Neosho, MO
A Neosho minister who was charged with drunken driving although his Breathalyzer test showed no trace of alcohol will again address the City Council tonight.
Melvin Stapp, the minister of Monark Baptist Church, asked the council in late July to dismiss the misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated.
He will address the council tonight, he said, to complain about how long it has taken for the results of a lab analysis of a urine sample collected after his arrest in July to come back. Stapp, 61, said those results should resolve the issue, and that he will tell the council “that the test is not back, and I don’t like it.”
“I’d like to get this thing taken care of,” he told the Globe, saying the necessary procedures are “dragging on too long.”
Police Chief David McCracken said the time the case has taken is “pretty typical,” and that he expects the results soon. The Police Department only recently received test results for cases that were submitted in April, the chief said.
Mayor Jeff Werneke said Stapp has “every right” to address the council, although whether the charges against him are dismissed is “up to a judge.”
Stapp was pulled over by Neosho police at 1:05 a.m. on July 5 after police reportedly saw his vehicle traveling over the center yellow line for about half a block on Neosho Boulevard, near Stadium Drive. Stapp said he was headed home after manning his church’s fireworks stand on July 4.
Police said Stapp failed several field sobriety tests at the scene and also had red eyes, which Stapp later said stem from eye problems he has had for years. Stapp was arrested.
A Breathalyzer test administered at the Newton County Jail showed no traces of alcohol, while the results of the urine analysis remain pending.
Stapp has denied the DWI charge and the improper-lane-use charge filed against him. A pretrial conference has been set for 4 p.m. Thursday.
In other business tonight, the council will consider bids for additional taxi lanes at the airport, a contract with Liberty Pyrotechnics LLC for fireworks during Celebrate Neosho, and whether to waive fees for council members’ open-records requests.