最新杏吧原创

Storms were hitting Missouri that March night and the governor had declared a state of emergency. The mayor 鈥� who does not have a police officer鈥檚 license 鈥� ordered employees to close the store.

He had criticized the Raqqa Mart before, even threatened to take its liquor license, said Fadi Nasser, the owner at the time. But this was the first time the city had ordered it to close. Workers locked doors and left within 30 minutes.

鈥淢y employees got scared,鈥� Nasser said in a recent interview. 鈥淚s this guy going to take us to jail, or what鈥檚 going on?鈥�

Mayor Mike Cornell came into office in this small north 最新杏吧原创 County municipality with a list of legal troubles and aspirations to clean up the village.

Over three years, he has held secret meetings in his office, where officials agreed to raise his pay and set aside a police SUV for his use. He regularly orders police around as if he were chief, according to officers and former police chiefs. And he has used the powers of his office to bully critics, shut down meetings, arrest a political rival 鈥� and close stores like Raqqa Mart at will.

Over the same period, at least 30 city employees and elected officials have left Riverview, many citing Cornell鈥檚 behavior. In the last year alone, six lawsuits have been filed accusing him of misconduct. Residents know him for driving through town in an unmarked police SUV, wearing the armored vest, carrying a gun and displaying a gold badge that says 鈥渕ayor.鈥�

鈥淗e pulls up in a police car with a badge on and the vest on and everything like he鈥檚 the police,鈥� said Eddie Simmons, a Riverview police chief in 2023, who quit after a month on the job. 鈥淪omebody who doesn鈥檛 know who he is would see him and think that he is an officer.鈥�

The Post-Dispatch interviewed three dozen people, including business owners, residents and former Riverview officials and employees. The newspaper reviewed texts, letters and meeting minutes documenting Cornell鈥檚 actions or accusations against him. And it filed several public records requests with the city seeking documents, none of which were provided.

Cornell, 39, did not return phone calls, emails and texts requesting an interview. Police blocked a Post-Dispatch reporter from approaching the mayor after two recent public meetings; officers then closed city hall and kicked the public out.

During the meetings, Cornell railed from the dais against the 鈥渘egativity鈥� he said distracted from his efforts to clean up vacant lots, install speed bumps, host community gatherings and boost city pride.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to bring it back,鈥� Cornell said at meeting on July 24. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e doing, tremendously.鈥�

Trying to become a cop

Riverview, with about 2,600 residents, takes up less than a square mile north of 最新杏吧原创鈥� industrial Mississippi riverfront. The streets, hilly and forested, are a mix of apartments and cottage homes, with a few businesses. The town has long fielded complaints about illegal trash dumping, derelict properties and declining property values.

When Cornell moved to Riverview, about six years ago, he had little connection to the village, his relatives told the Post-Dispatch.

He attended elementary school in 最新杏吧原创, said his father, Michael Cornell Sr., of Annapolis, Missouri. His dad brought him to Annapolis, a rural town in the Ozarks, after Cornell got caught skipping school in 最新杏吧原创.

He 鈥渁lways had an attitude problem,鈥� Cornell Sr. said.

鈥淗e鈥檚 too headstrong,鈥� he added. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 talk to him. Can鈥檛 tell him anything.鈥�

Cornell finished middle and high school in Annapolis, graduating in 2005, records show.

He then set out to become a police officer and, in December of that year, completed a year-long law enforcement certification program at Mineral Area College in Park Hills, about an hour south of 最新杏吧原创, according to college records.

At 19, however, he was two years too young to get his police license.

He enrolled in the 最新杏吧原创 Police Academy in 2007 but was terminated after four months 鈥渇or action detrimental to the duties as a recruit in training,鈥� according to court records. Still, he later was hired in a civilian unit that assisted police by fingerprinting and processing suspects.

Over the next several years, Cornell ran into some legal trouble. He was sued by a landlord for rent, the sewer district for unpaid bills and by the city of 最新杏吧原创 for unpaid taxes.

In 2014, he was suspended from his police job. An indictment accused him of, over several years, impersonating a police officer; grooming and sexually abusing a man who was 14 when he first met Cornell; and harassing the man and his father.

Three years later, prosecutors dropped all charges but one, saying Cornell鈥檚 accuser had stopped cooperating in the case. Cornell pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of impersonating a police officer, then successfully petitioned to have the misdemeanor expunged by the courts, hiding the case from public view.

Cornell later said the case against him had been retaliatory. He had challenged 鈥渦nethical and systematic unjust practices鈥� within the department, he wrote in a biography on Riverview鈥檚 website.

By 2019, Cornell had moved to Riverview and rented a home there, according public records.

Three years later, he had earned his state license to become a private investigator 鈥� and was running for office in his new town.

Riverview was then an older type of municipal government called a village, more common among smaller 最新杏吧原创 County municipalities. Villages are run by a board of trustees, with a board chairman in the place of a traditional mayor.

The board in Riverview at the time was all white. Cornell鈥檚 campaign focused on racial equity and an aggressive push to clean up the village, residents and former officials said.

鈥淗e had all these good ideas, trying to fix up the place,鈥� said Darrin Johnson, a longtime resident and former Cornell ally.

Cornell was elected in April 2022, coming in first with 82 votes in a three-way race for two seats.

The board welcomed Cornell as the city鈥檚 first Black trustee, and, at 35, its youngest.

Consolidating power

Almost immediately, Cornell began inserting himself into decisions outside trustees鈥� authority, several former Riverview officials and staffers said. He got involved in hiring and firing decisions, they said. He gave employees specific directions without first consulting their supervisors. And, they said, he started 鈥渋nvestigating鈥� city practices and departments.

鈥淗e wanted to rewrite everything,鈥� said Terri Starz, a trustee then.

In April 2023, voters elected three newcomers to the five-member trustee board. Cornell had recruited all three.

The newcomers 鈥� Shawnte Jackson, Judy Jones and Johnson, the longtime resident 鈥� won a four-way race for three open board seats, unseating the board鈥檚 longtime chairman.

The new majority elected Cornell as chair. Then, according to meeting minutes obtained by the Post-Dispatch and interviews with Johnson, Jackson and other witnesses, the board began to hold closed-door meetings in Cornell鈥檚 office.

In those meetings, the new board approved a series of changes that gave Cornell more benefits and powers.

• On May 5, 2023, the board increased Cornell鈥檚 pay by $1,000 a month, meeting minutes say. Phyllis Paro, a longtime board member, was the lone no vote at the meeting. Cornell abstained. In prior years, board members made $100 per monthly meeting, according to .
• On May 12, the board voted to decommission a police SUV, a 2018 Black Chevrolet Tahoe, for Cornell鈥檚 use, taking it out of the department鈥檚 roster of four vehicles. Paro and Cornell abstained.
• Also on May 12, Cornell moved to rescind an $8,000 pay raise for police officers the prior board had approved. Paro was the lone no vote.
• On Aug. 21, the board approved a public election to consider upgrading Riverview鈥檚 classification from a village to a fourth-class city. That change would later do two things: make Cornell a mayor instead of a board chair, and give the city power to seek new taxes and fees. The board put the measure on the Nov. 7 ballot that year; residents approved it, 70 votes to 44.

The actions taken during the various meetings appeared to violate state laws on open government meetings and pay increases for elected officials:

The decisions of a government body to raise pay, decommission vehicles and schedule public votes are supposed to be held in public sessions. Also, a state law requires pay raises for elected officials to take effect after the next election.

Yet Cornell鈥檚 pay jumped to $20,700 by the end of 2023, . Even then, it rose $7,500 more than the minutes suggest it should have.

Riverview has refused to explain the private meetings or Cornell鈥檚 pay increases.

Mass departures

Since Cornell was elected three years ago, about three dozen employees have left, including two city attorneys, five elected officials, five police chiefs and at least 18 police officers.

Many quit in Cornell鈥檚 first year, citing conflicts with him. Later, several Cornell had recruited quit in protest, too.

Simmons, Riverview鈥檚 first Black police chief, left in June 2023 after less than a month on the job. A former Pagedale chief and 最新杏吧原创 police officer, he said Cornell asked him to steer the department after two previous chiefs quit.

Instead, Simmons said, Cornell wanted to run the department. Cornell rifled through the department鈥檚 drawers and equipment, tried to direct how officers鈥� schedules were changed, and upset longtime white officers by claiming he personally could fire them at any time, Simmons said.

The final straw, Simmons said, came when the board rescinded the officers鈥� pay raises without including him in the discussion.

That led six of the city鈥檚 eight officers to quit in protest, writing in a letter that Cornell had created a hostile work environment and violated state labor laws by denying them due wages, a claim the federal Labor Department is still investigating.

鈥淚 take law enforcement seriously,鈥� Simmons said. 鈥淎nd I couldn鈥檛 attach my name to that.鈥�

Over the next year, after Cornell became chair of the board, five trustees left.

Paro, the longtime trustee, quit in July 2023. Pat Lewis, who the board appointed to replace Paro, left by February of last year. Jackson stopped going to board meetings, then quit that spring. Johnson ran against Cornell for mayor, lost, then quit, too.

Regina Davis, elected that April as a new alderwoman, lasted a month on the job.

鈥淗e wanted people to look the other way, and I wasn鈥檛 going to look the other way,鈥� Davis said of Cornell.

By the end of 2024, Cornell鈥檚 pay jumped again, this time to $30,000. There鈥檚 no public record of the decision.

Allegations of harassment, retaliation

Davis is one of six plaintiffs now suing Riverview alleging misbehavior by Cornell.

Two former employees allege they were sexually harassed, then fired.

In July of last year, former parks employee Brandon Evans sued Cornell, claiming the mayor recruited him from Texas, put him up in Cornell鈥檚 house, made sexual advances, and, when Evans did not return the attention, fired him.

In June of this year, Cornelius Thompson, 19, a former assistant to Cornell, sued alleging the mayor offered to personally drive him to work, made sexual remarks during the workday, invited Thompson to his house, offered to give him a promotion to a high-paying job and touched him inappropriately. Thompson refused the advances, was suspended from work, then fired, the suit says.

Former police Chief Tom Tumbrink, who is white, sued the same month, alleging Cornell fired him without due process for filing a racial discrimination complaint against the mayor. Tumbrink also refused 鈥渦nlawful鈥� orders from Cornell, the suit says, to alter one report and 鈥渧oid鈥� another 鈥� a sexual harassment complaint Thompson filed with police against the mayor.

Other suits allege Cornell used police officers or the legal system to retaliate against critics.

In May, James Carroll sued Cornell claiming the mayor unlawfully subpoenaed him.

Carroll, a former official in neighboring Bellefontaine Neighbors, had written an off-color remark on social media about Cornell referencing one of the lawsuits accusing Cornell of sexual harassment. Days later, Riverview sent Carroll a subpoena, typically an order issued by a court, demanding he testify at a board meeting the next day. Carroll, who lives in Illinois, refused and accused Cornell of trying to intimidate him.

The case drew national attention. A free speech group, the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, sued Riverview alleging the city violated Missouri鈥檚 open records law by ignoring records requests about the incident.

Last month, former alderwoman Davis sued alleging she was wrongfully arrested at a Riverview town hall. She had publicly asked Cornell about a sexual harassment suit before he interrupted her. Police then surrounded her, and one officer appeared to take her to the ground.

Riverview charged Davis with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. 最新杏吧原创 County dismissed the charges in May.

An 鈥榟onorary dinner鈥� celebration

In May, Cornell held an invite-only party in a neighboring city celebrating his tenure as mayor and Riverview鈥檚 reclassification from a village to a city.

The invitation for the event, billed as an 鈥渉onorary dinner鈥� for Cornell, asked for donations 鈥渧ia checks, cash or gift cards鈥� made out to him directly. It wasn鈥檛 a city-funded event, the invitation made clear, and it wasn鈥檛 described as a political fundraiser, either, which would have required Cornell to report donations.

But Cornell ordered all Riverview police officers to attend, according to four ex-officers who worked for Riverview at the time.

鈥淧er the mayor this event is mandatory,鈥� a police supervisor said in an April 24 text obtained by the Post-Dispatch.

The supervisor told any officers who had an issue to write a memo to the mayor.

The day of the party, May 10, at a Knights of Columbus Lodge in Bellefontaine Neighbors, Riverview police cars were posted outside, witnesses said. Uniformed officers checked people鈥檚 names at the door, a former Riverview police supervisor said. Guests included elected officials from Riverview and other parts of the county.

Inside, Cornell gave a speech about himself, and friends and family members also spoke about him, according to a business owner who attended. The dinner was catered by a local business. Other Riverview employees helped set up and clean up the space, said an officer who was there.

One officer refused to attend the party. He wrote a memo that criticized the order and sent it to Cornell.

The officer, who now works for another area police department and asked not to be identified, said Riverview immediately suspended him without pay and, before he could get a hearing, fired him.

鈥淚 never got a chance to contest it,鈥� he said.