You’ll have to excuse me if I mess up a few words or my thoughts sound a bit jumbled…I’m kind of in shock. I just read that the Missouri Supreme Court today replaced the rent-a-judge in Ferguson with a state appeals court judge.
I’m going to go over it once again because I can hardly believe it. In our state, today, the highest court we’ve got took decisive action to address the kangaroo municipal court where Ronald J. Brockmeyer galavants around St. Louis County playing judge sometimes and prosecutor at others. As judge in Ferguson, he essentially operated the city cash register by fining — and then fining some more — Ferguson’s black residents.
In a recent report, the U.S. Department of Justice excoriated the Ferguson Police Department and Municipal Court for routinely violating people’s — mostly black people’s — constitutional rights. The report said Ferguson’s fines were among the highest in the region, with hundreds of dollars levied for such violations as “peace disturbance,” “failure to comply” and “manner of walking.”
Manner of walking?
Citing the need for “extraordinary action,” the Supreme Court appointed Judge Roy Richter of the Missouri Court of Appeals in St. Louis to go in, hear cases and clean up the mess.
The move is the equivalent of a Court of Appeals judge in Kansas City being assigned to take charge of the Grandview Municipal Court.
Those kinds of actions just don’t happen very often. The New York Times quoted Brendan Roediger, a St. Louis University law professor, as saying: “It’s a very big deal because it actually is the solution. It puts the cases in front of full-time professional courts with no conflicts of interest.”
Brockmeyer
A recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch story painted Brockmeyer, a lawyer in St. Charles County, as a veritable Pone Express dispenser of legal services, working as a judge or prosecutor in five different municipalities, as well as representing defendants.
Here’s how incestuous and crooked the small-town system has been: “Judge” Brockmeyer once prevailed on Ferguson prosecutor Stephanie Karr to dismiss a traffic ticket he had been issued in a nearby municipality where Karr was also the prosecutor.
If that doesn’t frost you, Brockmeyer is also a smart aleck. When The New York Times emailed him questions about the Justice Department’s allegations, Brockmeyer wrote back, “Suggest you come to court someday and see for yourself that the allegations are unfounded.”
We can all be thankful that a New York Times reporter won’t have the chance to take Brockmeyer up on his challenge.
So, how did this happen — the Missouri Supreme Court moving in swiftly and surely to address the mess?
Let me suggest that the answer lies with Chief Justice Mary Rhodes Russell, who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2004 by then-Gov. Bob Holden, a Democrat.
Russell, a Hannibal native, became chief justice in 2013. In an interview that year with The Missouri Times, an online publication, she made three statements that, in my opinion, indicate she is the type of person who won’t tolerate the type of crookedness and chicanery the Justice Department detailed in Ferguson.
Here are those quotes:
“My theme and the theme of the judges that follow me will be ‘how can we make the courts work better for all citizens?’ ”
“Our primary goal as judges is to resolve people’s problems timely and fair and in a form where everybody has access.”
“We need to help people understand how the (state) constitution is there to protect them, what their constitutional rights and responsibilities are and how the three branches of government check and balance each other.”
We’ll probably never know for sure, but I would bet almost anything that the Justice Department’s report made Chief Justice Russell’s blood boil, and she determined quickly that it was incumbent on the Supreme Court to act decisively.
Our Supreme Court made us look good today, not just in Missouri but throughout the nation. It’s gratifying to see that good things — very big, good things — can happen right here in the Show-Me State.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Excellent post today, Fitz.
Thank you, Tracy. You are already enlivening the Comments Dept.
Another encouraging development yesterday was the fast and furious response at the University of Oklahoma to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon boys’ racist chant. School president David Boren, a former U.S. senator, gave the frat boys until midnight to clear out of the house, and the the fraternity’s national office announced it would close the local chapter…The empty house will now stand, at least for a while, as a testament to intolerance of overt racism at OU. Before the strong response, I was ready to light into Okies in general — easy target — but, by God, the good Okies came through!
Yes sir, he did come down on them with both feet, didn’t he?! There was another school official I saw who was equally as intolerant. What I find curious is, did no one ever challenge that they were not pledging black men? Could this discrimination extend beyond the OU campus (into the national chapter, despite their passionate incredulity)?
So I guess we can count on all black fraternities and their female counterparts to be closely screened for racial slurs as well now???? Just saying racism is not the sole property of white people. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are living proof.
Turnabout should be handled just the same.
To answer Rex Williams, historically black greek fraternities (which were formed originally because of racism within the traditionally white greek system) have always been open to pledges of all races and creeds – even at historically black colleges and universities…there were a few white guys who pledged black frats at KU when I was there in the 1980s…
Although I am not a fan of the Greek/Panhellenic social system (I am a life member of a honorary fraternity, for full disclosure)…I have friends who did pledge black and white fraternities and sororities…just clarifying the picture…
Jim perhaps your readers would like to know a little more about Chief Justice Russell. She grew up on a farm near New London, MO in Ralls County a few miles from Hannibal. When she was a high school senior in 1976 (I think) she applied for the Pershing Scholarship at was then Northeast Missouri State University in Kirksville – Now Truman State University. I was on the committee that reviewed applicants and we granted her a full academic scholarship for four years.
She excelled as a student and as a senior applied and was accepted to do an internship in the State Capitol for Representative Everett Brown of Maryville. Rep. Brown’s office was next door to the state representative from Adair County, former Star Reporter and your former roommate Harry Hill.
Mary is a natural at politics and has an “ear” for public opinion. She was an undergraduate communications major and I think worked a summer or two for the Hannibal Courier Post. She also did public relations work for the late Norman Merrill who was a powerful state senator from Northeast Missouri back before term limits.
While doing the internship in the capitol, she met her future husband Jim Russell. Jim is a former state legislator from Savanah and at one time (if not now) lobbied for a number of Kansas City-area business interests.
Mary got her law degree from Mizzou, practiced law for a while, but always had her eye on the courts and eventually was appointed to the Eastern District Court of Appeals which sits here in St. Louis. She, Jim, Debra and I have kept in touch from the time she was a student – I wouldn’t describe our relationship as close, but she did reply to the congratulatory email I sent her last night.
Around 1994 or so she was appointed to the Board of Governors at Truman State. I was also on the Board about midway through a six-year term. To make a long story short, there needed to be a leadership change at Truman. When she was appointed I briefed Mary on what I thought the issues were. She took her time – about a year—to reach her own conclusions. She came around to my way of thinking and once she did, she jumped into action. She called Holden’s office to get some other board members replaced and the coup was consummated in the private dining room of the Grand Street Café in Kansas City. I was elected the new board chair.
The Board of which I was now chair appointed the new leader at Truman State, Jack Magruder who did a fabulous job for the eight years or so he was president.
Mary went on to the Supreme Court. Three or four years ago she asked me to serve on the Missouri Commission for the Compensation of Elected Officials. (The Supreme Court gets to appoint a couple of people to the Commission.) We were able to adopt a pay raise recommendation for the judges. The legislature either lets the recommendation stand or turns it down. They let it stand. The private sector pay for lawyers had far outpaced what the judges were getting. Some may disagree, but it was the right thing to do even though they still don’t earn as much.
Mary as I said earlier is down-to-earth and one smart woman. We once had a discussion about the merits of Bag Balm (a cow udder salve) as a hand moisturizer. (She keeps a can in her office.) As I said earlier, she has a knack for politics and knows how to get things done. Her decisive action is no surprise to me.
Finally, I would not be surprised if fellow judge Laura Denvir Stith didn’t encourage Mary. I served on a board in St. Louis with Judge Stith’s mother, Ann, whose mission was a provide intervention services in homes where child abuse could take place. Judge Stith grew up in a home where social justice was a daily topic and concern about what could be done. Ann was a pioneer in issues like prison reform and jail conditions.
Of course she started out as a journalist!!
Back on topic…let’s go to the City of Randolph Mo. and take a look at discrimination. They were well known a few years ago for raking in more money than legally allowed via traffic fines. I’m curious about the percentage of whites v. blacks pulled over for traffic violations. It would not surprise me if it was found that more white people were pulled over than blacks. Mainly, because there are not a lot of black people that travel through this little burb. I guess the government has switched to common core math, where the answer is correct as long as you show how you came to your conclusion.
From where I stand, if you have a higher percentage of one race v. another in a certain area…oh never mind, you can lead a horse to water…blah, blah, blah!
As Rex states above (in so many words), it’s a double edged sword we’re playing with.