent Venker also died suddenly. The medical examiner's office has not released his cause of death yet, but said there were no obvious external injuries. Clayton Police say the investigation into Brasier's death is open but they have no new information, and Venker's death did not change anything from their perspective. Certainly, like anybody else we're curious, but that case is a St. Louis city case, Capt. Kevin Murphysaid. We're not going to comment on somebody else's case. Bates worked with all of them and said the series of deaths does make people wonder what's going on at the firm. What people told me is at best theplace is cursed, he said. In the legal community, people want to talk about it and ask their questions. The Boggs firm released a statement mourning the loss of Venker, saying he was a friend and mentor to many and will be greatly missed. Firm administrator Joe Minner said the law firm had no further comment. According to Bates, there are several connections among the men that seem curious, but nothing that really answers what happened to Brasier. I don't know how to put all the pieces together, he said. For example, when Brasier was found dead in the law firm after business hours, he actually was in Bennett's office at the time. Bates said the office was upgrading its computer system, and Bennett was then on a leave of absence from the firm. So others used his computer to access the company network. Bates also said the firm has space in more than one floor in the Clayton office building, and all three men who died were on the third floor, where Bates also had worked. I would've been the only partner left that worked on the third floor that's still alive, he said. Also, both Bennett and Venker had been through a divorce not that long before their deaths, and Brasier represented Bennett in his divorce proceedings, Batessaid. Both Bates and another former attorney there, Matt Morris, were unaware of any major cases or clients that the three who have died worked on together, and Bates said they were not particularly close outside of work. In the end, both said it's probably just a weird string of events. Obviously there may be some skepticism, but it's just a series of coincidences, Morris said. People are comparing it to 'The Firm' -- I think that's overstated. The Firm was an early John Grisham novel, a tale about a young lawyer who got a great gig at a law firm only to watch as other attorneys turned up dead, and then discovered the firm was being run by the Mafia and investigated by the FBI.Bates also had a few thoughts about the reasons for turnover at the firm. According to an attorney listing on the firm's Web site from December 2006, shortly before Brasier was killed, compared to the current page, 11 of 24 lawyers from that time have left. For comparison, another St. Louis firm, Paule Camazine & Blumenthal, today lists 27 lawyers on its Web site. That firm's listing shows five attorneys who worked there in December 2006 no longer do. Bates, now a partner at Rynearson, Suess, Schnurbusch & Champion in St. Louis, said part of the turnover is common for insurance defense work, and part is because the Boggs firm is in many ways a training ground for young lawyers. That was the case for Morris, who used to work at the firm but left afew months before Brasier was killed. Morris said he left mainly because he decided he preferred to do plaintiffs' work, but had a good experience at the Boggs firm. He also knew many others who didn't staylong at their first job after law school. Once you get that experience, if you become a little more marketable, if you're a young attorney and tried three or four cases in your first few years, you can translate that into more money, said Morris, who now works for GoldenbergHeller Antognoli Rowland & Short in Edwardsville, Ill. I don't thinkit's anything that's endemic to that firm. But Bates said that's only part of the answer. Another issue is that people were unsettled after Brasier was killed, but also some didn't get along with Boggs, he said. That whole incident and the follow-up to it was very hard on both me and my family, a lot of uncertainty and [being] a little scaredBates said. I certainly hoped they would have some resolution and provide some closure. But Bates said he had other reasons, and took an opportunity that arose. A lot of it was Beth Boggs' personality as much as anything. That's what led me to leave, he said. Boggs did not return a call seeking comment. Morris, however, said he got along well with Boggs, and that his leaving just stemmed from seeking to practice a different kind of law. I was treated very well by Beth, he said. I don't have anything bad to say about the place.
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