Latest news with #SupremeCourtofMissouri
Business Wire
28-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Judge Patricia Breckenridge (Ret.) to Receive the 2025 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Eighth Circuit
ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Patricia Breckenridge has been selected to receive the prestigious 2025 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Eighth Circuit. Breckenridge was a judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri from 2007 until her retirement in 2023 and served as chief justice from 2015 to 2017. She will receive the award from Judge Duane Benton at the Eighth Circuit Judicial Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, in August. Judge Patricia Breckenridge (Ret.), selected to receive prestigious 2025 American @InnsofCourt Professionalism Award for the 8th Circuit. #InnsofCourt #mizzou #MizzouAlumni #MizzouLaw Share 'As a member of our state's highest court for over 15 years, she worked tirelessly to improve Missourians' lives….,' writes Willie J. Epps Jr., chief magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, who nominated Breckenridge for the award. Breckenridge earned an undergraduate degree with honors in agricultural economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1975, then earned her law degree from the university in 1977. She then practiced law with her father and husband in the firm Russell, Brown, Bickel and Breckenridge in her hometown of Nevada, Missouri. Breckenridge's judicial career began even as she was practicing law. From 1979 to 1982, she also served as the town's assistant municipal judge. Soon after, she was appointed as associate circuit judge for Vernon County, becoming the first woman to serve in the position. In 1990, Breckenridge was appointed to the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District, becoming only the second woman to serve. In 2007, she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Missouri. During her tenure as chief justice, she was appointed to serve on the National Center for State Courts National Task Force on Fines, Fees, and Bail Practices, which gave her a platform for improving the administration of justice nationwide. In 2019, Breckenridge received the organization's Distinguished Service Award for Appellate Judges. Breckenridge has also been active in the nonprofit world. She co-founded the Council for Families in Crisis, for example, which offered a hotline, a support group for abuse victims, anger management counseling, and then established a battered women's shelter in Nevada, Missouri, that has existed for more than 35 years. Breckenridge has mentored four sisters for 27 years through Operation Breakthrough, a nonprofit childcare provider and after-school program that serves low-income children in Kansas City, Missouri. Breckenridge has been a member of the Elwood L. Thomas American Inn of Court since 2012. She served as president of the Association of Probate and Associate Circuit Judges from 1990 to 1991. The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization's membership includes more than 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 350 chapters nationwide. More information is available at
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Missouri Supreme Court suspends Carroll County judge for ‘astoundingly egregious' behavior
The Supreme Court of Missouri in Jefferson City, as photographed on May 24, 2023 (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). The Missouri Supreme Court on Friday suspended an associate circuit judge for a year without pay for leaving numerous cases unresolved for years, leaving families in limbo on divorces, child support and custody and, in one case, potentially pushing a home into foreclosure. The court imposed the suspension on Associate Circuit Judge Joe Don McGaugh of Carroll County after an investigation by the Commission on the Retirement, Removal and Discipline of Judges. The court increased the penalty recommended by the commission from six months to 12 months. 'His performance issues extend well beyond his own grossly untimely performance of his duties,' Judge Ginger Gooch wrote in the decision. 'The uncontested allegations also establish he was untruthful with attorneys, parties, and the commission on multiple occasions. He repeatedly failed to respond to court staff and, even worse, blamed court staff when he knew he failed to perform his judicial duties.' McGaugh, a Republican, was appointed in 2017 and re-elected unopposed to a new four-year term in 2022. He was a member of the Missouri House when he was appointed to the bench and succeeded in office by his mother, state Rep. Peggy McGaugh. The last time the court disciplined a judge was in 2017, when two judges were suspended. All seven judges of the Supreme Court agreed that McGaugh should be disciplined; Judges W. Brent Powell and Zel Fischer wrote dissents stating the high court did not have the constitutional authority to impose a discipline more severe than recommended by the commission. The facts reported to the court show in detail the hardships imposed on families waiting for a ruling from McGaugh. In one case, McGaugh closed evidence on a divorce in September 2021 and did not issue his decision until February 2024. During that time, the attorneys for both sides contacted McGaugh asking him when a ruling would be issued. In February 2022, McGaugh told the attorney for the wife that he had given the ruling to a court clerk but it could not be found. At another point in 2022, the attorney warned McGaugh that the woman was in default on her home loan and faced foreclosure. The commission asked McGaugh about the case in 2022 when it was not listed among the cases pending for a decision longer than 90 days. The commission again asked McGaugh about it in August 2023. 'Judge McGaugh responded the next day, 'I submitted the judgment in person at my October law day in Ray County. I am at the State Fair until next week. I will follow up with the clerks,'' the decision states. Among the discipline rules McGaugh violated, the court noted that one is 'the duties of judicial office, as prescribed by law, shall take precedence over a judge's personal and extrajudicial activities.' In another case, McGaugh closed evidence on a child custody and support modification case in April 2018 but did not issue a decision until April 2024. The decision lists seven other cases involving divorces, child custody and orders of protection where parties waited extraordinary periods for a decision. 'In sum, this is an egregious case of multiple instances in which a judge completely failed to timely perform his duties, compounded by a pattern of dishonesty toward lawyers, parties, court staff and the commission,' Gooch wrote. 'At the time of this opinion issuing, multiple court cases remain unresolved due to Judge McGaugh's delays, which have continued despite this extended disciplinary proceeding.' McGaugh admitted to the charges against him in a stipulation filed with the discipline case but asked the high court to let him argue that an unnamed mental disability interfered with his ability to complete his work. The commission included a finding that McGaugh has a mental disability 'but the disorder should improve with time and treatment,' Gooch noted. When an attorney claims a mental disorder, 'including, but not limited to, substance abuse or dependency,' the disciplinary rules state, it does not excuse misconduct does allow for it to mitigate punishment. To determine if McGaugh is ready to return to the bench in 2026, the court ordered him to continue treatments and undergo an independent evaluation in 10 months to determine if he has improved. The court has the power to impose harsher, or lighter, punishments than the commission recommends, Gooch wrote, addressing the dissents. There have been several previous instances where the commission recommended discipline but was not unanimous on the punishment, she noted. There was one case where the majority of the commission wanted the judge removed and one member voted for a six-month suspension and the court imposed the suspension. The constitution 'does not limit this court's authority to impose such discipline as it sees fit after the commission recommends discipline be imposed,' she wrote. In his dissent, Fischer wrote that past decisions were wrong and accepting or rejecting the recommendation of the commission is the court's only choice. 'McGaugh's repeated and astoundingly egregious failure to discharge his core judicial responsibilities is compelling evidence he is unfit to serve,' Fischer wrote. 'If the constitution — the ultimate legal authority — so permitted, I would vote to remove him from office.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
