Cole County Presiding Judge Pat Joyce has denied a motion for civil contempt against Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson, but the attorney who filed the motion said the case is not over.
The ruling came after a bench trial in October where attorney Dave Roland, of the Freedom Center of Missouri in Mexico, representing Aaron Malin, suggested Joyce should hold the prosecuting attorney's office in contempt - and fine it $50 a day, starting Jan. 15, 2019, as part of an open records case that began nearly five years ago.
In April 2015, Malin asked for a number of public records from then-Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson, including communications between Richardson's office and the Mustang Drug Task Force.
On Oct. 22, 2025, Malin asked for any Cole County indictments issued between July 1, 2014, and Oct. 22, 2015.
A third, Oct. 30, 2015, request asked for "any Sunshine Law (or open records) requests received by the Cole County Prosecutor's Office, as well as any responses provided, between January 1, 2015, and the present."
In January 2018, the Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City upheld Joyce's October 2017 ruling Malin was entitled to those documents, and Richardson had knowingly and purposefully violated the state's Sunshine Law.
Joyce ordered Richardson to search for, and produce, all open records responsive to Malin's requests and to pay Malin a civil penalty of $12,100 - plus $24,070 in attorney's fees.
However, Richardson appealed Joyce's ruling, so those costs climbed to $51,166.55 after Malin had additional attorney's fees because of the appeal case.
On Jan. 15, 2019, the Court of Appeals affirmed Joyce's ruling and mandated the case back to Joyce's court Feb. 9, 2019, so she could "determine the reasonableness of Malin's attorney fees on (the) appeal and enter an appropriate award."
Joyce noted in her judgment that on March 14, 2019, Thompson, who took office Jan. 1, 2019, paid in full the court's money judgment in Malin's favor, plus interest and attorney's fees on appeal.
Joyce also noted Thompson had searched for and produced "a number of records to Malin, all at no charge to Malin." It was before Thompson could produce the last of these records that the motion for civil contempt was filed, and on June 28, 2019, Thompson's counsel, attorney Michael Berry, produced the remaining records Thompson was able to locate.
Roland said the ruling filed by Joyce can't be a final judgment because Thompson's office did not do everything it was obligated to do.
"Much was made during the trial that there was a switch in who held the office," Rowland said. "It makes no difference who is in the office. It is the office that violated the law, and it is the office that was commanded to comply and still hasn't produced all the records they were told they needed to provide."
Joyce's judgment also notes "a more exhaustive search of the county's information systems was beyond the ability of the county to undertake," and Thompson offered to get a quote for an outside technology service to do the search for the records Malin wanted, but Malin declined Thompson's offer as it would have required Malin to pay for the search.
"During the hearing, the county's information systems personnel said they could have searched for these other records but didn't do so," Roland said. "There are still records that haven't been turned over. We are waiting for a satisfaction of judgment to be filed in this case, and when that happens we'll appeal the ruling, and we have every confidence we'll win."
Thompson said he was pleased with judge's ruling but declined to comment further on the case.