The former mayor of Stover, Missouri, was sentenced in December 2011 to 10 years of probation and five months of home confinement, 30 days in a halfway house, and a $10,000 fine on charges related to violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act (United States v. Beckmann, W.D. Mo., No. 2:10-CR-04021, sentenced 12/1/11). Scott A. Beckmann had been convicted in March of misprision of a felony and of making a false statement to a federal agent. Beckmann’s co-defendant, Richard R. Sparks, former superintendent of the city’s public works department, was sentenced in April to five years of probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for submitting a false record to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Beckmann and Sparks allegedly misled the DNR as to the levels of bacteriological contaminants, lead and copper in the Stover water supply.
