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“I wasn’t aware of this,� he said in an August phone call with county counselor Dana Redwing.

She informed Hancock that he had to resign his council seat because he hired his stepdaughter to be an office assistant.

“No one made me aware of this,� he said of the nepotism ban that has been in Missouri’s constitution since 1875.

Hancock asked Redwing if the problem would go away if his stepdaughter resigned. No, she told him.

Later, when then-St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell moved to legally oust Hancock because of the nepotism violation, Hancock again said he didn’t know he was doing anything wrong.

“I wasn’t aware that it was in the state constitution,� Hancock told reporters.

That statement was not true.

In fact, Hancock made clear in an email more than seven years ago that he knew about the nepotism clause and its requirement that an elected official resign after a violation. In the 2017 email to the Fenton Board of Aldermen, Hancock accused Alderman Joe Maurath of nepotism. Hancock was acting as a Fenton citizen, though he had previously served as the city’s mayor.

Earlier that year, then-Fenton Mayor Michael D. Polizzi had appointed Kevin Sherrel to the city’s Planning & Zoning Commission. Sherrel is married to the niece of Maurath, the alderman. Maurath voted to approve the appointment.

“Alderman Maurath violated the Missouri Constitution when he voted for the appointment of his nephew,� Hancock wrote in the email to the mayor and aldermen.

The email, which I obtained a copy of, points out that “the penalty for that is very clear: He ‘shall thereby forfeit his office.’ Clearly Alderman Maurath knew that Mr. Sherrel was his nephew. And he could have avoided this entire episode by simply abstaining from the vote ... But he cannot claim ignorance of the law.�

Neither can Hancock.

In 2017, Hancock thought nepotism was so important that he accused the Board of Aldermen of “corruption� if they didn’t act to remove Maurath from office.

“You all swore an oath to defend the constitution of the state of Missouri,� Hancock declared in his email. “If you choose not to do that, then in my opinion you are violating your oath.�

When I wrote recently of Hancock’s failure to acknowledge his violation, I suggested he should have used Google to save himself the legal trouble he faces. There’s a long history of nepotism cases in Missouri, and the result is almost always the same. It turns out, Hancock took my advice — seven years before I gave it.

“As an elected official, it is his responsibility to educate himself,� Hancock wrote in 2017 about Maurath. “He could’ve asked the City Attorney for an opinion; he could’ve done a Google search (which is what I did), or he could’ve called the Missouri Ethics Commission.�

Maurath, now the mayor of Fenton, was excluded from the email Hancock sent but has since seen a copy. He never resigned, and neither the council nor the county prosecutor forced any action.

“It was an oversight on my part. I probably should have abstained,� he told me this week in an interview.

I asked what he thought about Hancock now pleading ignorance of the law.

“There’s proof in the pudding right there,� he said of the 2017 email. “You don’t forget something like that.�

Hancock hasn’t yet responded to the legal action seeking his removal from office. The case is still pending in St. Louis County Circuit Court.

In a phone interview this weekend, Hancock said he “vaguely remembers the circumstances� surrounding his 2017 email.

When I asked if the email erases any doubt he knew about the nepotism law when he hired his stepdaughter, he clammed up.

“I’m not saying anything,� he said. “I’m really uncomfortable with this line of questioning.�

Hancock later texted me to say he would not comment on pending litigation.

But he may also be uncomfortable with the closing lines he wrote in that 2017 email.

“There is no gray area here; there is no lesser penalty available due to extenuating circumstances,� Hancock wrote of Missouri’s nepotism law. “I hope that each of you can summon the courage to do what needs to be done.�