From the archives of The Current

SGA President Darwin Butler speaks at the SGA press conference Aug. 19. Records from the St. Louis County Police Department show that Butler plead guilty to felony charges earlier this spring.

by Sue Britt
staff editor

President of the Student Government Association, Darwin Butler, is currently serving a one year sentence for felony stealing and credit device fraud in St. Louis County.

The case file reads that on Apr. 23, 1999 Butler pleaded guilty to stealing a credit device, a class C felony, and to fraudulent use of a credit device, a class D felony and was sentenced to one year for each count, to run concurrently. The term of imprisonment was ordered to be served in the custody of the Department of Justice Services and an amount of $46 was ordered to be paid by Butler to Crime Victims Compensation.

Butler's attorney, William Gavras, filed a document with the court dated May 14, 1999 that requested Butler be allowed work release for a period of eighty hours a week. The document cites three justifications for work release, "1) Defendant is a full time student 2) Defendant is employed 3) Defendant is president of UMSL student body." The state had no objection and the judge ordered the work release.

The crime took place "on or about" August 17, 1998 at 661 Dunn Road in Hazelwood at Bommarito Nissan. The charges read, "[T]he defendant appropriated a credit card, an American Express card, which said property was owned by [victim], and defendant appropriated such property without the consent of [victim], and with the purpose to deprive the victim thereof," and "[T]he defendant used a credit device, namely an American Express card of [victim], for the purpose of obtaining a Compaq 5020 computer system from Circuit City, which property was of a value of at least one hundred and fifty dollars, knowing that the device was stolen."

Butler said his background was not relevant to his position at UM-St. Louis.

"I was elected to this position by the students. I'm a student of this school, and I'm maintaining my grade point average," Butler said, "so I feel that my background, or what I've done in the past, has nothing to do with what I'm doing now."

Butler said he is going to continue the agenda he has already begun to pursue.

"What matters is that I continue on to try to get fees reduced, try to get some fees eliminated or optional," Butler said. "That's my job. That's what I'm going to be here to do. Now if you have some people, and I want this [written] exactly the way I'm saying it, if you have some people who may feel that, The Current or whatever, they may think that, that's the wrong type of character to display, I mean, well, let's check the background of everybody here. I'm quite sure that everybody here is not a saint. But that's neither here nor there. What I'm saying is what you are doing now is what should be looked at."

Butler said that the things of the past are not the issue but what is happening in the present.

"The situation is this, I'm here and able to be here and that's all that should matter. If I do a good job, now if something happened here on this campus, then I can understand, but as far as I'm concerned, right now I have the grade point average to be here. I think that I'm the right person for the job. I think that my agenda is in tune with what needs to happen on this campus," Butler said. "I know there's certain elements that's loving this, that's going to be loving to throw this mud around and if they think this can get rid of me, then there's another lawsuit because I haven't broken any constitutional laws [of the SGA]."