Gavel Rousing

RFT staff writer Geri L. Dreiling makes a strong case before the Bar Association of St. Louis

May 28, 2003 at 4:00 am
Yesterday evening, at an awards ceremony hosted by the Bar Association of St. Louis, Riverfront Times staff writer Geri L. Dreiling was presented with the 2003 Gateway Gavel Award for her September 11, 2002, story "New City Trick."

Dreiling was honored in the competition's print category, open to all print media in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The broadcast-journalism-division winner was news producer Kevin Lavery of KWMU (90.7 FM), for a piece titled "The Missouri Moratorium Movement." Previous print winners include George Pawlaczyk of the Belleville News-Democrat, who received the award in 2002 for coverage of crack-cocaine sales on the East Side, and Michael Sorkin and Phyllis Brasch Librach of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who were honored in 2001 for stories about a rogue informant.

Dreiling's cover story examined an innovative community court pioneered by St. Louis Municipal Court Judge Jim Sullivan to target prostitution in the inner city.