A six-man, eight-woman jury, including two alternates, will begin hearing evidence this morning in the case of 22 religious leaders charged two years ago with trespassing and obstructing government operations, both misdemeanors.
A 23rd defendant didn't get to the court from Kansas City until late Monday afternoon, so his case will be tried later.
The charges stem from a May 6, 2014, demonstration in the state Senate's Upper Gallery. It ended with Capitol Police arresting 23 clergy members after they refused to leave the gallery when ordered to do so.
The demonstration in the Senate started nearly an hour after 300 members and supporters of the statewide Missouri Faith Voices group rallied in the Capitol Rotunda, urging lawmakers to expand the Medicaid program as envisioned by the Affordable Care Act.
The Senate Gallery demonstration began with a chant that included shouts of "Expand Medicaid!" and included other chants and singing.
As it quickly became difficult for senators to hear each other as they were debating, Senate leaders ordered the gallery cleared and halted the debate for what, ultimately, was nearly an hour.
The "obstructing government operations" charge said the defendants "purposely obstructed and impaired and hindered the performance of a governmental function, namely, Senate actions."
The Rev. Cassandra Gould, pastor of Jefferson City's Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church and director of Faith Voices-Missouri - who is not one of the defendants - told reporters Monday morning outside the Cole County Courthouse that stopping the Senate debate in May 2014 "was their decision, not ours."
The jury was selected two years to the day after Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson filed filed identical Class B misdemeanor charges against all 23 pastors - including Jefferson City pastors William (W. T.) Edmonson, now 64, and John Bennett, now 76.
Although charged individually in separate cases, all 22 are being tried at the same time, by the same jury.
Five of the defendants are Caucasian, and the rest African-American. State Rep. Brandon Ellington, D-Kansas City, suggested in a statement Monday the case was going to trial because of race.
"Criminal charges never should have been brought in this case," said Ellington, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. "Protests that are far more boisterous and disruptive than what occurred in the Senate two years ago are common in the Missouri Capitol and rarely result in prosecution.
"Apparently there is a different standard when the protesters are African-American."
Expanding Medicaid to cover more Missourians was the focus of Monday morning's pre-trial demonstration.
The Rev. Michelle Scott-Huffman, pastor of Table of Grace Church and board president of Faith Voices of Jefferson City, told reporters: "We come here today to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who had the courage to stand up and speak out, to say that it's time to end partisan politics and it's time to put people before politics in Missouri."
Seth Hunter, of Kansas City's Communities Creating Opportunities, said the pastors being tried "believe in a state, basically, where we have immense wealth we should not be in a position where nearly 300,000 people have to go without being able to experience the basic human dignity of seeing a doctor when you get sick."
And Empower Missouri's director, Jeanette Mott Oxford said: "We have to have compassion for our brothers and sisters, and solve this Medicaid coverage gap problem - and solve the problem that the number of children living in households with less than $2 a day has gone up 159 percent in our country between 1996 and 2013.
"We are headed in the wrong direction, and it must be stopped."
Gould said she "never thought this day would come," that the case would go to trial.
"The fact that, for at least three days this week, we are tying up taxpayers' dollars in trying to crucify clergy - faith leaders who dare to say anything, to sing and to pray," she said. "I am utterly shocked and disappointed."
Ellington said Richardson should "do the right thing and abandon this racially and politically motivated prosecution."