ST. LOUIS — A man hired to prevent violence on the streets of St. Louis is now behind bars after federal prosecutors accused him of destroying evidence linked to an April murder in Penrose Park.
A New Jersey man arrived in St. Louis on the night of April 21 and was shot and killed within roughly an hour after getting to town.
Jerome Williams, a 49-year-old St. Louis man who won national attention for his work with the city's Cure Violence Program, appeared in federal court on Monday where the U.S. Attorney's office urged a judge to keep him behind bars for his alleged involvement in the case. He was charged with one count of destruction of evidence to obstruct a federal investigation.
His family sat in the courtroom and expressed frustration at prosecutors who pushed a judge to keep him detained while a grand jury reviews the evidence.
"The purpose of the whole system is to make one feel inadequate and inferior," one family member said during the hearing.
Williams was just released from prison 14 months ago after serving 30 years for a deadly kidnapping in the early 1990s. His defense attorney told the judge he has since turned his life around and now spends his time working to build trust in the community and steer teens away from a life of violence.
That redemption story earned Williams national attention, including an interview on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.
"Violence has spread like a disease, and we must meet it where it's at," Williams told Holt last November. "We must remedy the disease. And our cure is to go in to identify the problem, and try to interrupt the problem."
Holt asked Williams how important it was that the community, not police officers, were the ones reaching out to build trust from people afflicted by violence.
"They respond better when they know we're not trying to lock them up," Williams replied. "It doesn't work. It didn't work with me when I was young."
Now, prosecutors have Williams back behind bars and they want a judge to keep him there, claiming he violated the terms of his probation. His defense attorney said he would gladly accept wearing an ankle bracelet to demonstrate that he is not a flight risk, and noted the charges do not allege any violent crimes.
5 On Your Side obtained charging documents that were initially sealed. The criminal complaint accuses Jerome Williams of destroying a Social Security card that belonged to an unidentified man who was killed in Penrose Park last month. Surveillance footage appeared to show Williams tear up the victim's Social Security card and stuff it down a storm drain, according to the complaint.
The documents also link Williams to a burner phone that was tossed out of a car window along I-70 after the April 21 murder.
According to the court documents, the man who was killed had just arrived in St. Louis from New Jersey and was shot dead within an hour of his arrival.
Williams, whose sister Jamilah Nasheed served as a Missouri state senator for nearly a decade, worked with Cure Violence through Employment Connections, a nonprofit that won government funding in a city contract. Williams had previously praised St. Louis mayor Tishaura Jones for funding community violence prevention programs.
"The mayor, she is working tirelessly to address this problem with guns," Williams told Holt last fall. "Everyone has a weapon. And it's legal to carry a weapon. Some of these guys carry weapons, they are legal. They are not convicted felons, so they can carry weapons. And when a guy carry a weapon, when a confrontation arrives to the surface, it's easy to bring that weapon up out of anger, up out of passion, and to fire that weapon, not even factoring in the consequences of that action."
News of Williams' arrest broke while Jones addressed a roundtable event. She reacted to the story moments before he appeared in court for a preliminary hearing.
"Violence interrupters have been recruited from the community and some of them are returning citizens as well," Jones said. "So that's important for community trust, to know that someone has walked in their shoes and has been through what they've been through. So that's an important factor in this work interrupting violence."
Dan Isom, the city's Public Safety Director, noted the safeguards government officials put in place before providing violence prevention groups with taxpayer resources.
"These frontline violence interrupters are screened, provided support, and in rare cases, pulled from neighborhoods if they have not moved on from a life of violence," Isom said.
"We take the charge against this individual seriously, and we cannot lose sight of the fact these programs play a critical role in reducing gun violence in our neighborhoods," Isom said. "The City is reviewing this allegation with the program provider and monitoring the situation closely as they address it."
In a joint statement, pastor Charles Norris and La Tricia Clark, the co-chairs of the city's Cure Violence Steering Committee, highlighted the success rate of the program in Chicago where fewer than 10 of 300 staff have relapsed over a 15-year span.
"Violence interrupters are dispatched to intervene and de-escalate countless instances of crime. They are known in the community as reliable messengers who work to resolve conflicts," they said. "Events such as these put all interrupters and outreach workers in the spotlight."
"The Cure Violence Steering Committee takes these allegations seriously and it is now in the hands of the courts to ensure accountability for the individual involved," they said. "It is imperative that as a community we continue to support the staff who are still on the ground and remain committed to neighborhood safety. Their work just became harder and we must work together with all stakeholders to strategize, review, and update this model to continue the important work of interrupting violence."
The Urban League is another group that carries out the Cure Violence mission, and today, their president said the news of Williams' arrest "shouldn't be a mark against the entire program."
"Anytime that you have a program that is trying to go out and combat violence, and there's any type of accusation about anything being done inappropriate, it, of course, is unfortunate," Urban League President Mike McMillan said. "As a whole, if you look at the success of the program, overall, across the country, and in St. Louis, you will see that there is a momentum to go into these neighborhoods and try to provide people with information resources and de-escalation."