Sunset Hills mayor charged with assault for allegedly hitting cyclist with car

If convicted of either charge, Mark Furrer will lose his title as mayor — Missouri law says that any elected official convicted of a felony must forfeit his office.

“I’m hoping he’ll do the right thing and step down,” Alderman Dee Baebler said. “I think that would be the appropriate move.”

Furrer’s attorney, Thomas J. Magee, said, “The only statement we would make at this time is that we will plan to vigorously defend this matter, and this case will go to trial, and we expect to win.”

News of the July 29 incident went viral through social media, prompting a deluge of calls, emails and text messages to the mayor.

Nearly 200 cyclists gathered at a rally in Sunset Hills days later to promote bicycle safety and show their support for cyclist Randy Murdick.

Murdick, 47, of Fenton, said that Furrer was driving his red convertible and cursed at him, then intentionally hit him with his car in the 12000 block of Old Gravois Road.

Furrer, 60, has denied Murdick’s allegations and said Murdick whipped around a corner without heeding a stop sign and cursed when the mayor told him to obey traffic laws. Furrer said he did not swerve into Murdick but through his rearview mirror saw him tumble over. Furrer also said he continued west down the road but turned around as soon as possible.

Murdick previously told the Post-Dispatch that he was nearing the end of a 40-mile ride when he was confronted by the mayor. Murdick said he suffered bruises and a torn Achilles tendon, and that his $12,000 bicycle was heavily damaged.

Court documents say he suffered a “contusion on the buttock and a strain of the knee and leg” and that damage to Murdick’s Specialized Venge bicycle amounted to more than $750.

Murdick’s lawyer, Michelle Funkenbusch, said Wednesday that the charges “substantiate everything that we’ve been saying. We’re satisfied, finally, that the prosecuting attorney’s office has looked at this and has seen it for the crime that it was.”

Funkenbusch said she and Murdick are glad the prosecutor’s office “has made a statement that they are going to protect cyclists on the roads.”

Murdick, a union electrician, took at least six weeks off work and cycling to recover and has gained about 15 pounds, Funkenbusch said. He has resumed cycling.

“He’s doing his best to get back into top form,” she said.

She said she is working with Sunset Hills and St. Louis city officials to make the cities more bike-friendly by drafting ordinances requiring a 3-foot buffer zone between bicyclists and passing vehicles. She mentioned the June hit-and-run death of cyclist Rick Beard, 54, of Clayton, killed by a car at Sarah Street and Cook Avenue. Police say they arrested a suspect in the case but that prosecutors declined charges for lack of evidence.

In 911 recordings from the Sunset Hills case, a witness shouts at a fleeing car to stop after the incident.

“Pull over, pull over! You just hit that guy and took off!” a caller can be heard saying on a 911 recording released to the Post-Dispatch on Aug. 4 through an open records request.

In the 911 audio, a caller tells a dispatcher, “I would like to report a hit-and-run over here on Old Gravois Road, right here by Delta Dental. ... The guy hit a bicyclist, drove off and then turned around and came back.”

In another 911 call, from Murdick, the cyclist provides his location and says “I’m fine” when asked if he is injured. “The guy that ran me off the road’s here,” according to the audio.

St. Louis County police took over the investigation at the request of Sunset Hills Police Chief William LaGrand. The chief said he asked for the county’s help to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest.

Furrer, retired from banking and real estate work, was a write-in candidate who beat the incumbent mayor in April. A controversy over a proposed QuikTrip store helped power Furrer’s surprise win over William Nolan.

PREVIOUS TRAFFIC DISPUTES

The July incident was not the first time that Furrer, of the 11000 block of Pointe Court, was accused in a traffic dispute.

Wayne Fleddermann, 83, told police that Furrer “began to cuss him out” and told him he shouldn’t be driving at his age after the men almost collided on May 16, 2011, according to a police report.

The two men argued after the near-collision by the entrance of Friendship Village, a retirement home where Fleddermann lived. It is about half a mile from where Furrer is charged with striking the cyclist.

But it was Furrer who called police, saying Fleddermann approached his Land Cruiser first, cursing and calling him names. Furrer claimed Fleddermann reached through the window of his SUV and grabbed his hand, leaving fingernail scratches.

Furrer said he tried to get away by rolling up the window on Fleddermann’s arm and that Fleddermann left and parked in the Friendship Village lot. Furrer said he followed to get the license plate number and call police.

Fleddermann, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, told a different tale, according to the report.

He admitted he cursed at Furrer and told him to pick on someone his own age. But Fleddermann said Furrer pulled him into the Land Cruiser and rolled up the window, cutting both forearms.

Fleddermann said Furrer followed him into the Friendship Village lot, where Furrer pushed away his cart as he tried to unload groceries.

Documents say the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office did not issue any charges “due to conflicting statements.”

Police records also show that in 2012, construction workers complained that a car registered in Furrer’s name was speeding and that when they asked the male driver to slow down, he was “rude and spun out.”

Baebler, the alderman, said the city is ready to “lift the dark cloud” it has been under and to move on.

“This is not what we want to be known for,” she said. “Sunset Hills is a welcoming and friendly place. It’s more like a big neighborhood than a city.”