Two weeks ago, Steve Roberts Jr., the state senator mounting a Democratic primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, released the legal settlement he’d reached with a former state official who’d publicly accused him of rape. Roberts surely hoped to get out from under the claims that had dogged him in 2017 — and which, after the recent death of his accuser, former Missouri Rep. Cora Faith Walker, increasingly became an issue for his campaign.

But Roberts’ move appeared to backfire when a second accuser, Amy Harms, released Roberts’ once-confidential settlement with her — showing Roberts’ insurance company had paid Harms $100,000 after she accused him of groping her at a bar.

Roberts claimed his insurance company had settled Harms’ claim against his will. He also suggested the settlement was vindication, since the policy expressly didn’t cover claims arising from sexual assault. If he was guilty, the argument went, the insurance carrier would have let him handle it on his own.

Booker T. Shaw, a partner at Thompson Coburn and a former Missouri appellate court judge, said there may well be truth to the idea that the insurer settled the claim without Roberts’ consent.

“They are the ones on the hook,” he observed. “If the insurance company is obligated to pay any judgment that may have happened here, it can happen [that they force a settlement].”

Shaw was speaking on St. Louis on the Air’s Legal Roundtable, which dug into the claims against Roberts Wednesday.

Attorney Mary Anne...

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