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Riverview Mayor Michael Cornell has a colorful past. In 2014, while serving as a civilian employee with the St. Louis Police Department, he was  for felony sex assault after he—was accused of “regularly pretending to be a police officer, grooming the alleged victim, who was 14 when they met, and then dominating his life by threatening harm and abusing him so he couldn’t leave.” Cornell ultimately  to misdemeanor impersonation of a police officer and the remaining charges were dropped. 

A decade later, after becoming mayor of Riverview, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb, Cornell is  sexual harassment allegations. A lawsuit pending against Cornell  he offered a Texas resident a job with the city, began making advances on him when he moved there, and fired him when the man refused his advances.

Soon, a St. Louis-area resident made a joke at Mayor Cornell’s expense, posting a comment on social media about a missing youth and remarking: “Someone Check Riverview Mayor’s Basement!”  In short order, Mayor Cornell and the City of Riverview issued a subpoena demanding the critic appear “before the mayor and board of aldermen of the City of Riverview” and testify about “[m]issue of information regarding a missing juvenile,” “[i]nciting violence against an elected official,” “Cyber Bullying of Riverview Residents,” and “Slander and Defamation of Character.”  

Because the subpoena targeted protected speech—satire about a public official—FIREissued two public records requests to the City of Riverview seeking records about the subpoena and what officials planned to do. But the City of Riverview failed to respond to those requests. Public records laws aren’t worth the paper they’re written on if local officials can just ignore them. So on June 26, 2025, ������ýapp�ٷ�—working with attorney Erich Veith—filed a lawsuit in St. Louis county, asking the court to order Riverview to comply with Missouri’s Sunshine Law.