Stephanie Platt The Current

Darwin Butler awaits his hearing in the St. Louis County courtroom of Judge David Lee Vincent III on Thursday Oct. 21. The hearing was to determine if Butler's work release would be revoked.

by Sue Britt
staff editor

As the Student Government Association was meeting to discuss the future of its president Darwin Butler, Butler was at a hearing in Clayton regarding revocation of his work-release agreement.

The hearing resulted in the temporary suspension of Butler's work release. He will not be allowed to leave jail before Nov. 4 when a new hearing will be held to determine if the revocation shall become permanent. Judge David Lee Vincent III could not rule on the case permanently because Butler was not represented by legal counsel.

William Gavras, an attorney who represented Butler in a prior case said that neither he nor his partner, John Shelhorse, were representing Butler at this time.

"We weren't representing him for this," Gavras said. "We had represented him previously on his criminal matter but we were not retained to represent him in this proceeding."

The State of Missouri filed a motion to withdraw Butler's work release authorization on Oct. 12. It said Butler had driven with a suspended license and no car insurance and that he did not have permission from Work Release to drive. The State also said that he had violated the terms of his work release when he was given a breathalyzer and registered .11 percent. The State also mentioned a 30 day suspension of work release that had been recommended. Also, by the time of the hearing the State said they had become aware that Butler had a warrant issued from Carson City, Nevada.

In a letter in his file, Butler denied he registered a .11 percent on the breathalyzer, as the State alleges, but that he registered zeros. He also said to the judge that even though he registered zero on the machine he was sanctioned two weekend passes from work release. The Current obtained an incident report from the date to which Butler was referring which stated that when Butler reported to the Work Release program, May 10, he tested at .11 percent at 9:30 a.m. and at .00 at 1:05 p.m. Butler denies the initial test was ever conducted.

Butler also stated that he appealed the 30-day suspension of his work release recommended by the Superintendent of Work Release Center, Milton Mitchell, and that Mitchell revised his recommendation to allow Butler to serve the 30 days during weekends and the break at the end of the semester. The Current confirmed the appeal decision through court documents.

"I pray that this court recognize my efforts and good behavior in the work-release program," Butler wrote, "and uphold Dr. Milton Mitchell's decision to allow me to finish the current semester and serve my (30) day suspension beginning after the semester."

Regardless of the outcome of any hearing on revoking Butler's work release in Missouri, said Alan Hart, program assistant of the Nevada Division of Parole and Probation, Butler may not be released because of the active warrant from Nevada. Hart said the Interstate Compact Agreement, that has been signed by both Missouri and Nevada, supersedes any work release agreement Butler had with the state of Missouri.

Hart said that in June 1996 police in Carson City, Nev. were called to a domestic dispute and that Butler had left the scene before they arrived. Hart said that when Butler left he had taken his girlfiend's car keys and gold necklace. His girlfriend pressed charges and Butler was convicted of larceny from a person. The judge gave him a two-year suspended sentence with probation. Hart said that one of the conditions of Butler's probation is that he may not commit any criminal offenses. The cases Butler is serving time for in Missouri are a violation of his probation, he said.

"Our warrants are no-bail," Hart said.

Hart said that Butler would not be allowed to fight the extradition.

"A condition of being accepted to another state for supervision," Hart said, "is that he would not contest extradition."

Nevada has started the extradition proceedings.

Upon entering the courtroom Butler denounced the presence of The Current staff members and made a comment regarding the coincidence of the scheduling of the hearing that day.

"It's very ironic," Butler said, "they have this court date set on the same day as the [SGA meeting]."

Crystal Blake, student secretary of the SGA said that all SGA meetings for the semester were decided on at the Sept. 17 meeting of that organization, to be the third Thursday of each month at 2 p.m.0.