St. Louis Man Who Funded Anti-Child Kidnapping Film Arrested for Accessory to Kidnapping

Update: All charges against Fabian Marta have been dropped. Please see the October 4 story for the latest.

This column was first published on Ray Hartmann's St. Louis Insider Substack and is reprinted with permission.

A Chesterfield man is the subject of national news media coverage today over his recent arrest in the city on kidnapping-related charges.

Fabian Marta, 51, stands accused by Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore of “accessory child kidnapping,” a Class A felony. The complaint alleges that Marta assisted a woman referred to as “Suspect 1” in harboring her children at an apartment building he owned “knowing she had taken them illegally” from a lawful parent. It accused him of “refusing to allow police access to the residence and impeding the kidnapping investigation.”

The national angle of interest – reported at Newsweek and other outlets – is that Marta was “a patron of the crowdfunded anti-child trafficking film Sound of Freedom.” The box-office hit about child predators is all the rage on the Right, drawing praise from everyone from Donald Trump to mainstream conservative politicians to Qanon.

Marta posted on Facebook that he was “proud to have been a small part” of funding the film. He added, “If you see the movie, look for Fabian Marta and family at the end of the credits.” For someone with that credential to be charged with accessory to child kidnapping does seem somewhat ironic.
But the more interesting local angle of the story is Marta’s connection to controversial Rockwood School Board member Jessica Clark, who was elected in April 2022. Clark’s claim to fame was that she was the first person elected to a school board after proudly holding the title “Sugar Baby.”

It turns out, from all appearances, that Marta was her first “Sugar Daddy."

In a since-deleted Facebook post dated February 10, 2020, Clark – posting under the name “Jessica Laurent” – displayed photos of herself with Marta. Under the heading “Jessica Laurent is with Fabian Marta,” there was this:

“On this day last year, I walked into this weird-ass party and met that weird-ass man (heart emoji). Now we spend our days being weird all day. It was pure magic. Cheers to the sweet life.” On the same day, Clark/Laurent also posted an invitation to “Sugar Ball” – “the finest sugar party experience” – at a place called “Elmo’s Love Lounge” in University City.

Still, Rockwood voters elected Clark to shake up their school district. And Marta, himself a Rockwood parent, has supported her efforts in social media and as a frequent front-row attendee at school board meetings, according to a reliable source (and fellow Rockwood parent).

It didn’t take Clark long to make the news as a school board member. Four months after her election, the Post-Dispatch reported that Clark was being condemned by Rockwood school district leaders and parents for having “mocked students with disabilities and used political slurs in a recorded speech that has been shared widely on social media.” Here’s what the Post reported that Clark said at a town hall meeting hosted by a conservative radio station in O’Fallon, Missouri: “They come to the school board meetings with their gay flags and their masks,” Clark said, earning laughter from the audience. “I use the word libtard, they said I was an ableist ... They come in with the kids in the wheelchairs and everything ... whatever, you are a libtard and I mean it, and I stand on it.”

In the video, Clark can also be heard referring to “transgender crap” in schools and saying teachers are “indoctrinated” during college.”

Marta defended Clark three days after that story in an August 28, 2022, Facebook post: “Jessica has come under fire for standing strong on her conservative values.” He also referred to the Post-Dispatch news story “as a political hit piece.”

Clark has not in any way been implicated in the current charges against Marta. The criminal-justice part of the story will play itself out and doesn’t interest me a bit.

But less than a year ago, Marta was an important public part of Clark’s efforts to bring conservative family values to Rockwood. Call me cynical, but that sweet connection still has my attention. It’s so educational.

Perhaps it’s a sign of my advanced years that sugaring is a phrase with which I wasn’t familiar until Clark burst on the scene. I’ve tried to get up to speed, and here’s the best definition I was able to find from a law firm online:

“Over the past decade, an unconventional method of dating, known as sugaring, has become more and more popular. Sugaring is when a younger woman and an older, wealthy man form a relationship where the man, the sugar daddy, gives the woman, the sugar baby, money and gifts in exchange for the time they spend together.

“The phenomenon often draws comparisons to prostitution. Both prostitution and sugaring involve exchanging money for intimate services. While sugaring does not always include sexual acts, it is often part of the arrangement. Those who are involved in sugaring often differentiate between prostitution and sugaring by emphasizing the dating aspect of sugaring. They say that prostitution is flat out exchanging money for sex, and being a sugar baby is more similar to being in a consensual, adult relationship where your partner supports you financially.”

I hope that clears it up.

There’s no indication that the study of sugaring will become part of the Rockwood Schools curriculum in the foreseeable future. Clark has not brought that up publicly in her campaign to clean up Rockwood’s swamp, but you never know where conservative values will lead you these days.

I understand this irony isn’t nearly as sexy as the “Guy Who Helped Fund Child Trafficking Film Busted For Accessory to Child Kidnapping” national story. But I don’t care about that movie.

I like Fabian Marta’s local angle better.


Editor's note: This story was updated in October to include information about the charges against Fabian Marta being dropped, as well as to better clarify the nature of the original charges.

Ray Hartmann is the founder and former columnist for the Riverfront Times. Now you can read news and insights on his substack Ray Hartmann's St. Louis Insider. If you miss his column as much as we do, why not subscribe?

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