Alex Stuckey, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and a former Post reporter, broke a story in 2012 highlighting some inconsistencies with records reporting within now-suspended Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly's office.
In early 2012, almost a year before the state began its investigation into former Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly, former Post reporter Alex Stuckey launched an investigation of her own.
The story she was researching was originally about Athens’ heroin epidemic, so naturally, she reached out to local police to obtain arrest records. Authorities are required by law to report all seizures — including drug busts, money, weapons, vehicles and the like — to the Attorney General’s Office. Stuckey recalled easily obtaining records from the Athens and Ohio University Police Departments, but when she approached the Sheriff’s Office — which often touted its Drug Enforcement Task Force — Kelly gave her the cold shoulder and refused to give her the information.
What followed was suspicions of theft and money laundering — among other things — in the Sheriff’s Office and, later, a full-fledged investigation by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Office.
Kelly often slammed DeWine’s office in interviews and on social media about the Attorney General’s suspicion that there might be wrongdoing in his office. In an October 2013 Post interview he said, “If you’ve got something on me Mike DeWine, then charge me. If not, then crawl back in your friggin’ hole underneath the curb and stay the heck out of my county.”
It took Stuckey about four months to research Kelly’s office for her story, “Drug Under The Rug,” which won an IRE Award from the Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Stuckey is now covering the Missouri statehouse and the aftermath of the unrest in Ferguson for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Almost three years after Stuckey’s initial article ran in The Post, Kelly is found guilty on 18 counts, most of which are related to theft in office.
It’s the perfect example of what can come from quality reporting — at even the collegiate level.
“When you find a good story, keep pushing for it. … It’s a good example of what college journalism could do,” Stuckey said in an interview with three of The Post’s top editors after hearing the results of the Kelly trial. “I did this in college. You guys could do this in college too.”
It’s stories like Stuckey’s that prove the value of local news, and it’s the type of hard-hitting news we strive to report at The Post.
Stuckey said Kelly often became angry with her during the course of her reporting, which led to angry phone calls and shouting matches, but she said that only encouraged her to dig deeper and repeatedly ask for the information.
“... He was treating me like a kid,” she said. “If they’re getting mad at your questions and intimidating you, you’re usually on the right track.”
Our goal has been, and will always be, to report stories that are of interest to readers. It’s just as important to hold public officials accountable for their actions.
“The most important thing is to just keep pushing,” Stuckey said.
We plan to.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors: editor-in-chief Jim Ryan, managing editor Sara Jerde, opinion editor Xander Zellner and projects editor Allan Smith. Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage.
