Thursday, October 30, 2014

Eight Plaintiffs Charging Sexual Harassment In $5 Million Law Suit Against St. Charles County Election Authority Director Rich Chrismer; Trial After Election?

St. Charles, MO -- October 30, 2014

Kate Runyan
The trial date for a $5 million lawsuit by employees charging sexual harassment and discrimination against St. Charles County Election Authority Director Rich Chrismer is scheduled for December 1st.  Chrismer is also on the ballot November 4th running for re-election and will be facing the court of public opinion prior to his trial date.
Rich Chrismer

The sexual harassment suit was filed back on October 5, 2011, by Mary Railean Benefield, who had been a St. Charles County employee for 22 years and who had worked in Chrismer's office.  Her suit claimed Chrismer stalked and groped her and flirted with other women in the Election Authority office.  Since then, seven others have joined the lawsuit, including four employees of the Election Authority, as well.

Normally a Republican candidate for county-wide office would have no trouble winning re-election in a heavily Republican County like St. Charles.  But Chrismer drew strong opposition in the Republican Primary and won with less than 51% of the vote against former St. Charles Mayor Patti York and a third candidate.  Now Chrismer faces Democratic opponent Kate Runyan this Tuesday.


KMOV, News Channel Four, also uncovered in July of this year, that County Audits show Chrismer was overcharging political subdivisions for the costs of elections.  A former assistant director of the office claimed Chrismer did so by more than $500,000.

14 comments:

  1. This stinks to high heaven in more ways than one! Mr. Chrismer has always presented himself in a professional way. I would be looking to investigate Mr. Ehlman in the policies and underhanded politics he practices before looking at Mr Chrismer

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    1. Perhaps some bias toward Mr. Chrismer? He and the county elections office have put roadblocks in the way of people trying to have voter registration drives.

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    2. Yes like forcing the people in Defiance to go 9 miles to vote when we have always had a place in Defiance. There are a lot of senior citizens who do not drive that either do not vote or have to depend on others. And to top it off, if there is water over the road (which there is at times), then we can't get to the polling place in Augusta! That's exactly how crooked Chrismer is!! So it's not hard for me to believe this story!


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  2. Where there is smoke there might be a fire burning. Let there be true justice and let the courts do its work.

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  3. Someone should ask, how many of the other plaintiffs have settled? Only 2 people are going to trial in December because the county agreed to pay out the other employees. Employees with physical disabilities were being forced to climb stairs, employees were being denied performance reviews (and raises), employees were demoted for saying what they witnessed happen against the plaintiff and a lot of other dirty stuff.

    None of this even touches on damaged election equipment, ballot issues, dirty bidding processes, hiring untrained family members of the assistant director to "train" election judges, firing a person who filed to run against him, the video footage of him threatening employees (check Youtube), and all the times the cops had to come because Rich was threatening a candidate.

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  4. Mr Chrismer is abusing our County tax dollars because we, the tax payers have to pay to have him represented when it involves the County.
    How about the fact last election we ran out of ballots and had to use the handi-cap machine or voters could not have voted?!?!
    Why won't he pay the municipalities back as ordered by the courts??

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  5. Everything Mr. Chrismer has been accused of is TRUE!! It might be hard to believe for some people but those people never worked for him nor saw how he treated the employees. He might present himself in a professional manner to the public but the employees saw him for what he is...a disgusting person.

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  6. Regarding the ballot mishap involving Kate's race (the one where Rich forgot to put the name of his own race on this year's ballot), Chrismer tells the St. Louis Post Dispatch that he was the one caught the mistake in the first place, but CORRECTED it. That's a lie, because It was Kate Runyan who caught it. Was even in the office of September 26 because in the post dispatch article it sounds like Rich was in the office that day, but he might been at some conference.

    Kate Runyan asked to see a copy of the real ballot from Chrismer's office because she thought, at that time, maybe it was only the sample ballot that had the error. Chrismer's office refused to show Kate a copy of the original ballot. Why?? It's because the original ballot was incorrect and they didn't want Kate to see the actual ballot.

    A few days later, a couple of people confront Kate to inform her that Chrismer's Office was taping these printed labels that read "Director of Elections," onto the actual ballot. They were doing this in front of people who were voting absentee. Thus confirming that, at that time, the ballot was incorrect.

    Then, last week, Chrismer, goes on KTVI in an interview with Besty Bruce and say there was never any mistakes with the actual ballot. However, in the Post Dispatch article, Chrismer admits there was a mistake. Chrismer even flashes a copy of the actual ballot, but would never let Kate see an actual ballot on September 26. He also says in this television interview that he "runs one of the most efficient election authorities in the State of Missouri and maybe this county." I personally cracked up laughing when I heard him make that statement.

    Two days ago the Wentzville Fire Protection District discovered another mistake on the ballot, but this time it was a small grammatical mistake. No offense, a mistake is a mistake and there should never be any type of grammatical mistakes on the actual ballot considering Chrismer has plenty of time to proof read it.

    With all the mistakes he has made in this election alone, plus the mistake in other elections, combined with the every day mistakes he constantly mistake along with the costly lawsuits, Chrismer now wants 4 more years and, if he gets elected, he will also be receiving a PAY RAISE next year!!! Isn't that crazy!!!

    Thank goodness Chrismer's office finally removed his assigned parking space "sign." You can thank Kate Runyan for that because she made a Facebook post on 10/24 regarding his parking space and, in less than 24 hours, Chrismer's Office removes his parking space sign. Thank you Kate for making that post.

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  7. He better put his hands up so they don't shoot!

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  8. Election shenanigans. Where were these allegations before the election period? And now this blogger blasts this out 2-3 days before the election? I didn't vote for Chrismer in the primary, but this really stinks. Those who chose to put this up now smell like the pig dung they are wading in.

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    1. Can you read ? This has been going on for three years , not " 2-3 days . Creep Chrismer should have been wearing a bright orange jumpsuit for years now , but anything goes as long as you're a republican in St. charles County.

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  9. Oh, if the Bellville Democrat prints something it MUST be true. NOT!

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  10. I think this is bull. I worked with one of the so called victims n she is hateful, not a nice person or easy to work with.

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  11. Nice job Michael Carter. Lies lies Lies.

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