Lincoln County official charged with drug possession
Lincoln County commissioner Matthew Bass was charged today with two felony counts of drug possession.
Matthew Bass
Lincoln County Sheriff’s Detective Shayne Duryea said Bass bought prescription painkillers morphine and fentanyl from a dealer about 1 p.m. Wednesday in the parking lot of a Troy, Mo., business.
A probable cause statement says Bass bought $35 of the pain drugs on the lot of a Casey’s convenience store from a police informer wired with a hidden camera and recorder.
Bass and the informer made the exchange between their vehicles, authorities say.
Bass, 45, was released today from the Lincoln County Jail after posting a $20,000 cash-only bail. He could not be reached for comment.
The informant made a recorded telephone call to Bass to tell him had drugs to sell him, according to the probable cause statement. Bass said he wanted to buy them and they agreed to meet Wednesday.
Duryea said a Troy police officer observed Bass buying the drugs from a man in the lot and followed Bass as he drove away, stopping him on Cherry Street.
The officer seized one capsule of morphine and one patch of fentanyl, Duryea said. Bass told investigators he bought the drugs because he has back pain and surgery scheduled soon.
The state attorney general’s office is handling the case at the request of Lincoln County Prosecutor John Richards to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest, officials said.
Bass, a Republican, was elected to the commission in November 2008 after a three-year term on the Troy Board of Alderman.
In a 2008 Post-Dispatch elections guide, he said he was the owner of the Krumbly Burgers restaurant in Troy.
If convicted, Bass faces up to seven years in prison or up to one year in the county jail and/or a $5,000 fine for each count.
Sean O’Brien, presiding commissioner of the Lincoln County Commission, said the news of Bass’ arrest is “shocking.” He said Bass is a good person who has always had the best interests of the county at heart.
“I feel bad for him and his family,” O’Brien said. “Hopefully, he’ll be able to find the help he needs to deal with his problem.”
O’Brien also said Bass told him recently he had been complaining of back pain and was planning to take three weeks off to recover from surgery set for next month.
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Sounds like Mr. Bass has a dependency problem. The system did the right thing, and hopefully Mr. Bass will get the help he needs. He should only receive probation. If this was STLPD, they probably would have swept this under the rug quietly?
Hmmm….what’s Matt been crumbling in the Krumbly Burgers?
County commissioners office keeps losing respectability. I wonder what secrets Sean O’Brien has. Money under the table comes to mind.
This is Lincoln County, not St. Chas…. Anyway, NAILED ’EM!!!! maybe people will now think twice before they succum to mental disorders, depression and addiction!!! I hope he gets the dependency help he needs…in federal prison!!!
This just goes to show that Republicans are not as lilly white as they put on. Rush Limbaugh had a problem with drugs also. These are not minor problems the drugs in question can be deadly. Where there is smoke there is fire and we do not know who else these people have bought or sold drugs with. This from the people who want to throw the baby out with the bath water. Their approach to drugs is tyranny at best. They seek to mentally break down a user and then remold that person into something they find useful. Liberty and their approach to drugs have nothing in common.
This story has already been posted under “Crime Beat”. Why the duplication? Anyway, without knowing whether or not Mr. Bass attained his position by being a tough-on-drug-users Republican, I sympathize with him if his pain is real. As a gout sufferer, I will find a new doctor the next time i have a flair-up and he doesn’t prescribe something strong enough.
The Bard–
Contributors to Chas Beat are based in the St. Charles Post-Dispatch bureau and cover news not just in St. Charles County but Lincoln and Warren counties as well.
skippy–
I posted the story to both the Crime Beat and Chas Beat blogs because not all readers, like yourself, check both.
Thanks. -Joel Currier / Post-Dispatch
I am not saying this needs to sweeped under the rug just because of who this man is. i have lived in lc for 12 years and ther is one thing about this county that u will notice is that it is DIRTY!!! some of u may not agree i really dont care. i have known matt bass for the past 12 years since i have been here. i see this as hard times insurance wont pay for certain meds and thats to say if he had any insurance being a small business owner times are tough. i dont cadone what he has done if the county is even tellin the truth. i have been married to a man who’s family is very well known up here and now going thru a divorce. i had to go to st. peters to find a lawyer that didnt kno them so i can get a fair divorce hearing and still not sure bout that because the judge knows of them too. this county is all for who u know and how much money u got in ur pocket at the time. i am sorry if u dont agree. and yeah i have friends that are lc sheriffs and they kno how i feel bout it but still no disagreements there either
I met Matt years ago when his family opened the restaurant. A good decent man then. But like everybody, they have their breaking point, and the pain accelerated him to his point. Hope he can beat the pain problem. I’m sure him having to endure the pain, as well as the problems that will follow because of this will heal in due time.
Skippy….High doses of Aleve can break the pain, like 12 pills at once, check with your doc. That is what my doc ordered, and it works for me.
Curious, no mention of them going after the alleged drug dealer, who made the call to get Bass to come buy the drugs. Where did the drugs come from?
Is Bass the only customer in the county keeping the dealers afloat? Why so much effort and publicity over one morphine pill and fentanyl patch? Surely there’s “Bigger Fish to Fry” than one guy here.