By Bill Miller Jr.Record PublisherA local circuit judge said his role and comments attributed to him in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch exposé on area municipal courts were taken out of context.Warren County Presiding Judge Wes Dalton said the article, which appeared on the front page of last Sunday’s Post-Dispatch under the headline “Favors, Fines Grease Wheels” infers he did something illegal when he contacted a Frontenac Municipal Court prosecutor about a ticket for a Warren County resident.“It was taken out of context. There was no deals, no free golf given to anyone and no exchange of money. That is the inference and it’s just not true.” Dalton told The Record Monday.The Post-Dispatch reported that on May 2, 2006, Dalton, then an associate circuit court judge in Warren County, sent Frontenac Municipal Court prosecutor Keith Cheung an email with the subject line of “help” regarding a defendant, Dana Baker, 18, one of three teens who had been written summonses for illegal possession of alcohol.The email, according to The Post-Dispatch, mentioned that Baker was the daughter of Wayne Baker, a Warrenton business owner and “our connection” to Porto Cima, a private golf club at the Lake of the Ozarks, the resort area where an annual conference of municipal judges is held.The Post-Dispatch reported that Dalton’s email said: “Her Dad is Wayne Baker (owner of Warrenton Oil and a ----load of other stuff), “Can we make this one go away??? By the way, we’re hooked up for golf at Porto Cima at the Conference!!! (is no cost okay???)!!”The Post-Dispatch ran photos of Dalton and Cheung on the front page under a headline that read “Wealthy? Well-Connected? No Problem” and next to a graphic that contained a portion of the email. It ran the entire email on an inside page.The police report indicates that a disposition of “nolle prosequi” was entered on the case the next day in the Baker case according to The Post-Dispatch. It meant the daughter would not be prosecuted. The other two teens pleaded guilty to amended charges, paid fines and were ordered to take a three-day alcohol course.Dalton is quoted in the story as saying he didn’t remember the email but he “probably did not do that.”Dalton told The Record that statement was taken out of context. He said when a Post reporter initially asked him about the email, he told him he didn’t remember it.“I never said I didn’t send it (the email), what I said was I didn’t remember sending it. The question was about something that occurred almost nine years ago. I’ve had 1,000 cases since then and I can’t remember every one of them. I looked for the email and couldn’t find it. I don’t have it.” Dalton told The Record.Dalton said if he did send the email he probably wanted Cheung to look at the case because it was a “bad” case that couldn’t be prosecuted under the law. “The inference is that Keith Chueng and I play a lot of golf and that is not the case. I’ve never played golf with him. We may have been at the same tournaments, but we’re not golf buddies,” Dalton stressed.Dalton said he would never ask a court official to dismiss a criminal case for a friend, a statement that is also attributed to him in the Post article.“I would never do anything to jeopardize his (Cheung’s) career or my career and certainly not for free golf. Its just not true,” he added.Dalton declined to answer other questions about the email and the underlying case.“I’m not going to comment any further on this, he said. “I’m upset about the whole thing because it was taken out of context.”Chueng did not return a phone call to his law office on the story. Wayne Baker could not be reached for comment.Warren County Presiding Judge Wes Dalton