CLAYTON — The much-anticipated trial of a discrimination lawsuit aimed at ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell has been delayed until next year — well after Bell makes a run for Congress.
The jury trial, originally set to begin Monday, has been rescheduled for Jan. 27, after a hearing Friday before ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton.
The postponement was requested by Jerome Dobson and Gregory Rich. They are the attorneys for Susan Petersen, a longtime prosecutor who was fired by Bell in October 2019.
Petersen’s lawsuit, filed in October 2020, says she worked in the prosecutor’s office for 21 years and was fired in 2019. The suit contends that she was one of five prosecutors who either were forced out or quit in Bell’s first term as county prosecutor.
Petersen now is lead counsel for the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 15, which represents area police departments. Her suit against the county seeks at least $100,000 in damages.
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Bell’s attorneys from the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Counselor’s office had failed in a recent attempt to push the trial past the Aug. 6 Democratic primary. Bell and former state legislator Maria Chappelle-Nadal are both challenging U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, the two-term incumbent from ºüÀêÊÓƵ, in the 1st Congressional District.
The case took on a harder edge in late March, when Hilton ordered a new deposition at which Bell would have to answer questions he had avoided in a previous deposition.
Court records have redacted the name of the person who refused to answer questions focusing on sexual relations occurring between a supervisor and subordinates in Bell’s office.
Chappelle-Nadal publicly stated that it was Bell who refused to answer; Bell declined to comment.
Petersen’s attorneys successfully argued that questions about sexual behavior under Bell’s management serve to illustrate the office’s general treatment of and attitude toward women.
Editor’s note: The discrimination trial aimed at ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell — which was set to start Monday in circuit court — was delayed because of an illness in the family of an attorney for plaintiff Susan Petersen, one of the attorneys confirmed Monday.