With three weeks remaining in its extended time to answer the appellant's brief, Jefferson City will stick with its outside counsel in the Barbara Buescher building code violation case now pending in the Missouri Court of Appeals for Western Missouri.
City counselor Ryan Moehlman said Tuesday he had confidence in Marshall Venable Wilson, the city's attorney of record in the high-profile case.
The city was to file its brief with the court in late December, responding to the 53-page document posted by Buescher's attorney, Audrey Smollen, Nov. 25. Wilson must have his reply on file with the court by Jan. 26 under terms of the extension granted by the court last week.
The case has been in the legal system since June 18, 2015.
Buescher is the funeral director and embalmer whose business was operated from a sprawling Italianate mansion at 429 E. Capitol Ave. It is vacant and listed on the city's abandoned property registry, as well as on the prestigious National Register of Historic Places. She also owns at least 14 other structures in the East Capitol Avenue Area Urban Renewal neighborhood.
Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce found May 17 last year Buescher "is justly indebted" to the city for $24,785.33 in expenses incurred to resolve building code violations at those properties.
On Buescher's behalf, Smollen filed a notice of appeal with the Kansas City court June 24. The city received Smollen's brief for Buescher the day after Thanksgiving, starting a ticking clock monitoring the city's time to respond.
Smollen's work alleges the Buescher case "will affect municipalities all around the state" because of the court's interpretation of statutes cited by the state in suing Buescher.
In another development involving the Buescher case, the appeals court Dec. 29 sustained a motion for withdrawal of counsel from Drew Wade Hilpert. The former city counselor, who resigned last year and now works in Springfield, had been listed as one of five attorneys representing Jefferson City in the controversial case.