Haskins accused of assaulting fellow County Council member

District 7 Councilman Bob Tullock of House Springs filed a report with the Hillsboro Police Department on Jan. 29 claiming that fellow Councilman Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge) assaulted him during a Jan. 23 meeting at the Jefferson County Justice Center in Hillsboro.

According to the report, Haskins was arrested on Jan. 29 and released the same day with a citation for a Hillsboro municipal assault charge.

The report alleges that Haskins became verbally and physically aggressive during a disagreement with Tullock regarding the future of the High Ridge Civic Center. Cherlynn Boyer, executive assistant to the County Council, and Councilman Billy Crow (District 2, Arnold) also were present during the incident.

Tullock said in a statement included in the police report that Haskins “ripped my clipboard out of my hand (and) threw it in the hall. The clipboard cut my right hand and bent my thumb back, causing some swelling.”

Haskins said he had no comment regarding the alleged incident, except that, “the prosecutor refused to charge, and I don’t have anything to add to that.”

The Hillsboro municipal prosecutor, Bianca Eden, could not be reached for comment before the Leader’s deadline on Monday.

Tullock, the recently appointed council chair, said he recently had had meetings with council members to learn what their objectives were for the upcoming year, and the alleged assault occurred about two and a half hours into a meeting in Haskins’ county office.

“All of a sudden, Brian just started going nuts – screaming and hollering – and he just got worse and worse,” Tullock said. “It got to the point where he just said, ‘Get out of my office,’ and I said, ‘Does this mean you want to terminate the meeting?’ I asked Billy Crow, ‘Do you want to terminate the meeting, too?’ and that’s when (Haskins) got upset and threw the clipboard out of my hand. When he did that, he cut my thumb. That was the main reason why I filed the police report. You can’t do stuff like that, especially as an elected official.”

Tullock said he initially filed a report with the county’s human resources department on Jan. 24 and then decided to file a police report on Jan. 29.

Crow said in a witness statement included in the police report that “nothing out of the ordinary” had occurred during the meeting up until the point of the alleged assault.

“To my recollection, the discussion turned to the idea of building a new Jefferson County Civic Center,” Crow said in the statement. “This frustrated Brian because of the comments that Bob had said in the Leader newspaper which came out the day before. Brian started to communicate to Bob how he felt. Brian started talking faster and louder out of his frustration. Bob repeatedly tried to cut Brian off. Every time that happened, it made Brian even more upset.”

According to the Leader article published on Jan. 23 detailing the county’s recently approved 2025 budget, Tullock voted no on the final version of the budget, saying $180,000 allocated for engineering plans for the possible replacement of the civic center should be used elsewhere.

Crow went on to say in his statement included in the police report that Brian had “had enough of Bob trying to talk over him” during the meeting. “Brian then got up and told Bob to leave. Bob just sat there staring at Brian. Brian then opened the door and said that he couldn’t even stand to look at Bob anymore and to leave. Brian asked at least a third time for Bob to leave before he took Bob’s clipboard out of his hand and put it in the hall in an attempt to get Bob out of his office. When Brian grabbed Bob’s clipboard, I told Brian to stop and not touch Bob. Brian said he didn’t touch him; he just took Bob’s clipboard.”

According to the police report, Haskins sent a text message to Tullock after the alleged altercation, saying, “Bob I’m sorry for the way it ended.”

Tullock said he hasn’t spoken with Haskins since the alleged incident, adding that Haskins will be barred from sitting on any of the council committees that Tullock sits on due to the alleged incident.

Haskins will be allowed to attend council meetings.

“I’m not going to invite him to participate in any of the functions that we have,” Tullock said. “I think that’s appropriate.”