CLAYTON ? On the surface, Dustin C. Mitchell, Esq., seems like a solid candidate for the cover of a glossy business magazine.
A quick Internet search describes a millionaire entrepreneur heading several private companies, a lawyer who graduated from Washington University's law school and a political insider staging a run for lieutenant governor of Missouri.
His appearances in St. Louis County Circuit Court several times earlier this year, representing two men in four cases ranging from assault to driving while intoxicated, would seem to support that professional image. He even handed out business cards in the courthouse, promoting his legal practice and his range of courtroom experience.
But most of Mitchell's public persona appears false. Court records instead reveal a convicted felon with a trail of trouble and dubious claims. Authorities say he isn't a lawyer, and earlier this month charged him with one felony count of stealing by deceit for allegedly taking money to represent a St. Louis County man in court.
In that case, police say, he received $1,000 from the man and represented him on charges of drunken driving and speeding, and in a hearing to revoke that man's probation for an earlier crime.
If convicted, Mitchell, 31, faces up to seven years in prison. A grand jury will review the cases and consider additional charges, officials said.
In one of the other four cases, Mitchell represented an Arnold man accused of attacking a hospital security guard, court records show. In January, Mitchell persuaded a judge to reduce the bail and release the man from jail.
Authorities haven't seen that client since Mitchell was arrested. A judge issued a new warrant for the man's arrest, but police were still looking for him.
'MAKING A MESS'
Mitchell was tripped up when he represented himself in a small-claims lawsuit, said Paul Fox, St. Louis County's director of judicial administration. A limousine company had sued Mitchell, claiming he failed to pay more than $800 for driving him around in September.
Although he didn't need a lawyer to represent himself in the small-claims case, he claimed to be one and listed a bar number — a lawyer's license number — on court paperwork. A clerk entering the number into a computer system discovered the number wasn't Mitchell's.
"The bar number is what gave him away, and it just kind of snowballed from there," Fox said.
Meanwhile, court clerks reported seeing Mitchell in the courthouse passing out business cards that identified him as an attorney with "Berkshire King Mitchell & Sottile, PC," Fox said. Authorities couldn't find a law firm by that name. The card also lists two websites, both of which appear to be inactive.
Fox had Mitchell's picture posted with security guards at the St. Louis County Courthouse, but in a way, Mitchell turned himself in. On Feb. 29, he called the courthouse looking for a lost wallet and was told to come by to see whether it was there.
Police met Mitchell at the security checkpoint to arrest him. He was later released on bail but returned to prison to face a parole board hearing on whether to revoke probation.
In a brief telephone interview, Mitchell admitted he had represented people in court without a law license but denied taking money.
"I wanted to do my best to help," he told a reporter.
His explanations were vague.
"I have no intention of practicing law in this state, otherwise I would take the bar," he said. "Had the entire process gone through, they would have gotten off with probation. I know what I'm doing."
After his arrest, Mitchell withdrew from three of the four criminal cases, admitting in court documents that he was not licensed to practice law in Missouri. A judge removed him in the fourth case.
The two men Mitchell sought to defend could not be reached for comment.
Mitchell took advantage of the abundance of lawyers at the courthouse to blend in with the crowd, Fox said.
"We have six to seven thousand lawyers in St. Louis County, and we're seeing new ones all the time," he said.
A lawyer himself, Fox said he has never seen a situation like Mitchell's in three decades of practice.
"He was making a mess," Fox said. "Very few people have this kind of nerve."
LEGAL TANGLES
Mitchell is from Rolla, Mo., where he attended high school and found controversy early on. The Rolla School District suspended Mitchell in 1999 for comments he made in an online forum about the Columbine High School shootings. The American Civil Liberties Union represented Mitchell in a suit alleging his free speech rights were violated, and the two sides reached a settlement.
After living in Washington state for a time, he came to the St. Louis area, where he briefly ran Outlook Magazine, a publication for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents. The magazine folded several years ago.
Later, Mitchell took over as manager of a cabinet business in St. Louis. The company closed in 2008 amid legal troubles. The same year, an employee there accused Mitchell of opening credit card accounts listing her as the guarantor, according to police reports. When he didn't pay, banks came after her, she told police. Officers sought charges, but prosecutors declined to file them, saying there wasn't enough evidence.
In 2005, an intoxicated Mitchell knocked on the locked doors of an Alton McDonald's in the middle of the night, waving handcuffs and claiming he was a federal agent, according to police reports. He was charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer, but the case was dismissed in 2009 because Mitchell never showed up for court and police couldn't find him.
The same year, he went to prison in Missouri for about eight months after his third DWI conviction. Mitchell also has convictions for writing bad checks and stealing a credit card from a customer at a Red Robin restaurant in Des Peres, where he worked as a server.
'OUTSTANDING CLAIMS'
Mitchell is mum about his legal troubles online. On Facebook, he describes a "high-octane" lifestyle and calls himself "one of the most ambitious, outgoing and dedicated" entrepreneurs of the era.
A résumé on LinkedIn, a professional networking website, says Mitchell graduated from Washington State University and earned a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. But officials at each university said they had no records of a Dustin Mitchell ever attending the school.
Mitchell acknowledged he was aware of the LinkedIn profile but said he did not "maintain" it.
Mitchell portrays himself as a savvy political insider. The online résumé says Dustin Mitchell worked for U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and Mitchell told the limo driver who later sued him that he had ties to Sarah Steelman, a Republican running for U.S. senator. A spokeswoman for Foxx said Mitchell never worked there. The Steelman campaign said the candidate did once meet with Mitchell, but the campaign soon thereafter tried to distance itself from him.
"We did ask him to stop contacting the campaign so much," said Sam Steelman, a spokesman for his mother's campaign. "The guy was making some pretty outstanding claims for someone we didn't know much about at all."
Online, Dustin Mitchell claims to be running for lieutenant governor in Missouri. But he never filed for the election and said in an email after his arrest that he is no longer seeking the office.
Online, Mitchell says he is president and CEO of Assurance Inc. and describes it as a 100-plus employee company that sells identity theft protection, personal security, printing solutions and precious metals.
Websites for Assurance list an address in an office building in Clayton that houses a Bank of America branch and bank offices, a law firm and a brokerage company. Workers interviewed on different floors said they had never heard of Assurance or Mitchell, except for getting occasional mail addressed to him. Assurance is a registered company in Missouri, but records show the firm dissolved in January.
In a brief interview, Mitchell said he used to rent an office in the building, but the payments became too expensive.
Mitchell told a reporter that he could explain it all. He arranged a place and time to meet up and tell his side of the story. But he never showed up at the agreed time early this month, and didn't return calls or emails.
About a week later, he went back to prison because the theft charge against him was a violation of his parole in a DWI case.
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