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Missourinet

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You are here: Home / Archives for Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys

Missouri’s governor pleased with special session on crime; wants House to approve Gardner legislation

September 15, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

While Missouri’s governor is pleased with the special session on violent crime, he’s calling on the House to approve his proposal involving St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson briefs Capitol reporters on August 10, 2020 in Jefferson City, as Attorney General Eric Schmitt listens (file photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

GOP Governor Mike Parson told Capitol reporters last week that he will meet with House leaders about it.

“We’re encouraging them to pass this to be able to give law enforcement the tools they need to fight (violent crime). I’m not sure what they’ll do, again we’ll have a meeting with them to discuss that,” Parson says.

The Senate has approved the governor’s proposal, which would allow Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s (R) office to take on some murder cases that haven’t been prosecuted yet by Gardner’s office. Circuit Attorney Gardner, a Democrat, and the bipartisan Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys oppose that plan.

Governor Parson is also praising the General Assembly’s bipartisan passage of witness protection legislation, a key component of his special session call on violent crime. The governor thanks the two bill sponsors: State Rep. Dr. Jonathan Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, and State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville. He says the bill will help fight crime.

“Which creates a pretrial witness protection fund, in which law enforcement agencies can provide resources for the security of victims, witnesses and their immediate families,” says Parson.

The fund would provide security in criminal proceedings and investigations. The Senate approved the bill 29-0, and it passed the House on a 147-3 vote.

Meantime, legislation eliminating the residency requirement for St. Louis police officers, firefighters and EMS personnel is also on the governor’s desk. St. Louis has recorded 192 homicides this year, and the governor says the residency bill will improve public safety.

“The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is currently down by more than 140 officers, and this legislation can help fill that gap,” Parson says.

St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden has traveled to Jefferson City multiple times during the special session to testify for the bill, saying his department “desperately needs more officers” due to the surge in violence. Chief Hayden says the city has been averaging more than nine homicides per week. St. Louis had 32 homicides in June and 53 in July.

The Missouri Police Chiefs Association and the St. Louis Police Officers Association testified for the legislation, which is sponsored by State Rep. Ron Hicks, R-Dardenne Prairie.

Bill opponents say St. Louis residents feel safer with police officers living in their neighborhoods.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Legislature, News Tagged With: Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, missouri attorney general eric schmitt, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, special session on violent crime, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, St. louis Police residency bill, State Rep. Jonathan Patterson, State Rep. Ron Hicks, State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer

UPDATE: Missouri House gives final approval of five crime bills; juvenile certification bill is dead

August 25, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

The Missouri House voted Tuesday in Jefferson City to give final approval to five bills that are key components of Governor Mike Parson’s (R) special session call on violent crime. The five bills received initial House approval on Monday.

Missouri House Speaker Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, gavels the House into session on August 24, 2020 in Jefferson City (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Meantime, House Speaker Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, confirms that juvenile certification legislation that has drawn criticism from state lawmakers in both parties will not be taken up by the House, and is dead.

“There’s no consensus about moving a juvenile certification bill, so at this point we’re going to let the law remain where it is,” Speaker Haahr told Missourinet late Monday morning, during an interview in his Capitol office in Jefferson City.

Earlier this month, the Missouri Senate approved legislation that would allow Missouri courts to certify juveniles 14-18 as adults for violent weapons offenses. Governor Parson called for the provision, saying it’s aimed at violent crime like murder. But State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, D-St. Louis, and other critics say it would lock up children and put them in prison with violent offenders and murderers.

The Missouri House Special Committee on Criminal Justice amended the bill last week, changing the ages to 16-18.

“You know I always had concerns with it. Senate Bill One came over and there was some concerns about a variety of parts. We thought it was better for the House to break them down and analyze them separately,” says Haahr.

The five bills given final approval by the House today include witness protection legislation and legislation eliminating the residency requirements for St. Louis police officers, firefighters and EMS personnel.

The bipartisan witness protection bill was approved today by a 147-3 vote. The legislation from State Rep. Jonathan Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, will create a pretrial witness protection services fund, to be operated by the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) to law enforcement agencies. The money would be used to provide security to witnesses, potential witnesses and their immediate families in criminal proceedings or investigations.

We learned Monday that a second special session will be called to fund the program. House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith, R-Carthage, told colleagues on the House floor that if lawmakers approve the Patterson bill, Governor Parson will call the second special session to fund the program.

State Rep. Ron Hicks, R-Dardenne Prairie, sponsored the legislation that eliminates the residency requirements for St. Louis police officers, firefighters and EMS personnel. It has a three-year sunset clause. Today’s final House vote was 117-35.

State Rep. Barry Hovis, R-Cape Girardeau, sponsors the legislation that increases penalties for witness and victim tampering. The vote was 133-11.

The other two crime bills are sponsored by State Rep. Nick Schroer, R-O’Fallon. The Schroer bills passed 117-33 and 103-45.

Neither the Senate nor House has held a hearing yet on the governor’s amended special session call involving St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner (D). Speaker Haahr says he’s been in touch with his Senate colleagues.

“The (special session) call was sort of expanded in the middle of the special session. We’ve been in constant dialogue with the Senate. Neither side seems to be prepared at this point to move forward yet on that issue. So I think we are going to try to put these other ones (crime bills) to bed before we figure out what to do with that,” Haahr says.

The governor wants to allow the Missouri Attorney General’s office to take on some murder cases that haven’t been prosecuted yet by Gardner’s office. Circuit Attorney Gardner and the bipartisan Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys oppose that plan.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Legislature, News Tagged With: Governor Mike Parson's special session on violent crime, juvenile certification bill, Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Missouri House, Missouri House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith, Missouri House Speaker Elijah Haahr, Springfield, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, St. louis Police residency bill, State Rep. Barry Hovis, State Rep. Jonathan Patterson, State Rep. Nick Schroer, State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, State Rep. Ron Hicks, witness and victim tampering legislation

Missouri House gets to work today on six crime bills – not seven

August 24, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri House of Representatives gets down to business today on a special legislative session about crime. Gov. Mike Parson cites the state’s increasing crime rate as his reason for calling the extraordinary session.

Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, and Assistant Minority Floor Leader Tommie Pierson, D-St. Louis, brief Capitol reporters on March 5, 2020 in Jefferson City (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

The chamber is expected to debate and take a preliminary vote on six bills today. Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, says there was a lot of pushback on both sides of the aisle about the Senate’s approach. Instead of the Senate’s wide-ranging package, House Republican leadership has broken up each key component into separate bills.

“Logistically, instead of making their members vote yes or no on a bill that had a lot of really bad stuff in it, breaking it up allows them to pass the pieces that they want and not pass the other pieces,” she says.

One contentious piece would remove a requirement for St. Louis police officers to live within the city. St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden says lifting the condition would help to boost recruitment. Hayden says his department has a shortage of about 130 officers at a time when violence is on the rise in his city. Sen. Jamilah Nasheed says the state does not need to get involved in this local control item because St. Louisans will be voting on the very issue in November.

A bill Quade and others in both parties have a big problem with is one that would let judges decide whether 16 to 18-year-olds should be prosecuted as adults for certain crimes using weapons. A House committee increased the age minimum to 16, instead of the Senate’s bill making the minimum 14 years old.

A bill absent from today’s lineup is one that would let the Missouri Attorney General get involved in some St. Louis murder cases. Parson expanded his special session call to urge lawmakers to pass the measure.

“It seems as though that is not a priority issue from the Republican majority in the House,” Quade says.

The Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys might have something to do with it. The group of 115 Missouri prosecutors, many being Republicans, is not on board with the governor’s bid to let the State Attorney General get involved in local cases. It says such measures undermine the independence and autonomy of locally elected prosecutors and any prosecutors seeking help can reach out to the association and get the support they need.

Some Republicans have been critical of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s handling of former Governor Eric Greitens’s invasion of privacy case involving his ex-mistress. Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt, both Republicans, have also publicly disagreed with Gardner, a Democrat, for prosecuting an affluent couple who pointed guns at protesters walking through their neighborhood in June.

Kansas City is on pace to have its highest murder rate in history. However, the governor’s spokesperson, Kelli Jones, says St. Louis has reached a record number of murders and a growing backlog of murder cases. She says Parson’s efforts are currently to assist St. Louis.

Quade maintains the special session bills do nothing to prevent crime.

“We need to be looking at funding in a much more equitable way – an intentional way. Then we also need to be addressing the larger-scale problems around police reform, around making sure that we are funding social workers to go out on the scene, you know things that even police officers have been asking for. I feel like the way that this special session has been handled does nothing to get to before the crime happens.”

Other bills focused on during this special session would:

*Create a witness protection fund to keep witnesses and their families safe before trial

*Toughen the penalty for anyone who sells or gives a gun to a juvenile

*Make it a crime to assist someone 17 or younger to commit a weapons offense

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Legislature, News Tagged With: former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, governor mike parson, Kelli Jones, Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, missouri attorney general eric schmitt, Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, Missouri legislature, Missouri Senate, Missouri Senator Jamilah Nasheed, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden

Rural Missouri prosecutor: victim tampering “happens everywhere, even in little Johnson County”

August 21, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Legislation that increases penalties for witness and victim tampering will go to the Missouri House floor in Jefferson City on Monday, after being approved by the Judiciary Committee on a 17-0 vote this week.

State Rep. Barry Hovis, R-Cape Girardeau, testifies before the Missouri House Judiciary Committee on August 17, 2020 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

The prosecutor in western Missouri’s Johnson County traveled from Warrensburg to Jefferson City to testify for the bill, saying that witness and victim tampering happens across the state.

“And we find that those who commit violent offenses are not afraid to use intimidation, harassment, threats and more violence to escape justice for what they do,” Johnson County Prosecutor Robert Russell says.

Russell, who serves as treasurer for the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, says witness and victim tampering happen frequently in homicide and domestic violence cases.

“Victim tampering is a problem not unique to the cities of Missouri. It happens everywhere, even in little Johnson County,” Russell testifies.

Johnson County is southeast of Kansas City.

The measure is a key part of Governor Mike Parson’s special session call on violent crime.

The Missouri Police Chiefs Association and the Missouri Sheriff’s Association also testified for the bill this week. State Rep. Barry Hovis, R-Cape Girardeau, the bill sponsor, served as a law enforcement officer for more than 30 years.

The Hovis bill, which is House bill 2, specifies that the offense of tampering with a witness or a victim is a class C felony, if the original charge is a class A felony or an unclassified felony. It’s currently a class D felony, under state law.

Representative Hovis tells Judiciary Committee members that the bill was unanimously approved in committee this spring. He says the Legislature would have approved it, but that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the General Assembly’s time frame.

Another piece of legislation that goes to the Missouri House on Monday involves witness protection.

The Judiciary Committee voted 17-0 this week for witness protection legislation from State Rep. Jonathan Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit. It would create a pretrial witness protection services fund, to be administered by the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) to law enforcement agencies.

The money would be used to provide security to witnesses, potential witnesses and their immediate families in criminal proceedings or investigations.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Legislature, News Tagged With: Cape Girardeau, Johnson County Prosecutor Robert Russell, Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Missouri House Judiciary Committee, Missouri Police Chiefs Association, Missouri Sheriffs Association, State Rep. Barry Hovis, State Rep. Jonathan Patterson, Warrensburg, witness and victim tampering

Missouri House committees to hear crime bills on Monday; Kendrick wants to expand special session call

August 14, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Three Missouri House committees plan hearings on Monday afternoon in Jefferson City, relating to the special session on violent crime.

House Speaker Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, Speaker Pro Tem John Wiemann, R-O’Fallon, and Majority Leader Rob Vescovo, R-Arnold, announced earlier this week that they would simplify the process with single-subject bills to protect the integrity of the lawmaking process and to ensure the issues are thoroughly vetted.

Missouri House Judiciary Committee Chairman David Gregory, R-St. Louis County, checks paperwork at a hearing on August 10, 2020 in Jefferson City (photo courtesy of Ben Peters at House Communications)

The House Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by State Rep. David Gregory, R-St. Louis County, will hear three bills on Monday, including legislation from State Rep. Ron Hicks, R-Dardenne Prairie, that would eliminate the residency requirement for St. Louis Police officers.

The Hicks bill says that St. Louis Police cannot impose a residency requirement on their officers, more stringent than a one-hour response time. St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden has testified that the residency requirement is the greatest challenge that his department has with recruitment and retention. Opponents of the plan say it’s safer for neighborhoods to have the officers living in the city.

The Judiciary Committee will also hear a bill on Monday about witness protection. State Rep. Jonathan Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, has filed legislation that would create a pretrial witness protection services fund, which would be administered by the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) to law enforcement agencies. The money would be used to provide security to witnesses, potential witnesses and their immediate families in criminal proceedings or investigations.

The Judiciary Committee will also hold a hearing on legislation from State Rep. Barry Hovis, R-Cape Girardeau, regarding witness and victim tampering.

The House Special Committee on Criminal Justice will hold a Monday hearing on legislation from State Rep. Nick Schroer, R-O’Fallon, which would allow Missouri courts to certify some juveniles as adults for violent weapons offenses.

Governor Mike Parson (R) has called for this provision, saying it’s aimed at violent crime, such as murder and rape.

But State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, D-St. Louis, and other critics say it will lock up children and put them in prison with violent offenders and murderers. Aldridge and others protested in downtown Jefferson City this week.

“Charge them as an adult because that is how we are going to fix violence- by being tough on crime to individuals that have made a mistake and should be held accountable but you are charging our youngest babies,” Aldridge said Thursday. “When do we go to ten? When do we go to nine? What’s going to be next? Eight? Seven? We are locking up literally babies and putting them in jail with serial killers.”

The House General Laws Committee will hold a Monday hearing on two bills from Representative Schroer. One involves the unlawful transfer of weapons, and the other involves endangering the welfare of a child.

Meantime, Governor Parson spoke to Missouri House members today about the special session on violent crime. The governor hosted conference calls with House members. Parson spokeswoman Kelli Jones tells Missourinet that there have been several calls today.

There have been 167 homicides in St. Louis in 2020. The city had 194 murders in 2019. The “St. Louis Post-Dispatch” reports there have been 15 child homicides so far in 2020, which tops all of last year.

Across the state in Kansas City, there have been 124 homicides. There were 90, at this point in 2019 in Kansas City.

The governor expanded his special session call on Monday, to include a provision to allow the state attorney general’s office to take on some murder cases that haven’t been prosecuted yet by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner (D). The governor says this is about fighting violent crime.

Circuit Attorney Gardner and the bipartisan Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys oppose that plan.

A hearing on a Gardner-related bill has not been scheduled, at this time.

The Missouri Senate approved the crime bill earlier this month, by a bipartisan 27-3 vote. The full Missouri House is scheduled to return to Jefferson City on Monday August 24.

There was another development in Jefferson City on Friday, when State Rep. Kip Kendrick, D-Columbia, requested that the governor expand the special session call to address absentee ballots for the November general election.

Representative Kendrick, the House Budget Committee’s ranking Democrat, wants the General Assembly to take legislative and appropriation action to ensure that every Missourian’s properly postmarked, but late delivered, absentee ballot for November will count.

Kendrick, House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, and others will address Capitol reporters Monday in Jefferson City, about the issue.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Elections, Health / Medicine, Legislature, News Tagged With: Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Missouri House Judiciary Committee Chairman David Gregory, Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, Missouri House Speaker Elijah Haahr, Missouri's special session on violent crime, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden, State Rep. Barry Hovis, State Rep. Jonathan Patterson, State Rep. Kip Kendrick, State Rep. Nick Schroer, State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, State Rep. Ron Hicks

Missouri prosecutors oppose governor’s bid to let attorney general take on St. Louis murder cases

August 13, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Gov. Mike Parson expanded his special legislative session call this week on violent crime to include giving the Missouri Attorney General the power to prosecute some St. Louis murder cases. He says out of 161 murders there so far this year, 33 suspects have been charged.

Gov. Mike Parson

A group of 115 Missouri prosecutors is not on board with the governor’s bid to let the State Attorney General get involved in local cases. The Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys says it has consistently fought for decades against proposals that would give the state attorney general that type of jurisdiction. In a press release, the group says the measures undermine the independence and autonomy of locally elected prosecutors.

“The best control is local control. Vesting the Attorney General with new original or concurrent jurisdiction erodes the ability of local voters to decide who will seek justice on their behalf should they be victimized by crime. Further, any attempt to vest the attorney general with jurisdiction to prosecute homicides without the request of the elected prosecuting attorney fundamentally changes our system of local, independent prosecution that has served the citizens of Missouri well since 1875,” the release says.

The organization says any prosecutors seeking help can reach out to the association and they will get the support they need.

“MAPA, through our individual members, stands ready to assist any fellow prosecutor. Our prosecutors routinely come to each other’s aid: assisting with cases; sharing resources; and ensuring that all Missourians receive effective prosecution services.”

Parson denies his expanded call being a personal move. Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt, both Republicans, have publicly disagreed with St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, a Democrat, for prosecuting an affluent couple who pointed guns at protesters walking through their neighborhood in June.

The Missouri House of Representatives is scheduled to get back to work Monday on the crime package.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Legislature, News Tagged With: governor mike parson, Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, missouri attorney general eric schmitt, Missouri House of Representatives, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner

Missouri’s prosecutors and public defenders are drowning in cases

February 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Missouri’s prosecutors and public defenders are experiencing similar problems – heaping caseloads and not enough attorneys. During a state House Budget Committee hearing, Missouri Public Defender System Director Mary Fox says her office wants an extra $3.3 million in state funding to make a nice dent in the waiting list of poor Missourians requesting legal services.

Missouri’s prosecutors and public defenders are both drowning in cases

“It has reached about 6,000 cases throughout the state of Missouri, which is quite a large number,” says Fox. “Most of those people are not confined. Some of them are confined. It is a problem not only for the people who qualify for services but also for the courts. While I don’t agree with it, I think the problem lies in the fact that the court wants to move the case through the system and doesn’t want someone lingering without counsel. And so, as sort of an unintended consequence of that, now that we are attempting to limit the cases because of the Supreme Court rules that have come down, we now have these wait lists where we can’t represent everyone.”

Fox says her office closes more than 61,000 cases annually among nearly 400 attorneys. In fiscal year 2019, about 12,000 were felony drug cases.

Last year, the system contracted out about 13,000 cases. Fox wants the waiting list to also be handled by some private practice attorneys.

“There is a benefit to that, in that we could get them out to attorneys throughout the state,” she says. “There are some problems also. One of those is it costs more.”

The figure is a far cry from the 321 attorneys Fox says the system would need to follow the Constitution. Instead, the $3.3 million her office is requesting to help with the wait list, it would equate to hiring 39 new full-time attorneys.

She says caseloads could be reduced by limiting which cases are prosecuted.

“I’m not saying don’t prosecute cases because a crime has occurred. I’m saying do a thorough investigation before you make the decision to issue a case,” Fox says. “Just by taking that simple step, the case numbers will drop both for the prosecutors and for the defense counsel.”

She also wants the Legislature and courts to put an emphasis on diversion programs, substance treatment courts and getting mentally ill people services they need.

“If folks are diverted away from the criminal justice system, they would not need our services. I can tell you that I’ve had personal experience with the Diversion court in the city of St. Louis and it’s been a good project,” she says. “Every time we get angry, we can’t charge somebody with a crime. We have got to look a little more closely at who are we bringing into the criminal justice system and why are we bringing them there.”

As for Missouri prosecutors, a new survey of 41% of the offices shows they averaged more than 1,200 felony cases and 1,800 misdemeanor cases reviewed in 2018. During a press conference held by the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Christian County Prosecutor Amy Fite says they are doing plenty of other things.

“Those numbers alone are significantly higher than any caseload that a public defender is currently carrying based on what they’re trying to do with regards to wait lists and having open cases. Just this number alone far exceeds their numbers, just to give some perspective with regards to the workload that the prosecutors are carrying,” Fite says. “Every day there’s multiple cases being reviewed and charged. And this is just a small fraction of the work that prosecutors do. They would be appearing in court. They’re going to be providing guidance to law enforcement officers. They’re reviewing search warrants. They’re going to be preparing for trial. They’re going to be meeting with witnesses and victims. Everybody has a plate that is overflowing with work to be done. We have to make a determination with regards to how we can best serve those. We have to be able to serve them both effectively and efficiently. We have to be able to afford victims across this state all the rights they are guaranteed by statute as well as by the Missouri Constitution.”

Most of the prosecutors’ offices are also handling civil matters and about 13% of respondents are dealing with juvenile cases. They also provide community programs, including child advocacy centers and community engagement programs.

Most of the offices are funded through local tax dollars. MAPA Executive Director Darrell Moore says staff turnover and low pay are major issues for the prosecuting attorney offices. The survey, conducted by the National Prosecutors’ Consortium, shows the starting salaries of recently graduated law students hired as Missouri prosecutors ranged from a minimum of $26,000 to a maximum of $60,000. The average is about $51,000.

On average, Missouri prosecutors’ offices have 7 full-time and less than one part-time attorneys. They also have an average of 12 full-time and less than one part-time non-attorneys.

About 85% of survey respondents reported engaging in problem solving courts or other programs that offered alternatives to jail. Drug/alcohol treatment (76%) and community service (73%) were the most common ones. Anger management or domestic violence diversion was offered in 64% of counties. Training/education programs (51%) and mental health services (44%) were also offered.

Prosecutors have used creative ways to try and keep some individuals out of the criminal justice system. The St. Charles County Prosecutor’s Office is using a program called TREND – Taking Responsibility and Empowering New Direction -for first-time non-violent offenders between 17 and 24 years old.

“The cycle that we all see with those types of cases is that once a person is caught up in the system due to a variety of circumstances, whether that might be addiction, whether that’s socioeconomic issues, or what have you, they find themselves unable to get out of the system,” says MAPA President Tim Lohmar.

Lohmar, who serves as the St. Charles County Prosecutor Attorney in eastern Missouri, says TREND is a classroom setting in court that aims to give students a fresh start. They must attend every other week for six months. Self-improvement topics include job searching skills, financial responsibility and job interviewing skills. If they complete the program, they walk out of court with a dismissal in their hand.

Eric Zahnd, the Platte County Prosecutor in western Missouri, says the Handle With Care program in his county uses a web-based app to let law enforcement report when they’ve responded to a home where children are present. Officers can log into the system, enter their badge number, the address of the incident and that’s that.

The next day, school administrators can log onto the program, find the address where the incident happened and find out if the children are enrolled in their district. The information is passed along to school counselors and teachers to be on the lookout if the students act out or appear upset.

School officials can then intervene if needed and handle the kids with extra care. Administrators do not receive additional details about what happened at the home – just to let them know that something potentially stressful occurred.

“We believe it will go a long way to decreasing childhood trauma, which often leads later to children becoming associated with the juvenile system and sometimes with the adult criminal system. If we can deal with those adverse childhood experiences early, help children work through that problem, we hope we’re helping generations of children avoid being otherwise involved with the criminal justice system,” says Zahnd.

In southwest Missouri’s Greene County, Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson, says the Family Justice Center recognizes the criminal justice system is not sufficient by itself to deal with domestic violence. The public-private partnership is a co-located site working to help victims.

For example, a victim could find services from the legal services agency to help with applying for a protection order, child custody issues, the dissolving of a marriage, emergency housing and rape crisis help.

“The benefits of this are that we provide more efficient, coordinated services to victims. It can be a very daunting task to be a victim of domestic assault and have to deal with the aftermath of this,” says Patterson. “It also increases the accountability that we can achieve on offenders because victims cooperate more with law enforcement and prosecution in those cases.”

Patterson says the model has been shown in other communities across the country to reduce domestic violence homicide rates as well as recidivism rates among domestic batterers.

Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Legislature, News Tagged With: Christian County Prosecutor Amy Fite, Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson, Mary Fox, Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys Executive Director Darrell Moore, Missouri Public Defender System, Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd, St. Charles County Prosecutor Attorney Tim Lohmar, TREND

Prosecutors’ association urges digital warrants in DWI cases

July 7, 2014 By Mike Lear

A policy that seeks to ensure evidence is obtained from suspected drunk drivers has been endorsed by the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

The Association has issued the first of its recommended best practices to the state’s prosecuting attorneys, and one of those is that prosecutors develop a “no refusal” policy for DWI cases, and work with law enforcement to develop standard procedures.

People pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving in Missouri have the right to refuse a breath test. An officer can request a warrant for a blood sample from a suspect, but paper warrants can require officers to seek approval from the prosecutor and then physically visit a judge to secure the warrant. The time involved means such warrants are often not sought.

Under a “no refusal” policy, law enforcement can seek a digital search warrant that can be processed and authorized by the court electronically. Officers can have a warrant in minutes.

Executive Director Jason Lamb urges all prosecutors to institute such a policy.

“Aggressive and consistent DWI investigation and prosecution really amounts to homicide prevention,” says Lamb.

Lamb says such policies give law enforcement another tool to be persistent in their pursuit of DWI investigations.

“In a burglary case there’s evidence, usually, of some time of stolen property or burglar’s tools and we wouldn’t hesitate to seek a search warrant in that case. In a murder case there might be evidence of a weapon and we wouldn’t hesitate to seek a warrant in that case. In a rape case there might be evidence of DNA and we wouldn’t hesitate to seek a search warrant in that case,” says Lamb. “In DWI cases the best evidence is of course inside the defendant’s body – the blood alcohol content. It’s simply a matter of seeking a search warrant to obtain that evidence, to have it available for trial in every single DWI case.”

Mothers Against Drunk Driving backs the institution of “no refusal” policies. Director of Court Monitoring Bud Balke says it would allow officers to move more quickly to secure evidence.

“With the refusal policy in place we think it’s a wonderful system. We believe that it does enhance what the law enforcement’s able to do. It actually makes it easier for prosecutors to actually prosecute these types of cases,” Balke says. “It makes it easier on judges, even, when they are able to sign those electronic warrants … it’s a positive all the way around I think for everyone involved except for the offender.”

Miller County in June became the latest county in the state to adopt such a policy. Lamb says 10 to 15 counties in the state now have it in place.

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, News Tagged With: Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys

Audit stirs debate over public defender caseload

October 11, 2012 By Mike Lear

The Missouri State Auditor has released an audit of the State Public Defender System that raises questions about how caseloads are calculated.  The heads of the associations for the state’s prosecutors and public defenders debate what that means for the idea that there is a caseload crisis.

In a news release, the Auditor says the system is “unable to accurately determine the resources needed to manage caseloads.”

The audit finds the system determines needed attorney hours by converting a national standard from 1973 with the assumption of each attorney working 2,080 hours per year, but calculates the number available attorney hours based on each attorney working an average of 1,536 hours per year.

The Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys says the audit “shatters” the claim that there is a growing crisis of caseload size for the state’s public defenders.

President Eric Zahnd says the audit “reveals that that claim is really simply a myth that has been manufactured by misleading caseload statistics.”

Public Defender System Director Cat Kelly says regardless of how caseloads are calculated, there is no question that there is a caseload issue.

“The question is not, ‘Do we have a problem,’ it’s, ‘Where exactly, precisely should the line be drawn for us to say we can take this many and no more,'” she says “That’s what the debate is over, is where the line is drawn. I would contend that we are so far under that you could draw the line almost anywhere and we would be better off than where we are now.”

Kelly says the audit findings that the caseload protocol need to be improved are not new and says her office is already working to develop a new system not based on national caseload standards. She says an expert that worked with her office, Norman Lefstein, a law professor and dean emeritus at Indiana University, says an upated protocol could reveal a caseload problem that is greater than thought now.

“In his opinion, the protocol that we’re using now … its deficiency is that it has us taking on too many cases, not too few,” Kelly says.

Zahnd says the audit shows public defenders have no basis to defend turning away new clients. Kelly says that isn’t going to happen any time soon, “because the number of cases they have isn’t changing. The caseload is not changing … this is an argument over what is the best measurement of the problem. That doesn’t change the fact that the problem exists.”

Read the audit summary or the full report (pdf).

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, News Tagged With: audit, Eric Zahnd, Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys

MAPA president on proposed criminal code overhaul

October 2, 2012 By Mike Lear

The Joint Interim Committee on the Missouri Criminal Code meets again today. The 1,034 page proposal that is its starting point has the backing of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

The Association’s new president, Eric Zahnd, says over time the state’s criminal code naturally develops discrepancies and contradictions that need to be fixed. “Legislators, to their credit, see problems and work to fix those problems, which means that new laws are created every single legislative session. At some point we need to again bring some uniformity to all of those changes that have been made, in this case over more than 30 years, to bring the code back into some sense of uniformity.”

Zahnd says the overhaul will impact other issues, such as prison overcrowding and the caseload for public defenders. “One of the things that we’ve heard, in fact, from the special master who the Missouri Supreme Court appointed to look at the public defender situation, he specifically mentioned the complexity of the criminal code as one of the issues that affects the public defender situation and again, frankly, the entire criminal justice system.”

The hearing today will focus in part on drug law, which the state legislature already made one change to regarding the discrepancy between penalties for powder and crack cocaine. Zahnd says the proposal also, “takes the punishment for some possession offenses and actually decreases the punishment for those but at the same time, for some drug dealing offenses, actually increases punishment for those.”

Another portion of the proposal would also create a new class of felony and a new class of misdemeanor.

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, Legislature, News Tagged With: Eric Zahnd, Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys



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