KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In May 2019, a 911 operator answered a call coming from former Gov. Eric Greitens’ lakeside home in eastern Missouri.
Twenty-nine seconds of near-silence followed.
The call came almost a year after Greitens resigned in scandal, accused of sexually assaulting and blackmailing his former hairdresser.
He had disappeared from public view, apparently retreating much of the time to the home in Innsbrook, a wealthy and primarily gated community.
The 911 operator quickly called back. Greitens, answering the phone, apologized and assured her everything was fine.
“It was kids playing with the phone,” he said
The May 26, 2019, 911 call came six months before one of Greitens’ two sons said his father hit him, knocking a tooth loose that was eventually removed, according to allegations made in an affidavit last month by Sheena Chesnut Greitens, the former governor’s ex-wife and a professor at the University of Texas, Austin.
She has also alleged that in April 2018, the former governor knocked her down in the Innsbrook home and took away her phone, wallet and keys to prevent her from seeking help.
The couple separated in June 2018, according to court documents, and were divorced in 2020.
Sheena Greitens, through an attorney, said she was concerned by the 911 call. The attorney, Helen Wade, said the former Missouri first lady didn’t know about the episode until approached by The Kansas City Star for comment.
In a statement, Eric Greitens dismissed the story as “laughable.”
He did not answer specific questions about the 911 call.
Greitens is attempting to mount a political comeback by running for U.S. Senate and has framed Sheena Greitens’ allegations as part of a larger political conspiracy against him orchestrated by establishment Republicans.
He has brushed aside pleas to drop out and continues to campaign.
The legal dispute between the two has escalated in recent weeks through a series of court filings in Boone County Circuit Court in which Sheena Greitens is seeking to move the court proceedings to Texas, where she lives.
In an apparent effort to bolster Eric Greitens’ claims of a conspiracy, his attorney has filed subpoenas for the cellphone records of several people, including Austin Chambers, Greitens’ former campaign manager, and Catherine Linkul, Sheena Greitens’ sister.
Associate Circuit Judge Leslie Schneider will hold a hearing Tuesday on a request to quash some of the subpoenas.
The Star obtained recordings of the 911 call and the callback through records requests to Warren County, where Innsbrook is located.
The first call came at 4:09 p.m. on a Sunday. “Hello, can you hear me?” the operator asks after no one responds when the call begins.
No discernible sounds can be heard on the other end beyond a couple moments of static.
The call ends after 29 seconds. Less than a minute later, 911 calls back.
The operator says the emergency center just received a hang up and asks if everything is OK. “Everything’s fine, I’m sorry, I apologize. It was, uh, it was kids playing with the phone,” Eric Greitens says on the recording.
The operator asks Greitens for his home address and name. At one point, he appears to address someone near him, saying, “when, when you’ve touched the phone, sweetheart.” “And you’re able to speak freely with me up there, everything is OK?” the operator asks. “Yeah, everything is great,” Greitens responds.
