Cole County voters received two more postcard advertisements this week, questioning Presiding Circuit Judge Pat Joyce's record in deciding controversial cases.
Joyce, a Democrat, is seeking voters' support in the Nov. 4 general election for a third, six-year term as a circuit judge.
Republican Brian Stumpe, Jefferson City's current municipal prosecutor, is challenging her.
Thursday, voters received a new mailing from the Washington, D.C.-based Republican State Leadership Committee, repeating allegations made in an earlier mailing.
Wednesday, many voters received a postcard from a different group, the Jefferson City-based Adam Smith Foundation, saying Joyce "Protects Sexual Predators" because of her ruling in a 2007 case.
The postcard also claims that ruling "sided with sexual predators over law enforcement agencies and the state legislature," and that because of her ruling, of Missouri's "thousands of sexual predators ... one can now live next to your child's school."
In an email Thursday from Dale Doerhoff, Joyce's campaign treasurer, the campaign responded: "Judge Joyce is deeply offended at this low personal attack by Mr. Stumpe's outside supporters, and Cole County voters also should be offended at this insult to their intelligence."
Joyce ruled on May 30, 2007, that the state could not force someone convicted of a sex crime from their existing home - but she didn't block the 2004 state law sponsored by then-Rep. Mark Bruns, R-Wardsville, that said sex offenders "shall not establish residency within" 1,000 feet of any elementary school, high school or child care facility "which is in existence at the time such residency is established."
Lawmakers modified that law in 2006, to bar all offenders convicted "since July 1, 1979," from "residing" that close to a school or child care center.
But a sex offender from St. Louis County, identified only as R.L., challenged the 2006 law after the state corrections department told him that his continuing to live in his home violated his probation - and he would be charged with a felony if he didn't move.
The man had lived in his home since 1997, near a grade school built in 1988. But he didn't become a sex offender until December 2005, when he pleaded guilty to attempted enticement of a child, and was ordered to register as a sex offender.
Joyce ruled the 2006 law could not be applied to anyone who owned the property years before the law prohibiting that ownership was passed.
The Missouri Constitution's Bill of Rights, in Article I, Section 13, says: "That no ex post facto law, nor law ... retrospective in its operation ... can be enacted."
In its unanimous, February 2008 ruling upholding Joyce's 2007 ruling, the seven-member Missouri Supreme Court noted the "constitutional bar on retrospective civil laws has been a part of Missouri law since this State adopted its first constitution in 1820."
Writing for the court, Judge Richard Teitelman said: "Attaching new obligations to past conduct in this manner (of the 2006 law) violates the (constitutional) bar on retrospective laws."
The Joyce campaign's response to this week's postcard said: "This case is a prime example of how politics has no place in how a judge performs her job, which is to apply the facts to the law."
Lobbyist James Harris, speaking for the Adam Smith Foundation that he belongs to, and helped organize about eight years ago, said in an email: "The Adam Smith Foundation believes strongly that citizens need to have more information about the judges they are asked to vote on. ... (Voters) deserve an explanation from Judge Joyce about ... putting the rights of sexual predators ahead of the safety of Missouri children."
Joyce's campaign statement said: "In her 32 years of public service, Judge Joyce, a mother of five, has shown her commitment and dedication to the safety of children.
"As a county prosecutor, she successfully tried many child sex crime cases in Cole County and frequently served as a special instructor for trying these cases at state prosecutor training seminars.
"For 10 years, Judge Joyce has also been a volunteer trainer in the Jefferson City Catholic Diocese's "Protecting God's Children' program, which educates church volunteers about how to keep church and school environments safe from child predators."