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ST. LOUIS — Anthony Byrd, the city employee who checked out a city car and drove his boss to Jefferson City in July, said he was worried about their safety after an encounter in the capital city with her husband.

Byrd’s video deposition was played during testimony Thursday during an unprecedented Civil Service Commission disciplinary hearing targeting Personnel Director Sonya Jenkins-Gray.

The hearing could lead to the first-ever mayoral firing of a St. Louis personnel director, one of the most powerful — and protected — jobs in city government.

Mayor Tishaura O. Jones hired Jenkins-Gray in 2022 but now wants her fired, an action that under the city’s charter requires a public hearing in order to protect the city’s civil service system from political interference.

Byrd’s deposition was the strongest evidence yet for the administration’s case against Jenkins-Gray: that the director put a city employee in the middle of a potentially volatile domestic situation when she had Byrd use a city car to drive her to Jefferson City to try and catch her husband, the Rev. Darryl Gray, allegedly cheating.

Byrd said in his deposition he thought they were traveling to Jefferson City for work purposes and did not realize what was going on until later in the day.

His account appeared to contradict Jenkins-Gray’s testimony on Wednesday that she was only trying to retrieve papers from her car that her husband had taken to Jefferson City, and not to confront him. Byrd said Jenkins-Gray had him drive her to a local hotel, and then she called the hotel, saying she needed to speak with a woman there. Byrd said she later told him the woman was Gray’s ex-wife.

Jenkins-Gray went inside the hotel while Byrd waited in the car, a marked St. Louis vehicle. Later, a man walked by the car, backed up and opened the door. It was Gray.

“When he opened the passenger door, my heart fell out of my chest,” Byrd said. “And he said, ‘she’s here, isn’t she?’”

Byrd said Gray jogged back toward the Capitol. Later, Jenkins-Gray came out of the hotel and was “very upset,” and told Byrd to drive back to St. Louis. They passed Gray on the sidewalk but didn’t stop.

Byrd testified they drove to her home but she said she didn’t have a key so they then drove to Hollywood Casino in Maryland Heights, where the car Gray had in Jefferson City was parked in the VIP section. Jenkins-Gray retrieved items from the car including a phone, from which she played a recording of Gray and his ex-wife.

Byrd drove the director back to her house where she collected a few personal items.

“I understood the urgency of my director being safe and me being safe,” Byrd said in his deposition. “She acknowledged to me that sometimes her husband would get frustrated, and, you know, she just didn’t want to be around him at the moment. And so I understood that, and we’re in a haste to get away from there.”

Byrd later drove the director to her daughter’s house and after that dropped her off late that night to stay at a friend’s house.

Gray, who has attended the hearing, told the newspaper Wednesday he was in Jefferson City for “personal and legal” reasons and that the mayor is trying to “tarnish” his influence over politics. Gray, a prominent activist, has been a frequent critic of the administration and also broke with former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a Jones ally, by endorsing challenger Wesley Bell in the Democratic primary in August. Bell won the congressional seat.

Jenkins-Gray has admitted to using the car for a personal trip to Jefferson City and reimbursed the city $170 for mileage after realizing she had violated the city’s vehicle policy. Her lawyers have said no city employee has ever been fired for violating the vehicle use policy, the reason for the travel is irrelevant and the mayor’s office is using the episode to try and embarrass her and her husband.

The mayor’s relationship with Jenkins-Gray turned icy after Jenkins-Gray opposed a measure that would give the mayor more power over hiring and firing the personnel director, the director testified. Before that, when Jenkins-Gray was still on the mayor’s good side, another complaint against the director from an employee within the department never triggered a public hearing, her team has argued.

Another employee, deputy director John Unnerstall, testified earlier Thursday that Jenkins-Gray has made improvements in the office, moving away from a largely paper-based system and implementing modern digital systems despite facing resistance from many longtime employees.

Byrd, for his part, said he didn’t report the encounter and continued working in the department for weeks. He later told another employee he was friends with, Biannca Lambert. Lambert reported it to the mayor’s office, according to Unnerstall’s testimony.

Byrd testified he was called to an Aug. 19 meeting at City Hall (the Personnel Department is across the street in the Carnahan Courthouse) with Deputy Chief of Staff Sara Baker. As he went to the office, the mayor’s chief of staff, Jared Boyd, then walked into the room and shut the door.

“And I’m like, ‘oh crap,’” he remembered.

Baker and Boyd confronted him about the Jefferson City trip. Afterward, he walked back to the courthouse and went straight to Jenkins-Gray’s office.

“She was sitting in her office talking to her secretary, and I was like, ‘What the hell is going on?’” Byrd remembers.

By the end of the week, Boyd had delivered a pre-termination notice to Jenkins-Gray. But the director went out on medical leave just as Boyd delivered the notice to trigger the hearings, delaying them until this month.

A decision won’t come until at least February. The next hearings are scheduled for Jan. 28 and 29, and final briefings are due to the Civil Service Commission two weeks after that. The commission then recommends to the mayor whether Jenkins-Gray should be fired, and the mayor can accept or reject the recommendation, according to the charter.

‘A distraction’

The commission’s hearings have drawn an attentive audience, including many personnel department employees. Sylvia Donaldson, who has served as acting director of the department twice, was in the audience Thursday. Another deputy, Bryan Boeckelmann, was also there. Several other rank-and-file employees have also watched.

Jenkins-Gray said the department is still getting its work done and that she has told employees they can only watch during their lunch break or using vacation or comp time. She said she is “working 24-7, like I’ve always done.”

But Jenkins-Gray acknowledged the hearings are not making her job any easier.

“It is a distraction for me and the entire department,” she said.

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to clarify that Darryl Gray jogged toward the Capitol after seeing Anthony Byrd.