June 8 (UPI) -- St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said Wednesday that the city can take "its first tentative steps to move forward" now that all three aldermen charged with bribery and corruption by federal indictment earlier this week have resigned.
"It's been an incredibly difficult few weeks for the city and our region," she said.
"While I whole heartedly believe that people are innocent until proven guilty I also recognize -- and I think our city does, too -- that the disturbing federal corruption charges brought against Lewis Reed, Jeffrey Boyd and John Collins-Muhammad prevented them from doing the job that they were elected to do: to faithfully serve the residents of St. Louis."
Reed, now the former president of the Board of Aldermen, was the last of the three men to resign, stepping down on Tuesday when federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri formally announced charges accusing the trio of misusing their offices in exchange for bribes.
Collins-Muhammad resigned May 12 amid the criminal investigation and Boyd resigned Friday. All three were indicted May 25.
