MOIA is organized exclusively for educational, fraternal and professional purposes. It promotes the free exchange of inter-agency information necessary to effectively carry out the work of the association members. It also provides continuing educational opportunities for governmental personnel engaged in investigative work and enhances the status of investigative work as a profession.
PRESIDENT
Jessica Phelps, Department of Health & Senior Services
Jessica graduated from Hannibal-LaGrange University with her degree in Criminal Justice in May of 2012. She began her career with the Department of Health and Senior Services later the same year. In April of 2022 Jessica was promoted to Senior Regulatory Auditor under the Division of Regulation and Licensure. Her duties include conducting complaint investigations, completing facility surveys and compliance checks for skilled nursing facilities in the Southeastern region of Missouri. Jessica has previous experience with the department under the Division of Senior and Disability Services as the Lead Investigator for the Southeastern region of the state. During her time with DSDS she was responsible for conducting both administrative and criminal investigations involving the abuse, neglect and exploitation of elderly and disabled adults
VICE PRESIDENT
Bill Willoughby, Platte County Prosecutor’s Office
Bill retired with the rank of Captain from the Gladstone Department of Public Safety after 30 years of service. During his tenure Bill worked as a patrolman, a detective, and a field sergeant. Bill was a firearms instructor, department armor and defensive tactics instructor. Bill was a member of the tactical unit and served as one of the tactical commanders.
Bill attended the Administrative Officer’s Course at the Southern Police Institute in Louisville, Kentucky and the Missouri Police Chiefs Command College in Jefferson City, Missouri as well as many other courses.
Prior to working in Gladstone Bill worked for the Platte City Police Department and the Platte County Sheriff’s Department. Bill has been working in law enforcement since 1977.
SECRETARY / TREASURER
Denetta Amor, Higginsville Police Dept.
Denetta started her Law Enforcement career with the Higginsville Police Department in May, 1997. She has been a Police Officer there since 2004. She has been certified as a Crime Scene Investigator since 2004 and is a member of the Lafayette County Crime Scene Team. Denetta currently coordinates a County-Wide Law Enforcement Day for all DARE age students and is involved in other community activities. She has additional training in Interview and Interrogation, Crisis/Hostage Negotiation, Crisis Intervention, Fraud and Financial Crimes and various other courses.
Denetta is a currently a member of the Rural Major Case Squad and serves as Secretary-Treasurer for the Missouri River Valley Citizens Advisory Board. She is active in her community in other civic organizations and is a Reserve Deputy for the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office and Odessa Police Department.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Les Kerr, US Attorney’s Office
Les has served as the Law Enforcement Coordinator in the US Attorney’s Office, Western District of Missouri, Kansas City, since November 13, 2001. He has been instrumental in the implementation of numerous innovative programs for the Weed & Seed Strategy, Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative, Missouri Drug Endangered Children Program and the Human Trafficking Rescue Project. He is currently the Chief of the Law Enforcement Relations Unit, which includes all Law Enforcement Coordination activities as well as the Victim Witness Staff and Community Outreach. He is the Executive Board Member from Missouri for the Mid-States Organized Crime Information Center (MOCIC), one of the 6 RISS Centers.
Prior to joining the US Attorney’s Office, Les was the Criminal Investigator for the Platte County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and an officer with the Riverside Police Department in the Kansas City area. Les has been a member of the MOIA since 2001 and is the longest serving president in the history of the association.
Cody Brewington, Missouri State University Public Safety Training Center
Cody has attended the Missouri State Investigator Conference since 2009. He works at Missouri State University in the Noncredit Outreach Department and offers the POST Law Enforcement and Private Investigator Continuing Education for the annual conference. He graduated from Missouri State in 2011, with a Master’s Degree in Criminology and a certification in Homeland Security and Defense. Cody became a member of the MOIA Executive Board in 2013. He currently is in charge of the MSU Public Safety Training Center located in Camdenton, Missouri. The PSTC offers courses to law enforcement, dispatchers, evidence technicians, jailers, and investigators on a yearly basis to agencies across the state.
John McCarthy, Private Investigator
John is retired with 30 years of Law Enforcement experience. He began his career with the
St. Louis University Police Department in 1978, left there as a Sergeant. After a 7-year stint with the New York Life Insurance Co., John returned to law enforcement with the Foristell, MO Police Department from 1992 through 1998. During this time, he became the Senior Firearms Instructor at the Eastern Missouri Law Enforcement Police Academy for 7 years where he taught Firearms to both recruits and in-service trainees, along with other law enforcement subjects. Commissioned as Special Deputy of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department, he helped train the newly formed SWAT Team and served on the team for 3 years. In 1996, John was selected to be one of the 500 worldwide police officers to protect the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA.
He served the Charlack Police Department for 16 years, where he was the Assistant Team Leader for the Tactical Team. In 2002, John was again selected to protect the Olympic Games, this time in Salt Lake City, Utah.
John has concurrently served with SPECIAL SERVICES. Now retired, he was a Supervisory Senior Agent providing protection to numerous entities, including visiting foreign dignitaries, conducting protective, civil and criminal investigations as well as designing event logistics.
A Certified Protection Professional, John served as President of the Missouri Association of Private Investigators for 5 Years. He holds certificates as a Police Instructor, Firearms Instructor, Chemical Agents Instructor, and Hostage Negotiations from the FBI, SWAT I, SWAT II, and SWAT Supervisor from the IACP.
David Millsap, Sheriff of Laclede County
Sheriff David Millsap, BS., MS has 38 years of experience in the Criminal Justice Field. He was elected Sheriff of Laclede County in 2017. Millsap retired as a Captain with Springfield Police Department. His last assignment was as the Division Commander for Criminal Investigations. As a lieutenant he commanded the Criminal Investigations Division , Special Investigations, Traffic Section and Patrol Section for the Springfield Police Department. He has supervised the Community Policing Unit, Patrol Unit and the Training Academy. He has worked as a patrol officer, detective and task force officer both for the Springfield Police Department and the Laclede County Sheriff’s Department. He also spent 10-years as the Juvenile Officer in the 26th Circuit Court. Millsap has been adjunct professor for Drury University in Leadership Development and Organizational Law and Policy and taught criminal investigations at Evangel University. David and his wife Tammy live in Lebanon, MO and have two children and three grandchildren.
Della Moore, Private Investigator
Della graduated from the Southeast Missouri State University Law Enforcement Academy in May 2009. She graduated third in her class and was the first female recruit to be awarded the “Emergency Vehicle Driving Award”. Her Law Enforcement career with the Bollinger County Sheriff’s Office in May 2009. During that time, she served as a patrol deputy, jail administrator, sergeant, and was promoted to Detective Sergeant in 2013.
Della served on the “SRT” Special Response Team, Cape Girardeau / Bollinger Major Case Squad, Child Death Review Board, and on the Internal Review Board. Throughout her career, she has investigated hundreds of misdemeanor and felony cases including but not limited to, death/homicide investigations, property crimes, narcotics, and child molestation/abuse. With additional training in interview/interrogations, crime scene investigations, evidence collection, and tactical operations. Della was awarded “Deputy of the Year” in 2013 for the State of Missouri and holds the honor of being first female officer to receive this award.
In 2016, Della joined the Department of Public Safety – Division of Fire Safety and received certifications as a Fire Investigator, Fire Instructor 1, and a Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA) Examiner certification. She served over twenty counties in Southeast Missouri with any investigations involving a fire, explosion, or with any criminal investigations requiring use of a CVSA.
In December of 2021, Della joined the NEFCO (New England Fire Cause and Origin) team and obtained her Private Investigators licenses to conduct Fire and Explosion Investigations for Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Arkansas and is currently in the process of obtaining licensing in Tennessee. She is currently licensed as a Missouri Peace Officer through the Missouri Department of Public Safety, Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator through the National Association of Fire Investigators, and a Certified Fire Investigator by the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress.
As a Missouri native, she is honored to serve in her church as a member of a volunteer security team. She has been honored to speak to hundreds of women concerning domestic violence and loves serving in her community any chance she gets.
Brian Steward, Missouri Department of Agriculture
Brian has been involved in investigations into multi state grain fraud and other grain fraud cases leading to convictions, He has worked alongside Harvey Beach and Eric Berwanger, former MOIA Board Members and currently works with Leah Baldon, a sitting Board Member. Brian has been involved in grain theft investigations over the years that has led to convictions. Over the years, Brian has been involved in cases of grain bankruptcy and grain warehouse seizures for the purposes of taking producer claims and distributing available funds to those producers.
Tim Vice, Clark County Sheriff’s Office
Tim completed Moberly Area Community College LETC on December 11, 2003. He was employed with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office as a School Resource Officer in July 2004. He then was moved to a patrol Deputy in May of 2005 to 2010. In 2010 he became the Investigator with the Sheriff’s Office until 2015. In 2015 he served the Northeast Missouri Narcotics Task Force. In 2017 he returned to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office as the investigator.
He has completed many training classes over the years; some are Clandestine Labs Operations, Narcotics Investigations, Interview and Interrogation, and an Alice Instructor.
Larry Fish, Sheriff of Clinton County
After working as a computer network administrator, Larry started his career in law enforcement 18 years ago. Starting as a Jailer, he went on to Jail Administrator, then up to a DARE SRO and Patrol Deputy for Harrison and Clinton Counties. He then transferred over and began working for the Pleasant Valley Police Department, where he was a Detective Sergeant with the Investigations Unit. He has also worked as a Reserve Detective for Clay County Sheriff’s Office Investigations Unit. He has completed many training classes over the years; some are Clandestine Labs Operations, Detective School, DARE, Interview and Interrogation, Racial Profiling Instructor. He has received numerous letters of commendations. He has served in the Fire service for over 15 years where he has obtained many training certificates. He was elected Sheriff of Clinton County in 2017 where he proudly serves in office today. He is a board member for Mid-States Organized Crime Information Center (MOCIC), State JAG Drug Taskforce board and Missouri Investigators Association (MOIA).