St. Louis towing scandal documents shown

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. agents who raided a St. Louis towing firm under investigation for bribing police officers seized an "enormous" amount of cash, court documents indicate.

Documents filed with U.S. District Court also showed that last year's raid on St. Louis Metropolitan Towing netted tens of thousands of company documents and 1,000 gigabytes of computer data, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The firm has been under scrutiny after since police department officials admitted that the daughter of then-Chief Joe Mokwa and some of his officers used towed cars for free. The Post-Dispatch also published reports showing St. Louis Metropolitan Towing failed to turn over at least $700,000 it owed the city as its share of towing revenue and that some employees improperly towed and kept some vehicles.

The Post-Dispatch said a former city police detective, Kevin Shade, has since pleaded guilty to mail fraud, admitting in court to taking bribes from a related company to deliver normal titles for seized vehicles instead of less-valuable salvage titles.

The new documents were revealed as Metropolitan's indicted towing manager, Gregory Shepard, challenges the government's evidence, collected through search warrants he reportedly claims were improperly issued.