Today’s Court Watch is for cases filed during the week of October 16, 2023. There were a total of 75 cases. They continued 6 cases. Defendants failed to appear in 63 cases, a rate of 84%. Guilty pleas were entered in 6 cases.
Our spotlight “failure to appear” for this session is Sarah Michelle Kendle. Ms. Kendle, whose traffic problems started with a DWI in 2017, has a total of 46 traffic related offenses in her file. She failed to appear in 31 of them. She has been charged with driving while suspended or revoked a total of 18 times, though none of those charges was escalated to a felony. She has 8 charges for driving without insurance, and 5 for speeding. This year, she got two speeding tickets on West Florissant, for going 60 mph near Hudson where there was a recent fatality, and 58 mph near Ferguson Avenue. She also has two charges of stealing from Ferguson. And Jennings charged her with domestic assault, which the summons indicates took place on the parking lot of the Jennings police department. She has failed to appear for the theft and assault charges as well.
When Ferguson encountered Kendle on October 9 of this year, she literally had dozens of warrants for failing to appear, dating back to 2019. This includes a two 2021 stealing charges from Ferguson, for which warrants were issued in 2022. These warrants are documented in public court records, and should appear when the officer checks REJIS.