Will Show Charlie

In 1974, Charles Harter was a columnist for the neighboring Waterloo, IL newspaper. The two towns, separated by a dozen miles of southern Illinois Highway 3 corn fields, had for years been locked in a fierce, often red-hot civic rivalry. Harter threw gasoline on the flames, serving up on a platter overflowing with sarcasm bulletin board motivation for Red Bud’s march to the state tournament.

It was October 1974, and the Red Bud 6 were initially told by the Cahokia Conference, of which Red Bud was a member, they could not participate in the first ever Illinois state high school volleyball tournament because the October to January timing of the schedule would interfere with the conference schools’ boys’ basketball practices.

Instead, they were offered in the month of April a modified nine game schedule against other local schools. They were told take it or leave it. The Red Bud 6 chose the skedaddle option. They went rogue, pulled off an end run around authority and entered the Regional volleyball tournament anyway. Their conference kicked them out. And the Red Bud 6’s presumptuous and uppity attitude made Charlie angry.

The loquacious Harter did not agree with the approach Red Bud was taking by playing in the state tournament and then complaining about not being allowed to compete for the conference regular season championship.

In his weekly opinion sports column for the Waterloo Republican Harter gave the impression that all he saw to the south in the cow town of Red Bud was an arrogant bunch of neighbors - not an issue of fairness. His solution was simple. If Red Bud would just get their heads out of the clouds and hold reasonable and realistic goals for their volleyball team, then there was no real controversy.

Then he created one.

“So (sic) what’s my advice? To Waterloo, well, good luck. To Red Bud? Come on Musketeers, State?     When’s the last time any team in any sport in this area won a state title? Stop dreaming (Bold mine). Those Chicago kids play rough, and they have Olympic hopefuls up there. If you really think you’ve got a good team, stop complaining, get in the conference and prove it! You can talk about state dreams all you want but I don’t want anyone from Red Bud saying that any other team won the conference title by default this year. If Red Bud thinks they can win the conference, then maybe they oughta (sic) try to.” 

“Stop Dreaming,” really?

“If you really think you’ve got a good team, stop complaining, get in the conference and prove it!” Like winning a conference proves you are a good team and winning the state does not? Do I have to move to Germany to prove I like women with hairy legs, driving on the left side of the road and warm beer?

Jump ahead 48 years. In October 2022, using the wonders and all-encompassing information found on the internet, Charlie has resurfaced answering a question Red Bud Coach Griffin had earlier presented to me, “wonder what ever happened to old Charlie?”

All the details match up. It has got to be our guy; I tell my wife and head detective. The age. The induction into his local high school’s athletic hall of fame (he was a water polo player), the year of his high school graduation, his past employment spoken of in one of his Waterloo 1974 columns. A former colleague who I knew, and who knew Charlie, told me, “He was a little out to lunch sometime.” For example? “Like the column he wrote setting off the civil war with Red Bud.”

I now do believe that shortly after he wrote his infamous “who do you think you are Red Bud” column, he entered law school. He subsequently secured his law degree and passed the bar exam. Now in his 70’s he maintains a law office in the St. Louis area. This is the best conclusion I can infer from searching public records.

Starting in October, I repeatedly called, and repeatedly left messages at two numbers I had found on the internet that were associated to Charles Harter, the lawyer. One came from a website that advertised what I believe to be Charlie’s law firm. He specializes in divorce law and personal injury lawsuits. Seriously, Charlie became an ambulance chaser! I couldn’t make stuff up this good.

Finally, in early November he answered his phone.

“Who is this and what do you want,” seemed a strange way to answer a phone tied to a law office, Caller ID maybe? I explained my project, that I was writing a book on Title IX and using the story of the improbable run by the 1975 Red Bud volleyball team as an anchor. I shared that my research had uncovered the role he had played and asked if I had the correct Charles Harter? “Maybe, maybe not,” was the sly barrister’s retort. He then confirmed for me the answer I was looking for by saying, “That was a long time ago and I am not going to be part of any hatchet job you are looking for. There was nothing wrong with that column and I don’t deserve this.” Really, I wanted to say? Go back and read the column you wrote about those teenage girls, and we can then discuss a hatchet job.

I didn’t get the chance, he hung up on me.

Thirty seconds later he called back. “I won’t play dead,” he threatened, “you use my name or record me or anything I say, or you write about me or that column, I will sue your ass.” He hung up again. Come on Charlie, on this one, you couldn’t play a dead man in a cowboy movie.

I have no idea how successful Charlie was as a lawyer specializing in personal injury lawsuits. Although often viewed as ambulance chasing opportunists, the bottom feeding fish in the legal aquarium, that line of work can be very profitable. But I did find on Casenet.MO that Charlie while representing himself, involved in 16 separate lawsuits. Everybody has wronged this poor guy. I quit counting when I got way past triple figures on the court’s docket entry. I haven’t seen this much crying since the first day of kindergarten. He sued individuals, he sued government agencies, and he sued businesses. As a plaintiff, Charlie sues like a Kardashian shops, indiscriminately and often.

He sued Dobbs Tire. He sued Gray Transportation. He sued something called Ageless Cradle School. He sued Gold’s Gym. And he wasn’t deterred by the “deep state, monopolies and government agencies,” either. He sued Union Electric, the Missouri Public Service Commission and the Director of the Department of Revenue. The latter he took all the way to the State Supreme Court where 15 months and 37 court docket entries later, “lower opinion affirmed.” Charlie has sued everyone but God.

As best I can tell, sloshing through all the legal mumbo-jumbo, it appears he did prevail at least once, by default. The defendant was a credit company and they finally just quit showing up for the hearings. Numerous suits he filed were dismissed with costs, “charged to defendant.” I will give the man his dues, with that one victory Charlie improved his legal rating of success from impossible to improbable. He now has one more positive settlement on his filings on his personal behalf than Paris Hilton has Oscars, so things are looking up, maybe?

With all those billable hours, I hope Charlie was able to afford himself. Dude, if you are serious about taking on the First Amendment and suing me for quoting you directly and documenting the historical defects of your sorely lacking journalistic efforts, I recommend finding a lawyer with one heck of a higher batting average than it appears you have.