Bar president names task force to tackle criminal justice funding

Missouri Bar President Skip Walther finalized a task force this week that will ponder solutions to ongoing resource problems for all parts of the criminal justice system.

Two past bar presidents, several prosecutors and public defenders and one former lawmaker make up the Criminal Justice Task Force.

The group will be expected to make a report to the Missouri General Assembly by late February, Walther said Wednesday.

“All of these people are experts in the criminal justice system,” Walther said.

Here are the members of the task force:

Chairman Joe Moseley: vice president of public affairs at Shelter Mutual Insurance Co., former assistant public defender, Boone County Prosecutor and state senator

Riley Bock: public administrator for New Madrid County, former New Madrid County Prosecutor, former president of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys

Karl DeMarce: associate circuit judge for the 1^st Circuit, in northeast Missouri

Cat Kelly: deputy director of the Missouri State Public Defender System

Ron Mitchell: Joplin attorney, former assistant prosecutor in Jasper County, past president of The Missouri bar

Rachel Smith: chief prosecutor, St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office

Rusty Antel: Columbia criminal defense attorney with Walther, Antel, Stamper & Fischer, former prosecutor in Boone County

Doug Copeland: St. Louis attorney with Copeland Thompson Farris, Public Defender Commissioner, past president of The Missouri Bar

J.R. Hobbs: Kansas City criminal defense attorney with Wyrsch Hobbs & Mirakian, newly elected member of the Western District Appellate Judicial Commission

Jason Lamb: executive director of the Missouri Office of Prosecution Services, former Audrain County Prosecutor

Dwight Scroggins: Buchanan County Prosecutor, president of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys