Roland Clubb says he never expected to spend his eighties in court. In the past few years he’s faced an assault charge for trying to run over a maintenance worker at St. Raphael the Archangel Church, a civil suit for assault for allegedly brandishing a gun at a tenant and attempting to run over a neighbor, and a criminal assault charge for striking a woman with “a piece of vinyl or aluminum” as she walked by on the sidewalk.
So far, he’s come up short in court, pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault in the St. Raphael matter and losing the civil suit at bench trial.
Having covered Clubb’s legal travails at a distance, I was curious to talk to the man who is both 81 and the terror of the generally placid St. Louis Hills neighborhood. I saw a note in the court file for his current criminal case—the one involving the piece of vinyl or aluminum—requiring him to be in court in person on Tuesday morning. As luck would have it, we both arrived at the courthouse at the same time. Clubb was energetic and talkative if not exceedingly friendly. If he tells you a story, you will know the race of everyone involved. His recall of the facts in his various cases is impressive, even if you don’t always trust his interpretation. Of the media’s coverage of his legal travails, he says, “They got it all wrong.”…