Who was Jeff Roe's source?

As reported by the Turner Report, Jeff Roe has removed the libelous statements he posted about Joe Brazil back in August of 2006. The post reported that back in 1982 Brazil was drunk when he was involved in an accident that resulted in the death of his friend Norval Pierce. The post was a flat out lie but before I discuss that let me give you a little background:

In 2006 State Senator Jon Dolan resigned to take a job in the private sector. As a result of Dolan's resignation an election was to be held to fill Dolan's seat until the next general election. Under the law each party had to pick a candidate to run for the seat and several Republicans actively sought the position. Among those were Scott Rupp, a Republican member of the house, and Brazil, a Republican St. Charles County councilman. The candidate would be selected by members of the various Republican committees within the senatorial district. While the district includes parts of various counties it is mostly comprised of St. Charles County.

The Republican party in St. Charles County is controlled by the builders and developers who pour millions of dollars into local elections, however, there remains a faction of the party fighting the corruption, giveaways and control the builders/developers have over the party. As the election approached it became clear that Rupp was the candidate of the developers while Brazil had been fighting for years against the developers control over the party. One of Rupp's leading supporters was Paul McKee ( the 100 million dollar tax credit Paul McKee) and Mckee was also a supporter of Blunt.

Prior to the vote, members of the Republican committee were being lobbied to support Rupp by people from the Blunt team. Despite the support of Blunt, Brazil won the first vote but, because the vote was split between several candidates, he did not receive the required majority to secure the nomination. A run off was held between Rupp and Brazil which Rupp won 10-9. Rupp went on to beat the Democratic candidate, however, the general election was just months away and this time there would be a Republican primary. Brazil announced he would be running against Rupp in the primary.

While Rupp had a huge advantage in money the Republican party apparently did not have confidence he would win and decided to go on the attack against Brazil. Enter Jeff Roe, the undisputed king of gutter politics and mud slinging. Roe and other Republicans began looking for dirt on Brazil. This research included looking into the 1982 accident which resulted in Norval's death.

Apparently, someone from the Republican party (I Believe it was Buddy Hardin) went to the Florissant police station to look at the police report on the accident. Meanwhile Roe posted a story on his web site, The Source, that claimed Brazil was drunk and that was the reason Norval was killed. Roe relied in part on a story that appeared on the Darwin Awards, a site which tries to put a humorous spin on people who die in odd ways. Roe made no mention of the police report which indicated alcohol was not involved.

However, it wasn't just the police report that indicated Joe was not drinking, those who were with Joe that night will all tell you alcohol was not involved. I know because I am one of those witnesses. Joe and Norval were both close friends of mine and I was one of the pallbearers at Norval's funeral. The night of the accident was supposed to be our "senior prank" night and we planned to pour sand over the teachers parking lot and have a beach party. Joe and several of our friends had gone to get the sand prior to the accident and we did not have a drop of alcohol that night.

When we arrived at school we began dumping the sand and I was in the dump truck right behind Joe and watched as Norval either slipped or jumped off the truck Joe was driving. Joe kept driving, unaware Norval fell under the wheels, and the truck ran over Norval. The police and other emergency personal arrived on the scene and while many of us went to the emergency room, Joe went with the police to explain what happened. Norval was pronounced dead at the hospital that night, just 3 days before our graduation.

While this was a horrible tragedy for everyone involved one thing that helped all of us cope was the kindness shown by Norval's family. The Pierce family opened up their home to all of us, including Joe, and to this day we remain in contact with the family. When Joe first ran for office in Florissant, Norval's parents put his signs up in their yard. There had never been any mention that Joe was drinking by those of us who were with Joe that night and witnesses, the police report and the Pierce family are consistent on this point. Therefore, we were all shocked when Jeff Roe's post appeared.

As soon as I read the Roe story I emailed Roe and the Darwin site. I learned the Darwin story had been submitted by someone who graduated with our class but neither Joe, myself nor any of our friends knew this person (we had a class of over 600) but we did know the writer was not with us and the story was false. Another friend of ours who was there that night also emailed the Darwin site and explained the story was not true and the story was removed from the Darwin site. Roe, however, not only refused to remove the site but he continued to defend his post with contradictory stories about his source of information.

One thing that I was curious about was how Roe had come across the Darwin story since it did not mention Joe by name. As I read about Roe on the Internet I learned of his (lack of) character and ethics and I found the connection. One of our classmates and friends in 1982 was Leslie Hickock. While I had not seen Leslie in years, I remembered seeing her at a class reunion (I think our 20th in 2002) when she proudly introduced me to her husband, United States Congressman Sam Graves. Of course, I now know of the connection between Graves and Roe and I am sure Roe talked to Leslie about the accident. (In fact, he refers to a conversation he had with a close friend about the incident in one of the stories written about his post.)

While I am not sure if Leslie was there the night of the accident I am sure she was not with us prior to the accident or when it occurred. . Therefore, I am left with this question, did Leslie simply tell Roe about the incident and he took it from there or did Leslie lead Roe to believe Joe was drinking? Either way Leslie has an obligation to set the record straight, a chance I am sure she will get in the libel case.

I often wonder how people like Roe end up that way, were they simply corrupted by greed and power or is it some personality trait they were born with? Depending on how Leslie explains her involvement in this case I may have a better understanding.