Wildwood Resident Sentenced to 10 Months in Prison

It was the law of tens today for Greg Shepard, a Wildwood resident, former police officer and operations manager of St. Louis Metropolitan Towing in St. Louis.  Today, on Dec. 10, he was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison on the 10th floor of the Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse in downtown St. Louis.

U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel also ordered two years of "a supervised release" after Shepard serves the prison time, a $10,000 fine to be paid in the next 60 days, and 100 hours of community service hours post-release.

"I apologize to the city of St. Louis and to the community for my actions.  I also apologize to the court," said Shepard.  "Thank you to my family and friends for being supportive."

Shepard operated a towing garage associated with S&H Parking Systems, whose owners were convicted of tax evasion.  William and Kenneth Bialczak, brothers who own S&H, were each sentenced on Dec. 3 to one year and one day in prison. They were ordered to pay heavy fines and back taxes for not reporting approximately $1 million in income.

Shepard's hearing lasted just more than an hour.  Much of the discussion among the lawyers and judge focused on the case's pre-sentencing report and relative culpability of Shepard compared to a second person charged, former St. Louis police detective Kevin Shade. In September, Shepard pleaded guilty to a single count each of mail fraud and bribery.  Today, what was debated was Shepard's actual percentage of ownership and associated value of the towing garage, based on the interpretation of the employee agreement. 

Shepard's attorney said no conclusions could be drawn related to Shepard's culpability or devising of this towing scheme in relation to Shade, based on facts presented in the pre-sentencing report.  He cited also that Shepard only held 3 percent ownership in the business and would not be vested in it until 2017, compared to the alleged value of 10 percent ownership. 

Sippel said the charges were differentiated in nature in that Shepard participated in activities that produced false inspection records for vehicles, which allowed cars to have inflated values and clear, rather than salvage, titles.  Sippel stated that Shepard stood to benefit at future dates from the future value of the company, regardless of the delayed vestiture.

Sippel said Shade, on the other hand, gained value based only on the selling of the vehicles. 

"U.S. Probation took a long time to produce this report with a lot of reason, and drew a fair conclusion.  This defendant is more culpable.  Without his knowledge, this scheme could not have been carried out," Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith said.

Sippel eventually overruled the objection of Shepard's attorney.

Goldsmith indicated there is no further economic restitution in this matter, in that the individuals who purchased the associated vehicles were third party entities that benefited from the situation.

Shepard's attorney said Shepard was prepared to accept the punishment with humility, and that he had been a public servant for a long time and a valued community member who did good work and was concerned about others, as evidenced by the 90-plus letters sent to the court to ask for leniency on Shepard's behalf.   

Sippel said "the tension" resulted from Shepard's obviously good character and well-meaning private life versus the fact that over the period of 2004-2008, he falsified records to Missouri State Revenue officials who "trusted the defendant to present true and accurate documents."

"Anything less than what is recommended for a level nine offense wouldn't do justice to the nature of the crime, would not promote respect for the law and statutes, and wouldn't deter other business operators," said Sippel.

Sippel suspended the mandatory drug testing that comes with this conviction. 

Shepard can appeal the judgment within the next 14 days. He is slated to surrender himself in February.