Michael Joe Butler, 47, who lives between Arnold and Fenton allegedly led a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper on a high-speed motorcycle chase along Hwy. 30 from the Jefferson County portion of Fenton to Byrnes Mill, according to court documents.
The Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Aug. 18 charged Butler with aggravated fleeing, a class D felony; driving with a revoked license, a class E felony; operating a motor vehicle in a careless and imprudent fashion, a class B misdemeanor; operating a motor vehicle without maintaining financial responsibility, a class D misdemeanor; and failing to display a license plate, an unclassified misdemeanor, court records show.
As of Aug. 22, Butler was being held without bond at the Jefferson County Jail in Hillsboro, court documents said.
A motorcycle trooper at about 9 a.m. Aug. 18 saw Butler riding a motorcycle that did not have a license plate on Hwy. 30 near Old Sugar Creek Road in the Fenton area. When the trooper activated his motorcycle’s lights and sirens, Butler allegedly sped away at more than 100 mph, according to the case’s probable-cause statement.
Butler allegedly drove between vehicles on the highway and drove on the shoulder to get around traffic as he fled south on the highway. He stopped fleeing and pulled over on Hwy. 30 near Upper Byrnes Mill Road in Byrnes Mill, and the trooper arrested him, the report said.
Butler is being charged a prior and persistent offender, and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has asked that the fleeing charge be treated as a class C felony, which carries a penalty of three to 10 years in prison, and the driving with a revoked license charge be treated as a class D felony, which carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison.
A class B misdemeanor carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000, and a class D misdemeanor is punishable by a fine of up to $500. The license plate infraction carries a penalty of a fine between $5 and $500.
Butler was on probation when he allegedly fled from the state trooper after entering an Alford plea on April 18 for a charge of being a felon in unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance and receiving stolen property. The judge suspended Butler’s six-year prison sentence and placed him on five years’ probation, court documents said.
Court records also show Butler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in March 2007 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He also was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon in November 2018 and burglary in January 2020.
Butler also is facing charges for second-degree burglary and stealing, which are class D felonies, in St. Louis County. He allegedly admitted that between Aug. 5-6, 2024, he and two other people stole windows and a sawmill from a St. Louis County Parks Department’s storage building and several items from the Lou Fusz Soccer Fields, 2155 Creve Coeur Mill Road, according to court documents.
He is scheduled to appear in St. Louis County Court on Sept. 18, court records said.