// a href = ./ //

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) - A 21-year-old St. Louis County woman faces sentencing in July after pleading guilty to child endangerment for placing her newborn baby under a tree in a stranger's yard.

KSDK-TV reports that Kaitlin Norton pleaded guilty in St. Louis Circuit Court. She was arrested last year, days after the child was found outside of a home in Ellisville.

A woman looked out her window and saw a bundle in a blanket, thinking at first it might be a litter of puppies. It was Norton's child. Norton had given birth to the baby in the basement of her boyfriend's home.

Norton turned herself in after she was treated at a hospital following the birth.

The impeachment hearing Ellisville Mayor Adam Paul, will continue as planned on Monday night.

<br><br>

A judge ruled against Paul's lawyer, Chet Pleban's request to postpone the hearing. The Post-Dispatch reports that Pleban claimed the city council was biased against Paul and the impeachment proceedings were unconstitutional. The judge said those issues should be raised at the hearing, which is being held one night before the city council elections.

<br><br>

Paul is facing impeachment for several reasons, including allegedly throwing a former council member out of a meeting last year.

 

The same developer behind a controversial Walmart project in Ellisville may have a tougher time winning public financing for a new project. Sansone unveiled plans Monday night for a 30-million dollar, 12 acres retail and restaurant development on land adjacent to the Walmart site.

They also asked for more tax-payer financing, but the Economic Development Commission rejected the plan.

Commission chairman Tom Weis says they were hoping for something more than another shopping center. Weis said they want something "tying in with the great streets concept; trying to build these little pods people can live in, work in, they can shop in."

Tax Increment Financing has been a hot-button issue in the West County suburb, even contributing to the suspension of Mayor Adam Paul, who opposed the Walmart TIF.

Paul says he believes his election was a referendum by Ellisville residents against using tax dollars for such projects. "I believe we started TIF reform in the region," Paul said. "For the developer to come back asking for more tax increment financing and more incentives is preposterous."

Paul won a legal victory at a hearing Monday, forcing the city council to turn over documents detailing communications regarding his impeachment. Paul's attorney says he still expects the council to remove the mayor from office on March 27, saying the votes are already lined up.

In an effort to clear his name, Ellisville's embattled mayor, Adam Paul has taken a lie detector test, even though the city council has dropped charges of drinking on the job and swearing. Paul says, "I've got thick skin...I can take political allegations, that's fine. But when you affect my livelihood that's a big problem for me and I have to vindicate myself."

The Mayor's attorney Chet Pleban says although the polygraph test is inadmissible in court he tells KTRS' McGraw Milhaven this was the Mayor's only recourse since he no longer has a vote on the council.

Pleban says, "He answered in the negative he had not had any alcoholic beverages under those circumstances and the polygraph examiner determined he was truthful in his response. You can't put the smoke back in the bag last night they (city council) said we're not going to go forward with this drinking allegation well, it's out there. Adam Paul has to live and work in the St Louis area and live in the city of Ellisville and this is the only way right now to clear his name.""

Paul has repeatedly refuted the drinking and swearing charges saying they stem from his disagreements with the city council over a controversial Walmart TIF.