Several lawmakers are not backing down on their pursuit to get a Missouri Public Defender System worker fired for his role in the 2007 rape and murder of his stepdaughter. They sent a letter to the state agency in December, voicing their outrage over the employment of David Spears.
Christopher Collings was executed last December for the crimes against nine-year-old Rowan Ford of southwest Missouri. Spears, Ford’s stepfather, pleaded guilty to reduced charges and went to prison for his role in the crimes.
Once out of prison, Spears began working for the Public Defender System office in West Plains in 2016.
A Missouri House Budget Committee hearing with state Public Defender System leaders grew tense at times on Thursday. Rep. Lane Roberts, R-Joplin, asked Director Mary Fox where the justice is for Rowan.
“He has not and will never pay his debt to Rowan Ford. He hindered prosecution,” said Roberts. “How can anybody say that employing this man and providing him with a good future, in some fashion, furthers the interest of justice for Rowan Ford, a nine-year- old-child who died violently while her stepdad stood back and kept his mouth shut.”
“I do not believe that victims of crime ever receive real justice from the criminal justice system. I mean that that’s just not…it’s not the way the system is set up. Rowan Ford suffered horribly. Her family suffered horribly. You can’t fix that. I can’t fix that,” said Fox. “In my mind, when a person has completed their sentence, employing them, making certain that they become taxpayers, that they are gainfully employed, is a positive, not a negative.”
Roberts, a former Department of Public Safety Director, told Fox that taxpayers have covered court costs, prison time, and now the salary for Spears.
“He’s got a paycheck, he’s got benefits, and he’s got a future, which Rowan Ford does not because she’s dead,” said Roberts. “And the idea that he’s being paid for at public expense, does that not offend your conscience?”
“Those funds do go to fulfill the state’s constitutional obligation. He is one of the people who is doing that work,” said Fox.
“My objection is not to the quality of his work, nor what he deserves. My objection is he is employed at all at taxpayer expense. It’s wrong, and there isn’t any way to defend what is indefensible. His conduct was despicable,” said Roberts.
House Budget Committee Chairman Dirk Deaton, R-Seneca, told Fox that the reputation of the Public Defender System is at stake because of Spears’ employment.
“People deserve second chances, and if you’ve served your time, and if… not everybody deserves to work for state government. Nobody’s owed a taxpayer job, and this is just one of the worst lapses in judgment I have ever seen,” said Deaton.
“I don’t think anybody is owed a state job. I will say that if a person is successfully performing, then there is not a reason to terminate,” said Fox.
After Fox requested to go back to the Public Defender System Commission to discuss Spears’ employment again, the lawmakers decided to reschedule their hearing.
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