In St. Louis County municipal courts, 54 individuals fill 80 municipal judge positions, according to a Better Together St. Louis study released Thursday. Of these 54 individuals, only five are black and seven are female.
The demographics for prosecutors in these courts aren’t much different. Of the 80 prosecutor positions in county municipalities, only six prosecutors are black and nine are female.
The lack of diversity gives yet another reason for St. Louis residents to be critical and wary of the municipal court structure, said Marius Johnson, coordinator of Better Together’s community-based studies. Walking into many of the North St. Louis County courts, the judges and prosecutors are often white – and the people standing before them are black, he said. For many African-American residents, that dynamic reinforces their deep-seated issues of mistrust for the justice system.
“When you already feel like this institution is not on your side, it really presents some issues,” Johnson said.
On October 16, Better Together released its initial study of the municipal courts, which revealed that many municipalities bring in a large amount of their general revenue at the expense of poor, primarily African-American residents. On Thursday, the group released an addendum specifically looking at compensations of municipal judges and prosecutors. The current structure for hiring and paying municipal court judges and prosecutors leaves itself open to criticism, the report found.
“It’s an unsettling idea that a part-time municipal judge and prosecutor would be hired and paid more than $50,000 each in a municipality that is reliant on revenue from fines and fees for a significant portion of its general revenue,” the addendum stated.
The fact that at least 14 municipalities with a majority black population have both a white municipal judge and a white prosecutor – hired by the municipality that stands to gain revenue from the fines – does not instill confidence among its residents, Johnson said.
Better Together suggested having the presiding judge of the circuit court play a role in appointing judges for each municipality.
This would place distance between the municipal judges and their employing municipalities – who gain money from the cases the judges see, the report stated. It would also allow for an emphasis on getting the municipal court system to better reflect the diverse community it is designed to serve.
A larger-scale effort to recruit and hire diverse candidates would also address the “overlap” in the system:
â—Ź Attorneys serving as a prosecutor in a municipality and a judge in a neighboring municipality
â—Ź Attorneys serving as a judge in multiple municipalities
â—Ź Attorneys serving as a prosecutor in multiple municipalities
â—Ź A firm that serves as prosecutor or judge in 10 different municipalities
“This crossover creates a system that can result in favor-trading among attorneys, as they appear in front of each other or work in close proximity,” the addendum stated. “Whether this is true in practice, the current structure leaves itself open to criticism and needs to be addressed.”
In addition to serving as a municipal prosecutor and/or judge, the report found that some attorneys also work as defense lawyers – making residents even more skeptical about attorneys pulling “double duty” within the system.
Better Together pointed to one possible best practice utilized in New York that prohibits a part-time judge from practicing law in the county in which his or her court is located. The law also prohibits the partners or associates of the part-time judge from practicing law in a court in which he or she is a judge.
In Colorado, a judge can only serve as a part-time judge in one court in a judicial district. Both Ohio and Nevada go even further and bar a part-time judge from practicing law in any court subject to the appellate jurisdiction of the court in which the judge serves.
The National District Attorneys Association states that, “part-time prosecutors should not represent persons in criminal matters in other jurisdictions. This is because of the potential for conflicts with his or her duties as a prosecutor and because of the perception that such representation would decrease his or her dedication to the performance of prosecutorial functions.”
However in Missouri, the “double duty” structure is completely legal, Johnson said. Missouri statute also does not restrict a judge in one municipality to be a judge in another municipality.
On the study’s purpose, Johnson said, “For us, it was trying to understand this whole system and part of the reasons why citizens may not be as trusting of an institution that is supposed to be on their side.”
For a full report of Better Together’s study, click here.