W.

B E V I S S C H O C K
ATTORNEY AT L AW

7777 B ON HOM ME A VE NUE , S UI T E 1300

S AI NT L OUI S , M I SSO UR I 63105

wbschock@schocklaw.com
Office: 314-726-2322
Cell: 314-757-0604

May 7, 2020

PRESS RELEASE

Demand by Cherri Elder of Elder Antiques, LLC

for Dr. Echols to Resign, and Other Issues

PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY AT 3:30 P.M., 7777 BONHOMME AVE IN CLAYTON

Cherri Elder of Elder Antiques, LLC, through undersigned counsel, hereby calls on Dr. Frederick
Echols to resign his position as the City’s Director of Health and Hospitals.

Dr. Echols does not meet the qualifications for his office.

Article XIII § 14(c) of the City Charter defines the qualifications for the City’s Director of
Health and Hospitals. That section states:

Director—Qualifications. The director of health and hospitals shall be a regularly

licensed practitioner of medicine and surgery and a graduate of a recognized school of
medicine or shall have completed graduate work in a recognized school of public health
to the level of a Master's Degree in Public Health or have been certified by the
American Board of Preventive Medicine and Public Health. The director also shall have
had at least three years' experience in the practice of medicine and at least three years'
experience in public health work, with at least two years of such experience in a
responsible administrative capacity.

As can be seen, (and setting aside the requirements of the final sentence), there are three ways to
be qualified for the position:

1. Be a regularly licensed physician who graduated from medical school,

2. Have completed graduate work in a in a recognized school of public health to the

level of a Master's Degree in Public Health, or
 3. Have been certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine and Public
Health.

Let us take them one at a time.

1. On May 6, 2020 the City Counselor’s office filed a pleading in Ranata Frank v.
City of St. Louis, 20-CV-597, (the challenge to the City’s removal of homeless
from the City’s Mall), Doc. # 29, stating that Dr. Echols does not hold a license to
practice medicine.

2. Robert Dierker, Assistant City Counselor, stated in an e-mail to undersigned

counsel on May 7, 2020 that Dr. Echols “completed CDC’s Population Health
Fellowship which is a doctoral level public health fellowship. I should think that
meets the master's degree alternative requirement.” Ms. Elder respectfully
responds there is no proof that the requirements of that particular fellowship
meets the requirements of a Master’s Degree in Public Health, and in any case,
the requirement of a formal Master’s Degree in Public Health is in the Charter
unequivocally. (A call to CDC by undersigned counsel’s office is unanswered as
of the time of this release).

3. As indicated by the attached document from the American Board of Preventive

Medicine, Dr. Echols holds no certification from that body.

Dr. Echols therefore fails to meet the qualifications to hold his office, and so should resign.

Let us now turn to other issues. It turns out that sometimes someone holds an office with “color
of law”, that is, with a reasonable claim to the office even though the claim is flawed. In such
circumstances, as is the case here, the person holds the office in a manner known to the law as
“de facto”. It also turns out that Orders issued from a de facto holder of an office cannot be
challenged just because of the flawed status of holder’s claim on the office. Instead there must
first be a formal legal action for removal of the office, known as a “quo warranto” action.
(Undersigned counsel was this very morning schooled on this corner of the law from Robert
Dierker and Nancy Walsh, Assistant City Counselors, who have deep knowledge of these issues.
Undersigned counsel acknowledges their expertise and thanks them for their help and
professionalism).

Ms. Elder therefore does not assert a legal challenge to Dr. Echols’ Order April 16, 2020 “Stay
Home-Essential Activities Only Order / Health Commissioner’s Order No. 7”, currently in effect
and which requires all “non-essential businesses” to “cease all activity”, merely because Dr.
Echols does not meet the qualifications for his office.

Next, however, Ms. Elder wonders whether the public should seriously question the real world
validity of Dr. Echols’ Stay at Home Order. After all, if Dr. Echols wrote a prescription for a
patient for a drug to try to cure the patient of the coronavirus, and if the patient took the
prescription to a pharmacy, the pharmacist would not honor the prescription because it was not
issued by a licensed physician. Why should thousands of City of St. Louis business owners
follow his health related directive to “cease all activities” because of the coronavirus if he can’t
even write a prescription in our state?
2
It also turns out that the Notice for the job opening for the Director of Health and Hospitals, the
opening for which Mayor Krewson appointed Dr. Echols, stated that the applicant should be a
physician licensed in the State of Missouri. (Mr. Dierker stated in an e-mail that the job posting
had been used for a previous opening for the position and not this opening, but let us assume the
language about being licensed as a physician in the State of Missouri remained the same for the
opening filled by Dr. Echols).

The requirement of a license to practice medicine in the State of Missouri sounds like a
reasonable requirement, although it is not required in the Charter. And Mayor Krewson’s press
release remarked that he was “the first medical doctor to serve as Health Director since 2007,” so
apparently she thought his qualification as a physician to be important. But regardless of
whether he has had a license to practice in another state at another time, which Ms. Elder
presumes to be true, it turns out that Dr. Echols has never had a license to practice medicine in
the State of Missouri. (Ms. Elder has no idea whether Dr. Echols was licensed in another state at
the time of his appointment, but she is interested in that question).

Another issue is Dr. Echols’ title and his use of “M.D.” in his Order. The City Charter, Article
XIII § 14-C, creates the post “Director of Health and Hospitals”. Nevertheless, on his April 16
order Dr. Echols signed as “Frederick Echols, M.D., Director of Health & Hospitals/Health
Commissioner”. Meanwhile in the February 7, 2019 press release through which Mayor Lyda
Krewson announced her appointment of Dr. Echols, she stated he would be the “new director of
the City’s Department of Health.” There is thus at least some confusion as to what his title is.

Whatever his title is, signing as “M.D.” seems a touch disingenuous.

Finally, Ms. Elder does not expect a resignation by Dr. Echols to cause a vacancy, because she
presumes that Mayor Krewson would immediately appoint someone else, properly qualified, to
fill the post.

One may also wonder if Dr. Echols won’t resign if Mayor Krewson might ask for his resignation.

Attachments:

Article XIII § 14-C, 1 p.

Press Release from Mayor Krewson announcing appointment of Dr. Echols as new director of
the City’s Department of Health, 2 pp.
April 16, 2020 “Stay Home-Essential Activities Only Order / Health Commissioner’s Order No.
7, 3 pp.
Ranata Frank v. City of St. Louis, 20-CV-597, Doc. # 29, May 6, 2020, 2 pp.
Physician Look Up, American Board of Preventive Medicine, 1 p.
Employment Opportunity, (out of date), 1 p.

/s/ W. Bevis Schock .

W. Bevis Schock, on his own behalf and on behalf of Cherri Elders, sole member of Elder’s
Antiques, LLC