Municipal courts
A8 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Lawyers playing different roles in multiple courts A limited selection of dockets from 21 cities obtained by the PostDispatch showed lawyers with an array of roles in the municipal courts. Some hold five or more municipal court positions. Others may only hold one municipal role but show up frequently in others’ courts in their roles as private defense attorneys. The attorneys here had overlapping roles in the dockets studied.
M 1 • Sunday • 03.29.2015
SAM ALTON
PHILIP AYERS
ALAN BAKER
Prosecutor • Breckenridge Hills* City attorney • Breckenridge Hills Judge • Edmundson Prosecutor • Olivette City attorney • Pagedale Private practice • Business and commercial litigation, employment discrimination, municipal law, and criminal defense at Stone, Leyton & Gershman
Judge • Calverton Park Prosecutor • Greendale City attorney • Greendale Private practice • General practice
Prosecutor • Hillsdale City attorney • Hillsdale Private practice • Real estate law
ETHAN CORLIJA
PAUL D’AGROSA
TIMOTHY ENGELMEYER
JENNIFER H. FISHER
BOB HORAN
CHARLES KIRKSEY
Prosecutor • Jennings Private practice • Criminal defense
Judge • Olivette Judge • University City Private practice • Criminal defense at Wolff & D’Agrosa
Prosecutor • Chesterfield Judge • Creve Coeur Prosecutor • Des Peres Prosecutor • Valley Park Private practice • Personal injury and criminal defense at Engelmeyer & Pezzani
Judge • Berkeley Judge • Moline Acres Private practice • Real estate and business law and development at MacArthur Moten
Prosecutor • Bellerive Acres Private practice • Personal injury and traffic at Horan Law Office
Judge • Bellerive Acres* Judge • Normandy* Judge • Wellston* Private practice • General practice
Lawyers involved say they see no conflict COURTS • from A1
of acting more as moneymakers for Ferguson than an impartial court. The report criticized Brockmeyer and court officials for seeking dismissal of tickets they and their friends obtained there and elsewhere, while being unforgiving with the people who came before the Ferguson court. Brockmeyer’s influence extended far beyond Ferguson. He was one of an elite club — the lawyers who both help run and profit from the region’s 81 municipal courts. In courts where they have no official status, they often work as traffic attorneys whose success lies in their ability to get a charge amended to a nonmoving violation — a leniency that many courts will afford only to lawyers, as long as the offender is willing to pay a higher fine. They also work as city attorneys, paid to represent municipalities in lawsuits and to craft ordinances that feed the municipal revenue stream. Sometimes they do both. These dual, or in some cases triple and quadruple roles — judge in one place; prosecutor or city attorney in another; and private lawyer representing defendants in still another — mean the lawyers regularly appear before each other, switching places in court. On a recent court date in Berkeley, for instance, 20 of the defense attorneys who were scheduled to appear before Judge Jennifer Fisher were fellow municipal prosecutors and judges. It’s a practice that wouldn’t fly at the state court level — and which critics say raises questions about how justice is served in these small communities. “If you’re in front of a judge or you’re talking to the prosecutor and you know two days later you’re going to be the judge and that person is going to be in front of you as a defense attorney, that knowledge impacts the negotiations,” said St. Louis University Law professor Brendan Roediger, who is part of a legal team behind several lawsuits alleging constitutional abuses in the area’s municipal courts. The main players in this system insist that they treat everyone equally. But several lawyers who have knowledge of the inner workings describe the ultimate good old boys club. Favors are traded behind the scenes between lawyers who frequently appear before one another. The same lawyers are simultaneously charging clients to get the same types of deals. It doesn’t seem fair to people such as Slate who are on the other end of the arrangements. Slate sued Battreal and the case settled out of court. Slate said the settlement covered the costs of his doctor’s visits and physical therapy for the pain. But he’s angry the police citations were downgraded. “He ends up with illegal parking for hitting a person who was walking? How is that possible?” Slate said. “It should be more than parking. It should be what it was — he hit me!”
WEARING MANY HATS In Missouri’s state courts, judges are generally prohibited from practicing law and prosecutors can be charged with a misdemeanor if they practice in any other criminal capacity. Judges and prosecutors in the
Laurie Skrivan • lskrivan@post-dispatch.com
Members of the media tape the live broadcast of the opening remarks of Missouri Court of Appeals Judge Roy Richter as he presides over the session of the Ferguson Municipal Courts on March 19.
municipal courts work part time and do not face the same restrictions. This allows Donnell Smith to hold nine different taxpayerfunded positions— prosecutor in Berkeley and Moline Acres, judge in Greendale and Dellwood, and city attorney in Beverly Hills, Berkeley, Moline Acres, Pine Lawn and Velda Village Hills — all while holding down a municipal law and criminal defense practice. On his firm’s website, Smith highlights that experience. Four other lawyers who hold down five or more municipal positions in St. Louis County also point out their roles when soliciting clients on their firm’s websites. The numerous roles create a web of connections that is never more apparent than when all the lawyers gather in one courtroom. Smith was one of about 50 attorneys at a Dec. 11 St. Louis County Circuit Court session in Clayton, where the circuit court hears municipal court cases that have been appealed or moved. One minute he was the prosecutor, representing Berkeley on a traffic case. The next, he was a private defense attorney for a Hazelwood traffic offender. After Smith concluded his Berkeley case with the judge, there was brief confusion when the judge called the name of the Hazelwood defendant, apparently presuming Smith was the prosecutor of that case too. “No, that’s my client,” Smith corrected him. Smith ended up dropping the Berkeley case, which involved charges of failure to register a vehicle, a seat belt violation and operating a vehicle without insurance. Smith said the driver presented proof he had been carrying insurance, and it wasn’t worth having the city clerk and a police officer make the round trip to Clayton for the other charges. In the Hazelwood case, Smith accepted the recommendation of the Hazelwood prosecutor, Stephanie Karr, for about $300 in fines for his client, who was charged with a miscellaneous ordinance violation, failure to register his car, driving without insurance and failure to appear in court. Two of the charges were dropped; the other two were amended to illegal parking.
Smith said he didn’t see any problem with his dual roles because he considers each case separately. “As a prosecutor you are a seeker of justice, and as a defense attorney you represent the interest of your client,” he said. Karr is in the same law firm as Keith Cheung, who had worked out a deal with Smith, prosecutor in Berkeley, the previous month. In that case a woman’s child endangerment and drug citations were amended to littering, and she was fined $450. Cheung, who is prosecutor in St. Ann, Crystal Lake Park, Frontenac and Normandy, and judge in Ladue, was also in circuit court Dec. 11 — for 14 cases from Normandy and St. Ann. He acknowledged many in the room served as prosecutors or judges in municipalities where he defends clients. The private criminal defense work is in addition to his larger personal injury and civil practices. “There is no quid pro quo, if that’s what you are asking,” he said. “Each case is its own case.” Nancy Greenwood, a former Chesterfield mayor and current City Council member, said she’s had concerns for years about prosecutors who serve as judges in other municipalities and vice versa. She was the lone vote against reappointing Timothy Engelmeyer as the city prosecutor two years ago. Engelmeyer is also a judge in Creve Coeur and prosecutor in Des Peres. “I feel each court should be independent,” she said, “and I don’t think our current system allows for that … I have an ethical problem with it.” Sometimes the lawyers represent each other. When Cheung was caught passing a note to a circuit court judge in a 2010 trial, Paul D’Agrosa — currently the judge in Olivette and University City and prosecutor in Arnold — represented him in his disciplinary proceedings before the Missouri Supreme Court. “Judge, you need to convict this guy. I’ll explain later. Keith Cheung,” the note read. The defendant was Bella Villa Police Chief Edward J. Locke Jr., who was accused of employing an unqualified officer. Cheung formerly worked as prosecutor for Bella Villa, but he had no role
in Locke’s trial. After the judge called a mistrial, Cheung apologized and self-reported his misconduct, which resulted in a reprimand.
PERCEPTIONS OF FAVORS A month after the driver who hit Slate paid his fines on the deal that Brockmeyer, as private defense attorney, worked out with Ethan Corlija, the prosecutor in Jennings, Corlija as private defense attorney entered his appearance on a case in front of Brockmeyer, then judge in Ferguson. His client had faced two driving while suspended charges, several failures to appear, no proof of insurance and other charges. Ultimately, all were amended to nonmoving violations — some before Corlija entered his appearance, and some after — for $1,639 in fines. Brockmeyer did not return a phone call seeking comment on the Ferguson case. In the Jennings case, Corlija said because Battreal slowed and briefly conversed with Slate “it really wasn’t textbook leaving the scene.” And he said even though there was a witness to the accident, without the officer seeing it himself, “it was basically hearsay” on the failure to yield charge. “Whether it was Ron Brockmeyer or John Doe lawyer that came in to see me, I would have made the same recommendations if I thought the case merited that disposition,” he said. The benefit of working as a defense attorney by day, Corlija said, is he was able to spot holes in the case. “I looked at it from the perspective of a defense lawyer, not just a municipal prosecuting attorney,” he said. He said Slate had declined medical treatment and had a civil remedy, and that’s where Corlija thought the case belonged. Battreal, who had been sued unsuccessfully over another accident two years earlier when he allegedly struck a vehicle while making a left turn on the same road, could not be reached for comment. No citation was issued in that accident. Thomas Harvey, from Arch City Defenders, said the example illustrates many problems with the municipal courts. Corlija and Brockmeyer know each other not only as judge and prosecutor but
also as private attorneys. “Regardless of whether or not there were favors being traded, it gives the impression that there may well be,” Harvey said. “If we are ever to have a credible, functioning system that calls itself justice, these kinds of conflicts have to be eliminated.” The Post-Dispatch found multiple examples like this in just a small sampling of court dockets that were made available by the courts. While a few courts have freely shared records with the newspaper, the vast majority have conducted their business in secret, citing what they claim are protections under Supreme Court operating rules. Two other examples: • As a defense attorney, Smith represented a client in Ferguson while Brockmeyer was judge. Around the same time, Brockmeyer was defending a client in Berkeley, where Smith is prosecutor. The two men also served together in Dellwood, where Smith is judge and Brockmeyer was prosecutor. Smith said he didn’t see a conflict because most of his requests for plea bargains are sent to the court without him appearing. If he must appear before a judge, he switches the venue to St. Louis County Circuit Court. Smith said as a prosecutor, he doesn’t look at the attorneys’ names on requests he gets. “I’m really torn why others see it as a conflict,” he said, noting lawyers roles routinely vary. “It’s been that way since the beginning of lawyering. We are sort of like chameleons. We take on the interest of whomever we are representing at the time.” • In Hillsdale, Raphael Morris defended clients on resisting arrest, speeding, driving with a suspended license and other violations, all of which were dismissed or amended to nonmoving violations for hundreds of dollars in fines each. The judge and prosecutor in Hillsdale, Victor Thompson and Alan Baker, each defended clients in Pagedale, where Morris is judge. Those charges were also dismissed or amended upon payment. Baker said the cases were treated the same as any other, and a defense attorney’s municipal position “just doesn’t come into play. What the prosecutor would do for one, the prosecutor is going to do for another.” When conflicts do arise, he said, you “absolutely have to recuse yourself.”
‘MAKE THAT GO AWAY’ In one case, a municipal court official streamlined a deal for another court figure by combining his roles as judge and prosecutor. In May 2009, D’Agrosa wrote an email to Cheung about a client D’Agrosa was defending. Jason Carrington, of Clayton, was on probation after pleading guilty to drunken driving in 2007 in Frontenac, where Cheung is prosecutor. If Carrington avoided another DWI arrest during two years of probation, the case would be wiped from the public record without a conviction. But Carrington was arrested for another DWI in 2009 in Ladue, where Cheung is the judge. D’Agrosa worked out a deal with the Ladue prosecutor, James Towey for Carrington to plead guilty to excessive blood-alcohol content, a charge akin to DWI, but involving fewer points assessed against the driver’s license. See COURTS • Page A9