ALORTON • As mayor, Randy L. McCallum Sr. ran the village of Alorton like a personal criminal enterprise, according to newly released federal court documents that portray corruption far deeper than suggested in his guilty plea almost two years ago.
McCallum used village police to protect drug dealing, rob rivals and steal goods, according to affidavits used for search warrants that helped break the case. The documents say he took kickbacks and looted village funds to the point that an auditor asked why there were no bank deposits for about a year.
In February 2012, he pleaded guilty of attempting to possess crack cocaine with intent to distribute, theft of government property, lying to a federal agent and attempting to smuggle contraband to an inmate. He was sentenced to 43 months in prison.
The fresh material was among a series of similar documents prosecutors began to release last year after the Post-Dispatch raised concerns about the perpetual sealing of search warrants.
Lawyers cautioned Monday that prosecutors must use a higher standard of evidence in a criminal prosecution than federal agents or police use in applying for those warrants.
The affidavits base some of their claims on informers whose names were not made public and who may have been the subject of their own criminal investigations. Portions are heavily redacted. No one has been charged with conduct related to many of the accusations, and those charged have not admitted all of the claims in the warrants.
McCallum’s attorney, Justin Kuehn, blasted the informers’ claims in a statement Monday, calling them “fictional,” and “demonstrably false” allegations lodged by people who stood to benefit from McCallum’s “demise.”
But First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Porter said Monday that federal prosecutors stood behind the affidavits, noting that nothing in them had been proven false.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Weinhoeft, who handled the Alorton cases, declined comment.
YEARS OF PROBLEMS
The 2012 federal raid of the village offices was at least the third time that agents had come knocking.
FBI agents visited in 1994, leading to the indictment and eventual conviction of then-Mayor Callie Mobley. Mobley, in the job for almost two decades, was initially accused of embezzling from the village but pleaded guilty to two income-tax evasion charges.
In 2005, the FBI returned with search warrants the month after McCallum defeated incumbent Mayor Carolyn Williams. At the time, McCallum said the investigation was centered on village finances.
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Village officials could not be immediately reached Monday for comment.
Alorton is an impoverished community of about 2,000 people along the southeastern edge of East St. Louis. It has one of four Metro East police departments — along with East St. Louis, Brooklyn and Washington Park — that since Jan. 1 have operated under standardized procedures established by the Metro East Police District Commission in response to a plague of corruption cases.
CLAIMS AGAINST McCALLUM
Federal agents say they were told as early as 2009 that McCallum was targeting drug dealers who competed with his friends or other associates and was taking kickbacks for providing tax-funded grants to area businesses and residents.
McCallum, informers said, formed a group of police officers he dubbed “the stunt crew” shortly after taking office in 2005. It allegedly was told to shake down competing drug dealers.
Police also were told to “pull some licks,” street slang for committing thefts or robberies, and to split proceeds with McCallum and his minions, according to one officer secretly cooperating with the FBI.
An officer helping investigators staged a fake traffic stop within sight of McCallum in 2010, later claiming he’d taken $2,060 in exchange for releasing a wanted man. McCallum allegedly took $1,060, using some of the money to buy electrical outlets for his mother’s house.
McCallum also was led to believe that an officer took crack cocaine and $470 in a 2011 traffic stop. McCallum took $200 and the crack, saying he was going to sell the drugs and split the money, court documents say. But the crack was fake.
Informers claimed that McCallum conspired with Police Chief Michael Baxton to steal evidence, including cash and drugs. Baxton was sentenced in 2012 to one year in federal prison for stealing four Xbox 360 game consoles in what turned out to be an FBI sting.
The mayor allegedly intervened with police on behalf of friends and others, voiding tickets and threatening to fire officers who arrested his relatives.
He took a pistol from a police officer’s car because he liked the look of it, informers claimed, and boasted that the gun “may have two or three bodies on it,” street language suggesting a connection to murders.
They also told agents that McCallum had almost complete control over the tax increment financing funds, using the money to reward allies and taking thousands in kickbacks.
One business complained that it was running out of money because it cashed so many $4,000 checks from the village.
The accusations also claim McCallum took kickbacks from officers in exchange for being hired or being awarded undeserved pay.
SOME DISPUTE CLAIMS
Kuehn, in his statement on behalf of McCallum, said some police officers and Alorton officials gave affidavits contrary to the claims in the search warrant applications.
Members of the police Street Tactic Undercover Narcotics Team said that they legitimately targeted violence and that “McCallum did not interfere with police activities in any way, nor did he ever ask them to participate in corrupt or illegal activities,” Kuehn wrote.
And one longtime member of the Alorton Board of Trustees said that McCallum did not have the primary responsibility for awarding TIF funds, Kuehn noted.
When McCallum pleaded guilty last year of federal charges, he admitted taking $1,200 and what he thought was crack cocaine from traffic stops. He also acknowledged saying that he was going to sell the crack, and that he smuggled cigarettes to a St. Clair County jail inmate in 2011 and tried to smuggle in marijuana.
That inmate was his son, Randy McCallum Jr., who was awaiting trial on a double-murder charge.
The most recent Alorton official to be in court was Harry Halter Jr., a former police officer and former director of public safety, who had been convicted in state court of official misconduct for demanding oral sex from a motorist in 2008 to spare her from going to jail.
On Thursday, Halter was sentenced to two years in prison on wire fraud and tax evasion charges. He admitted using $19,000 of a $25,000 Alorton grant on personal expenses but denied kicking back $800 to McCallum, saying it was a political contribution, defense attorney Jim Stern said.
But U.S. District Judge Michael Reagan said the denial had the odor of an “unrefrigerated ... dead fish.”
Paul Hampel of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
















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