Senate panel hears plan to add Mid-Missouri judge

Lawmakers are being asked to add a third circuit judge to the 26th circuit, one of several that contains five counties.

It covers Moniteau, Morgan, Miller, Camden and Laclede counties.

“We stretch from the northernmost tip, just south of I-70, to south of I-44,” Presiding Judge Ken Hayden told the Senate’s Judiciary Committee Tuesday afternoon. “It’s an hour-and-a-half trip from the northernmost courthouse (in California) to the southernmost courthouse (in Lebanon) in our circuit.”

The budget lawmakers sent Gov. Jay Nixon last week included $211,000 to pay for the additional judge, and the bill passed the House last month by a 143-6 margin.

State Rep. Rocky Miller, R-Lake Ozark, sponsored the bill.

“These five counties have a population of 140,000 over 3,110 square miles,” he noted. “We have the Lake of the Ozarks right in the middle of the circuit, (which) has about 4 million tourists every year, which is almost 30 times our population.

“Tourists are not our only visitors — second-home owners have turned the Lake Area into a year-round economy.”

Miller added, “To give you an idea, most state reps have 36,000 population within their (district). I have 40,000 homes within my constituency. …

“Our economy, roads and other infrastructure have grown to keep up with this influx of people. However, our judicial system has not.”

Those visitors and extra homeowners help create extra work for the courts, even though they’re not permanent residents.

Hayden told the committee: “Our calendar is currently set through the end of 2017. We’ll begin work shortly on our 2018 calendar.”

On his caseload, he said, Hayden already is setting jury trials for November and December 2016 in Laclede County; December 2016-March 2017 in Moniteau County; January and February 2017 in Camden County; and May-July 2017 in Miller County.

His civil trial docket already is scheduling trials in 2018 for Laclede County.

“Our current schedule only permits cases of five days in length, or less, to be handled by our local circuit judges,” Hayden said. “Anything longer than that must be farmed out to senior judges.”

Hayden and Division 1 Judge Stan Moore alternate months in visiting each county, Hayden said, “and we’re only there (a total of) 60 days — (so) criminal defendants who are incarcerated in jail oftentimes have to wait as much as 60 days before we can get a decision date in their case.

“As a practical matter, that runs up jail bills for the counties that often go unpaid.”

Hayden also said the busy schedule and constant travel prohibit the circuit judges from operating treatment courts, “and I’m ashamed of that. Part of the reason we don’t is because treatment courts are very time-intensive on behalf of the court system — and that’s why they’re successful.”

By law, each county in the circuit has an associate circuit judge, and Hayden said, officials in his circuit are looking at the possibility of having associate judges operate a treatment court.

However, that decision hasn’t been made yet.

Hayden told the Senate committee only five circuits in the state have busier caseloads than the 26th — and four of those are in metropolitan areas: St. Louis City and County, Jackson County and Greene County.

The fifth, he said, is the four-county 25th circuit of Maries, Phelps, Pulaski and Dent counties, including the Fort Leonard Wood area.

Committee members may be asked Thursday to approve the bill for Senate debate.

Lawmakers have until 6 p.m. May 13 to pass proposed laws and send them to Nixon for his signature.