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ST. LOUIS — Hundreds of people signed a letter this week urging Mayor Cara Spencer's administration to drop municipal charges against a former citizen jail board vice president.

Janis Mensah faces two-year-old resisting arrest and trespassing charges after trying to find out about conditions at the downtown City Justice Center.

Now, 580 individuals, including Aldermanic President Megan Green and Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, and 32 progressive organizations say the prosecution should end.

"The city's priority should be overturning the deadly conditions at the city jail," the letter says, "not prosecuting the very people it put in place to attempt to provide oversight."

A spokesman for Spencer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Mensah, who uses they/them pronouns, was arrested in the summer of 2023 after former jail Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah called the police.

Clemons-Abdullah, who was hired by Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, accused Mensah of refusing to leave the jail's lobby. When police arrived, they tried to arrest Mensah. Instead, police said, Mensah tensed their arms to avoid being handcuffed.

Police took Mensah to the ground. Mensah was taken to a hospital for an evaluation.

Mensah, during their first trial last year, said they were seeking answers about a recent jail death.

The city's downtown jail was in the throes of controversy at the time, and officials had repeatedly refused jail board members' requests to tour the facility and learn about conditions there, Mensah said.

Mensah said they were never explicitly told to leave the jail that day and did not resist police.

Mensah later resigned from the jail oversight board, citing a lack of transparency from city officials.

A municipal judge last year convicted Mensah on two charges. Mensah's lawyers with the progressive nonprofit ArchCity Defenders then filed a request for a new trial in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Circuit Court.

That trial is set for next week.