After nearly a month in office, Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson says he has assembled a staff that can handle the wide variety of cases he anticipates they'll be assigned.
Thompson said the cases his office has inherited align with what would be seen in most counties.
"There's a high number of drug cases and domestic violence cases, which are common throughout the state," Thompson said. "Unfortunately, we had a pretty big string of homicides at the end of 2018, which is unusual. It's also concerning because of the juvenile offenders who were involved, but we're working through them as best as we can. We will be giving violent crimes top priority."
Thompson said he wants to consider a new approach to prosecuting low-level marijuana crimes, as an example, so his office can focus on violent crime cases.
"If we get bogged down with misdemeanor marijuana cases, that slows us down on those high-level cases," Thompson said.
Recently, prosecutors in Kansas City and St. Louis have made it known they won't pursue many low-level marijuana possession cases in their jurisdictions.
Thompson said he plans to uphold the law as it stands.
"Generally speaking, though, I think those cases would be better for the municipal court," he said. "I want to sit down with the city prosecutor's office and our law enforcement agencies to see what we can work out. For now, we will keep the cases at the county level."
Thompson currently has five assistant prosecutors working and is interviewing candidates to fill a sixth position.
The five assistant prosecutors are:
Scott Fox, first assistant, who previously served as a first assistant in Audrain County and Cooper County and was a special prosecutor in the Missouri Attorney General's Office.
Anji Gandhi, who has worked three times in the prosecutor's office from 1996-98, 1999-2003 and 2007-10. She had been working in private practice with the law firm of Bandre-Hunt and Snider, LLC, prior to her return to the prosecutor's office. "She was a natural choice because of her institutional knowledge," Thompson said.
Amanda Landrum, who had been working in the prosecutor's child support unit since March 2014. Thompson said she expressed interest in coming to work on criminal prosecutions.
Todd Smith, who began during former prosecutor Mark Richardson's office. He started as an assistant a year and a half ago. Smith previously was in private practice and worked in the criminal appeals unit of the attorney general's office.
Miranda Loesch, who came from Platte County, north of Kansas City, where she was an assistant prosecutor, specializing in domestic violence and general criminal cases. She is originally from Russellville and took the opportunity to move back near her home.
Holly Finch, who still heads the child support division of the prosecutor's office, a position she has held since 1996. It is a regional unit serving Cole, Gasconade, Osage, and Maries counties.
"We're using what is known as the vertical prosecution method, which I believe is the best working process," Thompson said. "That means an attorney is assigned to a case, and they get it from the time it's filed to when it's disposed of. This helps with the familiarity of these cases. I want to give them a wide variety of cases to handle. Now, in some instances, like DWI cases, where we have a large amount, we'll split them between two or three attorneys."
A goal Thompson has set for his office is to get cases moving faster through the courts.
"It doesn't serve the public well for cases to linger for a long time," Thompson said. "We do have some older cases we are cleaning up. I also believe a new Supreme Court rule calling for discovery information to be made available at the time of a defendant's arraignment will help. It used to be that discovery wasn't due until the case reached the circuit court level. Some prosecutors would disclose discovery up front to defense attorneys, and that's what I want to do. That can lead to quicker disposition of cases and saves the county money in the long run."
Thompson said he also wants to address the opioid and mental health crises he talked about during his campaign last year.
"I do want to get a mental health court to go along with our other alternative courts - DWI, drug and veterans," he said. "We have to get funding, but it is still going to get done."