Riverfront Times - Robert Merkle Terrorized Multiple Women...

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BY DOYLE MURPHY

NEWS He Terroriz'ed

Many Women.

Yet His Parole Date Already Looms Written by DOYLE MURPHY

obert Merkle, who turned the slimmest of connections with local women into campaign's of sustained terror, is scheduled for a parole hearing in" january.

The 49—year—old south St. Louis County man was sentenced just last month to three years in prison for his second and third felonies, but with credit for time served since his arrest in February, he Will' have the opportunity to make his first request for early release a little more than a week into the new year.

On paper, Merkle was sentenced to a dozen years of hard time — a trio of three—year terms on felony harassment charges and three more one-year terms for misde— meanor counts. But on the recommendation of the St. Louis Cir‘cuit Attorney’s Office, Judge Rex Burlison decreed that the sentences for Merkle’s five St. Louis cases would be served concurrently — meaning, sun'ultaneously — with a previous conviction and three-year sentence in Jefferson County.

Now women targeted by Merk— le’s threats and harassment fear he’ll come after them again' — and they say weaknesses and failures of the justice system have put them in' danger.

“The man threatened to rape me,” says Angela, one of the women whom Merkle terrorized. (The RFT is only usm‘g first names at the victim's’ request.)

She and Merkle were strangers. In August 2017, he came to a discussion group she attends at Dressel’s Public House in‘ the Central West End, and though they barely exchanged a sentence, he then began stalking her through

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Rebecca (lefl) and Angela were two of the women threatened by Robert Merkle. | COURTESY CASEY 0W0

Meetup.com. the platform used to organize the group. When she skipped a subsequent meeting, he sent her messages saying he was disappointed because he had planned to rape her that night “completely without your consent or desire,” explaining, “I much prefer it when women are extremely unwflli‘ng to perform sex acts with me.”

It was part of a pattern. Merkle trawled for women onlin'e and in real life. Brief in'teractions — sometimes as tenuous as sitting near a woman and learnm‘g her name — fueled obsessions that quickly escalated to him' sendin'g horrifym"g messages, usually describ'm‘g his des1r‘e to be sexually violent with them. He often used aliases, callin'g him'self james or David, which made identifyin"g him' more diffi'cult. A former IT worker, he tracked down personal details about his victims and their famili"es that the women had not shared with him'.

Rebecca knew him' only as Rob. They met through a datm‘g site and went out once in' Febru— ary 2017. She says the evening was unremarkable and Merkle seemed normal enough in' person.

Then he began texting her.

He was aggressive, eventually promptin'g her to tell him‘ to leave her alone.

Over the next 24 hours, he sent more than 30 messages, switchin'g numbers and growm'g furious.

“I’m your conscience,” he texted. “I’ve come here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I’m all out of bubble gum. You do the math.”

Given that many of the women had only brief m'teractions with Merkle and knew little about him', they ini"tially struggled to get police to act. But Angela was able to push an investigation with the help of friends, one a St. Louis cop and another a computer Wiz' who worked back through Merkle’s various so— cial media profiles to link' him” to multiple m‘stances of abuse.

The case eventually was as— signed to St. Louis Police Detective Martin' Garcia. Angela and Rebecca say he took them seriously, kept them informed and actively went after Merkle. They cite his work as one of the few bright spots m' what has become a long-runnin'g nightmare.

Almost every other m'teracti'on with the justice system has been frustratm‘g at best. One example Angela cites was her failed attempt to get a restrainm'g order in' November 2017.

Merkle had contm'ued to pur— sue her through Meetup.com. He could look at her profile and see which groups she attended, givm’g him' times and locations he nu'ght find her. He had also started harassm'g Angela’s friend, whom he briefly sat next to at the discus— sion group.

After a me and disturbm'g message to the friend usm'g his actual

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name, Merkle quickly claim'ed he had been hacked and deleted his profile. But he soon returned to the site under aliases and asked the leader of the discussion group to readmit him'.

On November 15, 2017, Merkle posed as “David” and RSVPed to an event scheduled for that night at Schlafly Bottleworks in” Maplewood, one Angela had also RSVPed to attend.

In a panic, Angela rushed from work to file the paperwork for a restrain'm'g order. She managed to submit the forms just before the deadline to have them reviewed that day, but her application was rejected without explanation. She also spoke to another detective who advised her to call poh'ce if' Merkle showed up.

Angela was frightened about pos— Sib'ly seemg' her harasser in‘ person, but gom‘g to Schlafly also seemed like the only way to draw him’ out and get law enforcement to act. Her boss accompam’ed her and they alerted friends and the bartender, who also kept watch through the nerve—wrackin’g evenmg'.

Merkle never showed. Angela learned later that St. Louis poh'ce, based on some of the complam‘ts, had put out a “wanted” on him‘ -— askin‘g other officers to take him' into custody if' he was spotted.

Kir'kwood police in'tercepted him‘ that evening shortly before the event. Angela wonders if' he had been on his way to make good on his threats.

Knowm'g that Merkle had also harassed her friend, Angela posted on Facehook to see if' there were other vicfim's. She also did a pair of TV news m'terviews. Her hunch was right. More women came forward, contactin'g her and the police. Angela and Rebecca say they’ve learned at least eighteen women spoke with poh'ce, al— though some were too frightened to go further and only Six' of the cases led to charges.

One of the women who saw Angela on the news was a Jefferson County woman who had been harassed by Merkle Since 2016 after rejectin'g his‘ advances on a dating site. She had been having trouble gettmg' police to pay attention, but Angela helped connect her to St. Louis m’vesttg'ators and reporters. That helped get the case movm’g, and Merkle was

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MERKlE Continued from pg 9 charged m’ February in' Jefferson County.

In June, he pleaded guilty to felony harassment in' that case. The Jefferson County judge described his behavior as “despicable” and sentenced him' to three years.

Heartened by the judge’s strong condemnation, Angela assumed more tim‘e would follow in the St. Louis cases.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, she says, she had to repeatedly call the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office to keep tabs on the cases. Even then she felt hk‘e she was mostly in‘ the dark. She says she knew little about the crimin"al justice system and was left flailin“g as she tried to figure out how best to protect herself.

For example, she had assumed someone migh't tell her what to expect m' her grand—jury testimony and wlu'ch parts of her story nug'ht be un'portant. A Slgnifi"cant factor in' deternunin"g whether harassment is a misdemeanor or felony depends on how much a victim' is harmed, but Angela was under the impression that the most important part was that Merkle was a stranger. She says she went into the grand jury bhn'd, and the man who tormented her for months was indicted on a nu'sdemeanor — not the felony she was hoping for.

Susan Ryan, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis Cir’cuit Attorney’s Of— fice, says prosecutors pursued Angela’s case as a felony. They can’t be blamed, she says, for the grand jury’s decision to treat it as a misdemeanor.

But Angela says during her testimony, a prosecutor asked her just one question — whether she went to work after Merkle’s threats.

She said yes. If the im‘pression was that she had shrugged off the threats, she says that could have been cleared up by follow— up questions. She never got to explain‘ that she felt safer at her job than she did when she was alone at home. Grand jurors nev— er heard that she’d sobbed in her employer’s bathroom and was so frightened, she could barely work.

Instead, she was thanked for her testimony and sent on her way.

Angela asked Assistant Cir'cuit Attorney Richard Vannoy to take the case back to the grand jury to try again‘ for a felony. Such a move is'n’t common, but prosecutors have done it in' the past. It didn’t happen m' her case.

Ryan defends prosecutors’ work on the case, noting that Vannoy

could have handed Angela’s case off to a misdemeanor prosecutor, but he kept it himself because he felt he could be a better advocate.

Rebecca, too, was unhappy with Vannoy and the Circuit Attorney’s Office. She was a late addition to the cases against Merkle. She had reported his harassm‘g texts to police back in February 2017, but it wasn’t until‘ Angela went public with her story months later that she learned her harasser’s full identity.

Charges in her case were filed in' October, just as Angela’s case and three others were gorn‘g to trial. Vannoy told her that her case would proceed later, but she decided to show up to court anyway to famili"ar1'ze herself with the process. To her surprise, her case was called along with the others. Rig‘ht then and there, Merkle pleaded guilty.

She was asked on the spot if' she would like to make a statement to the judge. Thoughtful and measured, Rebecca would have hk‘ed tim'e to consider what had happened and write out her response.

She spoke, pausm‘g at times to gather her thoughts, about the danger she felt and how she shook m' front of her computer screen.

She recalled how Merkle coyly dangled the name of her father to show her that he was gathering m‘formation about her.

Yet m‘ the end, Rebecca and Angela say their statements and those of other victims ended up feehn'g 11k'e little more than a pro forma step m' the proceed— in’gs. While they were personally agomz'm'g to make, it felt as if‘ the lawyers and judge just “ticked the boxes and filed the paperwork,” Angela says.

After they were finished speakin'g, Vannoy recommended threeyear sentences on the felom'es to be served concurrently with the Jefferson County case. It was a conclusion that had been in the works for months, even before Rebecca’s case was charged.

Merkle’s attorney, Mark Hammer, told Judge Burlis‘on they had discussed the deal with St. Louis prosecutors before his client pleaded in' the Jefferson County case.

“Tlu's recommendation was origin'ally discussed when he [Merkle] entered his plea on the Jefferson County case, and it was part of his decision-making process there as well,” Hammer told the judge.

Burh‘son accepted Merkle’s guilty pleas and un'posed the sentence recommended by prosecutors. It gave the serial harasser more convictions on his record, but no extra time m' prison. For

Victims shared Medtle's many social media profile photos as a warning.

Women targeted

by Merkle’s threats and harassment fear he’ll come after them again — and they say failures of the justice system have put them in danger. his part, Merkle said he had “every m'tention” of movm'g m' with his parents in” Illin‘ois and liv1n‘g peacefully when he was released from prison.

Angela and Rebecca left court not even sure what had happened. “Concurrently” is not a term that gets much use outside of courtrooms. When they learned he would serve zero additional time, they were furious.

“It really was a slap m' the face,” Angela says.

Prosecutors saw it differently.

Ryan pom'ts out Merkle had a clean record, with no history of violence, and that victim's were allowed an opportunity to be heard.

“This man got a serious sentence,” Ryan says. “This' judge handled it, to me, with the utmost respect for victims.”

She concedes Rebecca was given no warmng’ her case would be called, but she says that was at Burh'son’s request and there was little prosecutors could do about

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it. Ideas of justice often vary, Ryan adds, and the staff of the Circuit Attorney’s Office does its best to work with victims.

Rebecca questioned Vannoy by email‘ following the sentencrn‘g, asking why her case was lumped m' with the others. She and Angela had hoped if it was considered at a later date as originally planned, a judge would see Merkle now had a serious criminal record and 1m'pose a harsher sentence. Instead, they felt what he’d done to her was lost in' the batch of cases.

The response hardly made them feel better.

“Things were set up the way they were to be the most convenient for all the parties m'volveIdl,” Vannoy responded m' an email' to Rebecca. “That in'cludes the Judge, the defendant, his" lawyer, the court reporter, the guards, the sheriffs department, the victims and officials at the Missouri Department of Corrections.”

Rebecca bns'tled at the mention of convenience. She also thought it was telling to see victim's listed second to last, just before prison officials. Given the opportum'ty to consider what she thmks' about that, she types out a response.

“I believe justice should be put as a priority above the court’s convenience,” she writes. “Therefore, if' one victlm' tells the state attor— ney to wait to press charges re— gardin'g the most recent felony accusation that has come forward, that request should be strongly considered and pursued. That request should not be discarded considerin'g ‘convem'ence.”’

Now Angela and Rebecca are in' the fanuh"ar position of searchm'g for more women harassed by Merkle and encouraging them to come forward. They’re prepann'g for lu's January 8 parole hearin'g, terrified of what nugh’t happen if" they cannot make the parole board understand their" feelm'gs about the case. For all they know, Merkle could still' have all their' inf'onnation saved somewhere and be ready to begin' another onslaught.

Only victims in the felony case were m'vited to attend the parole hearing, but Rebecca is' allowed to bring a support person. She has chosen Angela to come with her.

They are hopm'g others who can go to the heann‘g w111,‘ and that any others harassed by Merkle Will' write letters or contact police if they haven’t already. They believe there is' a good chance others have received the same mm of messages and threats. And if there is one thm'g they have learned from this expen'ence, it is that they have to be there for each other.

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