Couple charged with faking residency running for Kansas City area village board again
A married couple who each face criminal charges for filing false voter documents have once again filed to run to be on the governing board of a Jackson County village and will appear on the ballot next month.
James Hoppe, an elected board member in River Bend, a small village in the county, and his wife, Jessica Caswell, a former board member, both filed to run in the April 2 general election on Dec. 20 — just five days after they were each indicted by a Jackson County grand jury.
Hoppe and Caswell, in indictments handed down on Dec. 15, each face two felony charges of willfully providing false voter documentation and filing false documents. The indictments allege that the couple knowingly signed documents stating that they met the statutory qualifications of candidates, even though they did not meet the residency requirement.
Tammy Brown, the Republican director for the Jackson County Board of Election Commissioners, confirmed that both Hoppe and Caswell had filed to run again in the April election after their names appeared on a sample ballot available online.
Brown said in a phone call that Hoppe and Caswell filed to run with Amy Howse, the clerk of the village. The election board — and even a judge — will be unable to remove their names from the ballot so close to the election, she said in an email.
“The Jackson County Board of Election Commissioners has no authority to remove any name certified by one of our jurisdictions and no name can be removed eight weeks before an election even by the courts,” Brown said in the email.
Lance Sandage, an attorney for both Caswell and Hoppe, declined comment on Monday and told The Star that he needed to speak with his clients before commenting.
Hoppe and Caswell did not return calls for comment on Monday. Howse, the village clerk, also did not return a call.
The indictments and arrests of Hoppe and Caswell came on the heels of an October investigation by The Star that revealed a series of connections between River Bend’s Board of Trustees, which operates similar to a city council, and Jack Mitchell, an influential marijuana businessman and developer of a proposed marijuana-based entertainment district.
River Bend, a tiny village east of Kansas City, has fostered a loose, business-friendly culture but was largely unknown by many in the metro. Village business owners had voiced concerns about the board’s legitimacy and questioned whether some of the members had lived there long enough to be elected officials.
Copies of the indictments available online redact the name of the village of River Bend, but allege that Hoppe and Caswell were not residents of the village for at least a year before previously running to be on the board. Missouri law requires that trustee members be inhabitants of a village for at least one year before they are elected, an issue The Star previously highlighted.
While concerns have been raised about the residency of other members of the board, Hoppe and Caswell are the only current or former officials to face criminal charges so far.
It’s unclear whether Hoppe and Caswell were aware of the indictments before they filed to run for office again. A Jackson County grand jury indicted both Caswell and Hoppe on Dec. 15, court records show. But Caswell wasn’t arrested until Dec. 29 and Hoppe surrendered to authorities in early January.
Their bond conditions include requirements that they cannot contact Howse or the Jackson County election board. A spokesperson for the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, which is prosecuting the cases, declined comment on Monday.
Last August, a group of village stakeholders wrote a letter to the River Bend government that raised a series of questions about the board and its relationship to Mitchell. The letter, which does not name Mitchell specifically, refers to him as the “Principal.”
“The municipality is run by people who are on the Principal’s payroll through his affiliated companies, receive no compensation for their duties as government officials (with the exception of the Village Clerk), and have no experience in local government,” the letter said.
Mitchell withdrew his redevelopment plans for the village just days after The Star inquired about how he was related either familiarly or professionally to every member of the village board, including Caswell and Hoppe. The village’s head of zoning resigned a day after the newspaper published the story about those connections.
Mitchell is also a former member of the board of directors for MoCannTrade, the state’s primary marijuana industry organization. Two companies connected to Mitchell — BesaMe Wellness and Besa Hospitality Group — are represented at the Missouri Capitol by several lobbyists, including Steve Tilley, a powerful former Missouri House speaker turned lobbyist.
This story was originally published March 11, 2024 at 1:05 PM.
