Missouri mom says notorious GAL ignored alcoholism helped put her daughter’s life in danger

Note: the video is one of several videos submitted in court of John Cooper showing up to Erricka Moorehead’s residence drunk.

Erricka Moorehead’s daughter was due for delivery on September 12, 2022, but on August 8, Erricka, “felt strong contractions but never imagined she was going into labor,” according to a story in KMOV.

Erricka works as a dispatcher for City of St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, but on this day, she was the caller.

“City of St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department 911,” the dispatcher on duty stated that day.

“Christina, this is Erricka Moorehead, I’m in labor.” Erricka responded.

The call was placed at 9:08AM; Erricka delivered her baby at 9:12AM, while paramedics arrived shortly thereafter.

“They {paramedics} checked her and the baby, and both were doing fine.” The KMOV story noted.

The drama should have ended there, but Missouri family courts had other ideas.

Erricka and her daughter’s father, John Cooper, were never married and only had a casual relationship which resulted in the pregnancy.

Cooper’s life was spiraling downward when his daughter was born.

He resigned from the City of St. Louis Fire Department in November 2022, after a drug test came back positive for cocaine.

His descent into drug abuse and alcoholism did not end with his job loss, Erricka told me.

Erricka filed for child support in January 2023, and John responded by demanding joint custody.

Initially, the court was having none of it. With drunken incidents piling up, John was put on supervised visits on August 30, 2023.

At that time, Nikki Klapp was the guardian ad litem (GAL). By January 2024, Klapp- who became a judge- withdrew and was replaced by Molly Murphy.

Murphy and Klapp did not respond to emails for comment.

Murphy is a notorious figure in the St. Louis area, having been the GAL on the Hagemeier case, where she covered up child molestation and even pressured the then fourteen-year-old victim to sit for a deposition.

By April 2024, Murphy filed a motion to immediately reinstate unsupervised visits.

Erricka said the motion was dumfounding. John had not shown any sign that his drug and alcohol abuse had subsided; she was being ignored in court, and she sent an ill-advised email.

“I’ve decided to just sign whatever is needed and allow John to have full custody,” Erricka said in an email on April 2, 2024.

“It was in the moment of me being upset and emotional and saying something I did not mean.” Erricka told me.

Her attorney at the time talked Erricka down and smoothed things over. Murphy responded with an understanding email.

Though no official decisions were made, John’s sister showed up at the house later that day and took Erricka’s daughter.

She said that April 2, 2024, email has haunted her since.

Erricka said she had no contact with her daughter for over a week, even though she was still breastfeeding at the time.

A judge then set temporary custody to 50/50. After a custody trial, 50/50 was made permanent.

Erricka told me that the court relied on Molly Murphy to make sure that John was taking and passing drug tests regularly.

Murphy was not dutiful in monitoring the tests, according to an email. In an email early on in her GAL term, Murphy agreed that John was an alcoholic, while stating that he’d take regular drug and alcohol tests.

In a later email, Murphy cried ignorance of the ten-panel test.

“What Assure test results,” she asked. Assure is a drug testing lab which would have done the “ten panel drug test,” that Murphy agreed to in the first email.

The judge ceded to Murphy in his order, while noting that John voluntarily submitted another test where he was positive for marijuana.

John’s attorney, Elizabeth Ituarte, did not respond to an email for comment.

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