Former Police Officer Sentenced for Corruption Charge |
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U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri
3 April 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
St. Louis, MO –Mark Taylor, 50, of St. Louis, was sentenced to 30 days in prison for accepting bribes in exchange for un-redacted accident reports while a police officer with the City of St. Louis. He appeared in federal court today before U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh, Jr.
According to court documents, between 2007 and 2016, Dr. Mitchell Davis owned and operated Davis Chiropractic Clinic, now known as City Health and Chiropractic. Located on Lindell Blvd in St. Louis, the clinic primarily provided services to accident victims. Galina Davis assisted Dr. Davis in identifying, soliciting, and scheduling potential accident victims.
According to SLMPD policy, the SLMPD will provide un-redacted accident reports only to persons involved in the accidents, the companies insuring them, or the lawyers representing them. Un-redacted accident reports contain detailed information, including addresses, telephone numbers, birthdates, and insurance information of the occupants of the vehicles. Dr. Davis and Galina Davis knew that the SLMPD would not disclose un-redacted police reports to them. To get around this policy, Galina Davis and Dr. Davis recruited, solicited, and paid individual SLMPD police officers to obtain un-redacted accident reports for them.
Using the information from the un-redacted reports, Galina Davis contacted accident victims, identified herself as Gail, Allison, Kelly, Laura, or Shannon, and offered the accident victims free services at Davis Chiropractic. Dr. Davis and Galina Davis focused on identifying accident victims from neighborhoods where there was a large concentration of low-income victims. They believed that low-income individuals would be more receptive to their solicitations and offers of free services.
Taylor admitted to taking cash payments in exchange for providing un-redacted reports. Co-defendants Marlon Caldwell and Cauncenet Brown were sentenced to 13 months in prison and 10 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the scheme.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorneys Dorothy McMurtry and Reginald Harris are handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.