A state panel that disciplines judges and lawyers recommends the supreme court reprimand St. Louis County lawyer Keith K. Cheung for causing a mistrial in a case in which he was not involved.
Cheung, a former prosecutor for three small towns in the county, sent a note to a judge presiding over the trial of Balla Villa police chief Edward Locke Junior, who had been charged with hiring an unqualified officer. The note, written from another courtroom where Cheung was involved in another case, told the judge he needed to convict Locke. The judge called a mistrial after getting the note.
Locke later left Bella Villa.
