Callaway County again seeks additional marshal for court

Callaway County needs another marshal for its circuit court, Sen. Jeanie Riddle told the Senate's Judiciary committee members Tuesday.

Callaway and Boone counties together make up the 13th Judicial Circuit, with court hearings held in both counties.

"Currently, we have two court marshals serving in the Callaway County Courthouse, as part of an overall force of 13 full-time officers serving the circuit," Riddle explained. "Recently, situations have occurred that have generated the need for providing increased security at the courthouse.

"Officials from the courthouse and the 13th Judicial Circuit have requested we allow for the appointment of a full-time court marshal, to monitor and operate a new security station that they will be funding."

Lawmakers agreed with the request last year, but the plan was added to another bill Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed.

That prompted the Mokane Republican's new bill seeking to add a marshal's job in Fulton.

Riddle's language adds the state-paid marshal's post only to a county that has both a Corrections department reception and diagnostic center and a Mental Health department facility housing people ordered to be held in a Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services program (SORTS).

Western District Commissioner Doc Kritzer noted Callaway County fits that description - plus the Fulton State Hospital.

"It does present a tremendous burden on our judicial system," Kritzer told the committee.

Although several Cole County's and other circuit courts have state-paid marshals, this bill will only impact Callaway County, according to Mary Epping, the Boone and Callaway circuit's court administrator.

Illness prevented Prosecutor Chris Wilson from testifying Tuesday, but he sent a two-page fact sheet for the senators to review.

He reminded the Senate of crimes in the affected institutions and the number of felony cases has increased in the past six years.

Wilson's handout said the increases mainly are assaults against staff and other inmates/patients.

"Less frequently, but also common, are sex crimes committed against other inmates/patients," he wrote.

In 2009-10, he reported, the Reception and Diagnostic Center and the mental hospital and together averaged six assaults a year.

In 2011-14, that jumped to an average of 16 assaults a year from the Corrections facility alone, plus an average 18 assaults a year from the hospital and SORTS unit.

In 2014, lawmakers changed state law so all assaults and all property damage complaints are felonies, requiring the sheriff's department to do investigations. Anyone arrested is transferred to the Callaway County Jail at the county expense.

Once the new Fulton State Hospital is finished, Wilson's hand-out reported, "Conservatively, Callaway County can expect to investigate, prosecute, incarcerate and process through our court system an estimated 40 to 50 felony cases arising from these state institutions."

And, Wilson noted, Callaway County officials are asking the state to pay only for the additional marshal - not the costs of jail improvements, additional sheriff's deputies and an assistant prosecutor.

The committee took no action on Riddle's bill Tuesday.