CLEVER, Mo. – Since Michael Evans quit, the City of Clever no longer has a police chief. He was charged with assaulting a spouse in Greene County before this. Brenda Gardner has lived in Clever for 36 years and says she had faith in the past chief.
“I believed he would do well.” He didn’t act too proud. He didn’t seem like he was going to go out and make a name for himself. Gardner says, “That’s exactly the kind of police chief I had hoped we would have here in Clever.”
Evans had only been in the job for three months before he was sworn in this August. Gardner thinks it’s too bad that the city needs a new police chief so quickly.
According to Gardner, she hates that they have to look for someone else now and don’t know what kind of person they are or how good they will be.
Only a few police officers work for the Clever Police Department, which is pretty small. She says that when Evans was chief, the police department was more visible in the neighborhood.
“It seemed like since he joined the force, there was more going on. I saw more men on the job,” says Gardner.
When Ozarksfirst called the and the Police Department, they wouldn’t say anything about the case.