Missouri Woman Faces 15 Years In Prison For Allegedly Cutting In Line; Prosecutor Sends Offensive Email

In January 2007, 20-year-old Heather Ellis, then a student at Xavier University, and her cousin David went to a Wal-Mart in Kennett, Missouri, near the Tennessee border, in an area commonly known as the Missouri Bootheel.  Kennett, in rural and conservative Dunklin County, which boasts that it seceded from the Union during the Civil War, is overwhelmingly white.

At the check-out line, the pair split up in order to find the shortest line.  When Ellis left her line to join her cousin at a shorter line, customers complained and a store employee accused her of cutting, at which point an argument ensued and a manager notified a security guard, an off-duty Kennett Police officer.  The situation escalated from there:

In the Ellis version, she was shoved by another customer, had her items pushed aside by the clerk and then was short-changed when she finally was checked out. The police affidavit contends, at numerous times, Ellis became belligerent, loud, abusive and cursing when she was told to leave by the store's assistant manager. Summoned by a frantic phone call from her son, as the pair walked out to the parking lot, [Ellis' aunt] Blackmon says she arrived in time to witness her niece being brutalized by police during attempts to place her in a squad car.

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Ellis was charged with disturbing the peace, trespassing, resisting arrest and two counts of assaulting a police officer. Yet, curiously after being described in the police affidavit as "completely out of control" during her arrest, she was released to the custody of her parents to receive medical attention only 45 minutes after being jailed. However, her arrest triggered a whole series of problems. Although she returned to school in Louisiana, two months later, an attorney hired by the family tried to talk Heather into taking a plea deal offered by powerful Dunklin County Prosecutor, Stephen Sokoloff.

However, eleven months after her arrest and with her family alleging there was no written or verbal notification at all, the misdemeanor charges against Heather Ellis were suddenly dismissed. However, the Ellis' family joy was short-lived. A friend of Heather's discovered some shocking news.

Blackmon relates, "He was running a record check. There was a warrant out there for her arrest. Dangerous felon assaulted officers. Dangerous!"

Mrs. Ellis says she went directly to prosecutor Sokoloff's office to find out why Heather now faced felony counts, that if convicted, could see her face fifteen years in prison.

She asserts, "I said why would you want to fight this young lady? You don't even know her. I mean we went in this conversation. 'Mrs. Ellis, when you get through I don't care what you say. You may as well take my way out. My way was the plea bargain. If you don't take that way, I can assure you you'll never win in here.'"

As she approaches a trial date on November 18th, and despite reportedly losing two jobs and her chance to enter medical school because of the pending felonies on her previously unmarked record, Heather Ellis has continued to refuse to sign any plea bargain offered by Sokoloff's office.

This June, when the family and other residents planned a protest, a Kennett police officer visited the family and handed them a card, which the department says were littered throughout the protest route.  The card was from the KKK.

The brown cards with red writing said you've just been paid a social visit by the Ku Klux Klan. The next visit will not be social.

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In a police report the officer, Steve Williams, says he was only trying to make the family aware the KKK cards were littered along the march route.

Buffalo State College journalism professor Michael Niman does not buy it:

In essence, the official line has the police investigating Klan activity by turning over their evidence to organizers of a protest against alleged racist police misconduct. Interestingly, there are no current allegations of any Klan activity in the area that doesn't involve the Kennett Police Department.

The FOX affiliate in Memphis reports:

In early September, Niman, who had written on the case for the Progressive Populist, received the following email from Sokoloff, who is the chief prosecutor in the case.  Though Sokoloff told reporters that he has no personal animosity towards Ellis, the tone of his email would indicate otherwise.  [Errors original]

Had you performed any actual background research, you would discover that Ms. Ellis was not cursed by any employees, but in fact was the one doing the cursing and insulting and threatening.  when the store personnel advised her that she would have to calm down or leave, she continued to threaten and curse tham. even after the police arrived, no one made any attempt to lay hands on her, still requesting that she leave. she actuallywalked away as the clerk was trying to give her the merchandise and her change. She was notrefusing to leave without it. the clerk had to come outside and give it to her. Ms. Ellis can be very clearly seen in the video shoving the merchandise of the next customer in line back from the register and trying to place her own in fromt of it. The video anso clearly shows her cursing at the officers as they followed her out of the store, it also clearly shows that ther was no excessive force used in the arrest and that Ms. Ellis was not lifted off the ground. Further despite your report that ther were no injured victims, one officer sustained a split lip from a punch thrown by the "innocent" Ms. Ellis and another a bruised shin where she kicked him. Furhter, the E.R. records of Ms. Ellis' visit show no visible injuries, but I'm sure they are also part of the conspiracy against her as well.

With regard to yoyr report of the rally, Ther were indeed some KKK cards strewn around one of the streets of the planned march, the police gathered them up and Maj S. Williams showed one of them to one of the march organizers, Ms. Ellis' aunt. This waas done as an attempt to keep them advised of what had happened. She (the aunt) grabbed the card and accused the Major of distributing the cards, with no basis.

You might want to talk to any of the three attorneys that Ms. Ellis has fired, or who withdrew from representation because of threats from her family. They can tell you what a poor persecuted little girl Heahter is, and can tell you about the multiple missed court appearances, and the accusations of being in the prosecution's pocket( this last one made to an african-American lawyer from St. Louis, referred to Ms. Elleis by the NAACP) who withdrew because Heather's father threatened to"kick his ass" because he would not prevent the prosecution from finding out who the witnesses were that the defense  intended to call at trial. (of course, this is required by law).  

The story has received limited coverage in the media, but one can hope that some attention to the case will give Ellis and her family the peace they have sought for almost three years.