Friends of former Cole County farmland owner consider next steps after land was auctioned off

COLE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The friends of Lawrence Renn Junior, who owned 178 acres of land and wanted to turn it into a county park, are considering the next steps after the land was sold in an auction.

Hawthorn Bank is the trustee of the Renn Trust, which included the farmland, and what Renn's friends claim to be worth millions of dollars. The bank is also trying to figure out what to do with the trust money and the $2.2 million from the recently sold farmland.

The trust language requires the bank to donate the money to a charitable organization or use it for college scholarships.

"We are getting closer to knowing the full value of the assets in the trust following the sale.  We are working on a plan to distribute funds for college scholarships. Announcements will be coming over the next few months," Hawthorn Bank's Jill Dobbs told ABC 17 News over email.

Friends close to Renn are asking the bank to use it to maintain already existing parks.

The trust originally intended for the land to be turned into a memorial park and offered the land to Cole County, with the condition of creating and maintaining the park, which county commissioners declined.

A group of Renn's friends sued the bank and county to try and stop the auction from happening, but Cole County Judge Joseph Shetler dismissed the case because the group didn't have legal standing to file the lawsuit.

Now, the group and the bank are trying to figure out what happens next.

Attorney for the group, Dave Bandre, told ABC 17 News that one idea is to put some of the money toward already existing parks in Renn's name.

"One suggestion has been to see if, per the terms of the Trust, Hawthorn Bank will direct the Trust to donate some or all of the proceeds of the sale to a charitable organization which can fund parks in the late Mr. Renn’s name in some of the small municipalities in Cole county," Bandre told ABC 17 News on Tuesday.

Mark Knapp, a friend of Renn's and a beneficiary of the trust, said Bandre presented the idea to the bank. The group met with their attorney Wednesday, where Bandre relayed how the bank took it.

"I'm not saying that can't happen, but it sounds like he [Bandre] talked to the bank's attorney and you know, I don't mean to be rude, but basically the bank was giving us all the finger, you know what I mean? Is kind of how Dave said it," Knapp said.

Tony Porter, another friend of Renn, said the bank didn't say no, but it didn't seem like they were "keen on the idea."

There's one more route the group can take: get the attorney general involved.

In Shetler's decision, he ruled that only Attorney General Catherine Hanaway and her office have legal standing to challenge the bank on how it's handling the trust.

"Our Office did receive a consumer complaint on this issue, which is still under review. There is no pending legal action from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office on this matter," a spokesperson for the attorney general told ABC 17 News via email on Wednesday.

However, the attorney general won't be able to return the land, Bandre said in an email.

"The AG has the ability to protect the interests of the ‘public’ when a charitable trust is involved. My clients (and others) have reached out to the AG to complain that Hawthorn did not do what they were obligated to do as Trustee of Mr. Renn’s Trust," Bandre said in an email on Wednesday.

A three-person advisory committee was supposed to be formed to guide the Cole County Commissioners on park development, management and maintenance, according to the trust language. The committee was never formed.

Knapp said the committee could have acted to keep the bank accountable with the trust funds, and without the committee, the attorney general will have to step in to make sure the bank isn't misusing the funds.