The sentencing hearing took place Friday, likely ending a complex courtroom saga that began more than three years ago.
Back in August, Salveter's guilty verdict included four counts of class-A misdemeanor harassment for sending the letters to Springfield City Councilmember Abe McGull and his wife, Crista Hogan.
McGull is a retired federal prosecuting attorney, while Hogan is also a lawyer.
Background on the criminal case against Salveter
Earlier court testimony revealed that Salveter also sent letters to the Springfield mayor and other city councilmembers, to the city manager’s office, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and the Springfield News-Leader. (Other news outlets, including Ozarks Public Radio, were sent copies of many letters by Salveter after prosecutors opened a case against him.)
Some of the content of these writings centered on allegations that McGull had “sexually assaulted” Salveter’s former wife, Rebecca Hogan — the mother of McGull's wife, Crista Hogan — at a Hickory Hills Country Club wine-tasting held in 2018. (Salveter and Rebecca Hogan divorced in 2020.)
At trial earlier this year, Salveter’s defense attorney argued the letters were First Amendment-protected speech. But the letters were deemed racist, sexually explicit and a form of harassment by the case prosecutor, as well as by McGull and Hogan in their testimony.
Sentence includes probation, fine, suspended jail time
Visiting Judge Dean Dankelson agreed with the prosecutor that the letters were harassment.
(Dankelson serves the 29th Circuit Court in Jasper County. He heard the case because Springfield-area judges recused themselves to avoid conflicts of interest, as the defendant and the victims in the case are all heavily linked to the legal profession and the court system.)
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, Dankelson gave Salveter a yearlong jail sentence on each of the four harassment charges, with a suspended execution of that sentence, or SES.
An SES means Salveter need not report to Greene County Jail to serve time, but the details of Salveter’s conviction and its consequences will remain publicly available in Missouri online court records for the remainder of the defendant's life.
Salveter was fined $250 on each of the four harassment charges, a total of $1,000, plus $10 to go toward a crime victims fund. He was also sentenced to one year of supervised probation with electronic monitoring.
Brady Musgrave, Salveter’s attorney, raised concerns that forcing Salveter to wear an electronic ankle monitor for a year would amount to a publicly shaming “scarlet letter” for the elderly defendant. In response Judge Dankelson said he’d consider allowing electronic monitoring by smartphone app, if that type of arrangement were available through the Greene County justice system.
Salveter was also ordered to have no contact with McGull or Hogan, whether directly or indirectly, with no communication in any form including letter-writing. He must also remain at least 1,000 feet from McGull or Hogan at all times.
Greene County Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Kiesewetter Fax had also sought several days of so-called "shock time" in Greene County Jail in her arguments Friday morning, but the judge did not include such a punishment in Salveter's sentence.
Kiesewetter Fax argued Salveter "believes and continuously shows us he's above the law and the rules set in this case."
"He is obsessed with harassment," she added.
Despite retaining a defense attorney to represent him in criminal court, over the duration of the case Salveter sent additional communications about McGull and Hogan to the court in the form of court motions filed “pro se.” In other words, that means Salveter was trying to server as his own lawyer, after already hiring a defense attorney, which the prosecutor argued was improper.
Assistant Prosecutor Kiesewetter Fax also argued Salveter filed that type of "pro se" motion at least seven times during the case. She argued that it was a way for him to relay harassing content about McGull and Hogan via Missouri court records, a way to “skirt around the rules” set up last year in a deferred prosecution agreement that essentially dropped the case — but only if Salveter would stop sending letters to McGull and Hogan.
Hogan and McGull delivered victim impact statements prior to the formal sentencing by Judge Dankelson. Hogan argued “Ted Salveter committed a hate crime” by making “dog whistles” intended as “signaling to a racially divided community.” She and her husband felt physically endangered by Salveter's behavior, Hogan told the judge.
McGull argued Salveter wrote “awful things about a family that opened their home to him” and “broke bread with him at many family events.”
Salveter comments before sentencing
Salveter also had his say before sentencing, speaking for nearly 30 minutes. He denied that that he’s a racist or a dangerous or threatening individual. He asserted the entire criminal proceeding was “corruption, plain and simple” — a comment firmly dismissed by Judge Dankelson, who said he wanted court records to formally reflect that he had “not seen any evidence” of improper wheeling and dealing by authorities.
Salveter’s attorney also called three character witnesses before the sentencing — two male friends and a family member who’ve known the defendant for 60-plus years or longer.
Charles Salveter, the defendant’s 83-year-old younger brother, said he didn’t approve of the letters. But he characterized them as “a desperate act for [Ted Salveter] to try to win back the woman that he loved” — one that “didn’t work.”
Hogan sighed loudly and looked at the courtroom ceiling during some of the testimony by the defense character witnesses, while McGull held a stern expression.
They declined to share any immediate comment when Ozarks Public Radio approached them outside the courtroom following the sentencing.
Prior to Friday's hearing, Salveter sent Ozarks Public Radio several documents by mail arguing his perspective, asserting that the Hogans had both “lied under oath” and that “the court has been misled by them and the lies of Abe McGull.”
As the parties exited the courtroom, Charles Salveter greeted McGull, who placed his hand on the shoulder of the defendant’s brother.
