Missouri Supreme Court Judge W. Brent Powell had a simple question for Heath Hardman, the assistant prosecuting attorney in Howell County.
“What does this have to do with the dispensation of justice?â€
Hardman was before the state’s top court to defend his client, Steven Privette, the judge in the 37th Judicial Circuit, in southeast Missouri. Last year, Privette asked Oregon County Circuit Clerk Betty Grooms to prepare a spreadsheet showing all the outstanding cases in the county, and how much money the defendants owed in court costs. The largest of these costs is nearly always the “board bill,†a pay-to-stay fee that most rural counties in Missouri charge for rent while a person is in jail.
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When Privette didn’t like the list Grooms produced for him, the judge held the clerk in contempt. Grooms hired attorney David Duree to fight the legal action, and Duree argued that the judge had exceeded his authority in trying to punish Grooms. He filed a writ of prohibition to stop the judge, and that case ended up before the Missouri Supreme Court. In the writ, Duree pointed out an obvious conflict in the case: Privette’s wife lost the last circuit clerk election to Grooms.
But it’s the underlying issue that caught the attention of Powell, the Supreme Court judge. Why was Privette so interested in the board bills?
Those bills can add up to tens of thousands of dollars for counties, and many judges have gone as far as threatening defendants with more jail time if they can’t pay. Powell was on the state’s high court in 2019 when it unanimously put an end to that type of board-bill collection, in effect calling it an operation of modern-day debtors’ prisons.
The judge’s question of Hardman was less about whether Privette had exceeded his authority and more about why he cared so much about collecting a back-door tax.
The way the bills are collected is a scourge upon the criminal justice system. It isn’t just a problem in Oregon County or Missouri. It’s a problem nationally. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Prosperity and the Fines and Fees Justice Center kicked off a national campaign called End Justice Fees.
Most of the folks who make their way into a county jail because of a minor crime are poor and struggle to pay a board bill, which can run several thousand dollars, even in misdemeanor cases. Missouri is one of the only states in the nation that will reimburse counties for board bills of convicted felons. That creates a perverse incentive for county prosecutors to overcharge people so they get state money. And that leads to overcrowding in county jails and ultimately state prisons.
The collection of board bills is a constant issue in the Missouri Legislature because the state never has enough money to reimburse the full costs. So counties and state lawmakers are constantly arguing over who is going to pay for the “rent†in county jails, which are filled with people who can’t afford to pay the bills in the first place.
Privette, who thinks so much of his singular authority that he banned citizens from taking photos or videos on public property outside the courthouse, wants Grooms to do a better job of making sure he can collect money. And he’s willing to threaten her with jail time to make it happen.
“Ms. Grooms is kind of the keeper of the keys of her own cell,†Hardman argued to Powell and the other judges, suggesting if the clerk just did what Privette wanted, she wouldn’t face a contempt charge.
But that’s not how the system is supposed to work, Duree argued. Grooms is an independently elected official. The judge can’t use a judicial process — contempt of court — to try to enforce what is an administrative dispute.
Contempt is the cudgel a judge can use to enforce an order that came out of a case in which all of the parties had due process. But there’s no due process here, Duree argued, because there’s no underlying case.
Privette is “the complaining witness, the complaining party, and the judge of the case.â€
It’s an argument Duree has won before. In a similar case, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that a Lincoln County judge improperly removed County Clerk Karla Allsberry from her elected position. The judge in that case, 45th Circuit Presiding Judge Patrick Flynn, was issued a rare reprimand from the Missouri Supreme Court last year for neglecting his duties while conducting his very public battle with Allsberry.
On Tuesday, that same court took the case of another judge vs. clerk battle under advisement.
The dispensation of justice awaits.