JEFFERSON CITY — A legal dispute between two St. Charles County politicians will play out in public, St. Charles County Circuit Judge W. Christopher McDonough ordered on Friday.
The dispute, which had been unfolding behind closed doors, involves the online publication of records that showed Rep. Justin Hicks, R-Lake Saint Louis, was the subject of a Ƶ County protective order in 2010 after his female partner alleged he grabbed her by the neck and attempted to choke her.
Those records were published by Max Calfo, who was challenging Hicks in the Republican primary to represent the 108th House District. Hicks has since dropped out of the legislative race and is now one of eight candidates seeking the GOP nomination in the 3rd Congressional District.
Hicks sued Calfo last fall for releasing the records but asked a judge to allow him to file the case under seal. McDonough on Sept. 29 ordered the case file sealed.
People are also reading…
Calfo on Jan. 26 filed a motion to unseal the case file, and the judge ordered the case open on Friday.
According to Hicks’ lawsuit, he sought in 2020 to have the restraining order case files closed. The records were sealed Aug. 3, 2021, according to the court. Hicks was elected to the Missouri House in 2022.
In his lawsuit, Hicks accuses Calfo of public release of private facts, arguing a court order was needed to open the records.
“By ordering the entire casefile from the Order of Protection sealed in the Order, that Court necessarily found that the public had no legitimate concern regarding the case, or any documents contained within the casefile,” Hicks’ lawsuit says.
But Calfo, in a motion to dismiss filed Friday, said the records were publicly available for more than a decade before Hicks attempted to close them.
He said Hicks didn’t actually file a motion to seal the order of protection until August 2021, “shortly before he announced his candidacy and weeks after he created a Facebook profile for his upcoming election in July 2021.”
Calfo’s motion to dismiss said Hicks “hid his political agenda from the Saint Louis County Court in 2021 to improperly obtain the Order to Seal.”
In arguing to unseal the case file, Calfo’s legal team said Hicks “has no right to pursue this case in secrecy any more than he has a right to preclude Defendants from disclosing information related to” the 2010 protective order.
In his order to open the case, McDonough said “in Missouri there is a strong constitutional presumption in favor of court records being open to the public because justice is best served when it is done within full view of those to whom all courts are ultimately responsible: the public.”
McDonough said it was undisputed that the records in question remained open for more than 10 years.
“None of the defendants in this case were parties to the Ƶ County case,” the judge said. “None of the defendants here were subject to any court order requiring them to keep any documents ... confidential.”
McDonough went on to say Hicks “has not demonstrated a sufficiently compelling justification to overcome the strong constitutional presumption favoring open court records.”
McDonough, the newly opened records showed, also rejected a request by Hicks on Nov. 2 for a temporary restraining order against Calfo, his campaign and campaign treasurer, Lindi Williford. The order would’ve barred them from discussing the sealed documents.
The Post-Dispatch reported in late November on the information posted to Calfo’s website, and Calfo last month said he had been sued, but there was no publicly available record of the case and Hicks has not responded to requests for comment.
With Hicks joining the race for Congress, Calfo now faces Mike Costlow of Lake Saint Louis in the GOP primary. Democrat Susan Shumway is also running in the Republican-leaning 108th House District.
Hicks faces seven GOP competitors in the Republican primary to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth.
Former state Sens. Bob Onder of Lake Saint Louis, and Kurt Schaefer of Columbia, are running. Other candidates include Arnie Dienoff, Chad Bicknell, Kyle Bone, Brandon Wilkinson and Bruce Bowman.
Justin Mulligan and Michael Nepple of the Thompson Coburn law firm are representing Calfo, Williford and Calfo’s campaign.
Attorneys Jonathan Ray Lerman and Michael Kielty are representing Hicks.
A hearing on Calfo’s motion to dismiss is scheduled for May 17.
Originally posted at 8:15 p.m. Monday.