Police drop inquiry into alleged threat

ST. LOUIS -- Police have abandoned a criminal inquiry into an allegation that a St. Louis school board member threatened to kill the city's former comptroller over comments he made about her mental fitness.

Virvus Jones never considered his life at risk and has chosen not to seek an investigation into the supposed threat by Rochell Moore, police spokesman Richard Wilkes said Saturday.

In last week's edition of the weekly St. Louis American newspaper, Jones wrote that Moore "is taking the region's residents on an odyssey most of us would rather avoid." He suggested that Moore is mentally ill and should get treatment, citing a string of erratic behavior.

After the article was published, Jones said, Charles McCrary -- the school district's security chief -- told him that Moore had instructed him to relay that if Jones "continues to write articles about her or her family that she would get a gun and blow my brains out."

Moore said Jones was lying and "must be paranoid."

Moore, elected in 2001, was involuntarily committed in October after lying on the street in front of district headquarters.

Moore said she was dosed with cocaine in a political conspiracy orchestrated by Mayor Francis Slay, the hospital and her school board opponents.

Earlier this month, Moore wrote a letter apparently placing a curse on the mayor. The letter, filled with Biblical references, said the Lord would smite Slay and anyone who helps him because of the position he has taken concerning the city's financially troubled school district.

A Slay spokesman called the letter "a very sad situation for Ms. Moore and the children she's supposed to represent. It's evident that she needs professional help."

Moore said the letter was meant as a prayer.