ST. LOUIS - Thirty-five applicants have submitted paperwork for a vacancy at the 22nd Circuit Court in St. Louis left by Judge Robert H. Dierker who has resigned, according to a state court official.
Laura Roy, clerk of court Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, said that the public is welcome to sit in for the interviews that each of the 35 candidates will get.
The judicial commission -- comprised of James M. Dowd, chief judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District and chairman of the commission, and commissioners Rita L. Burlison, J. Brent Dulle, Andre Harris and Bryan J. Sanger -- will meet to interview and select the nominees to be submitted to the governor starting at 8:30 a.m. April 5 in the Division Courtroom of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, at 815 Olive St. in St. Louis.
Roy said that the commission will select three candidates whose names will be forwarded to Gov. Eric Greitens for consideration.
The governor has up to 60 days to decide who will be appointed, she said, but added that Greitens has been "making them really quickly, within several weeks."
Dierker was appointed circuit judge by Gov. John Ashcroft in 1986 and was retained by voters in 1988, 1994, 2000, 2006 and 2012.
Dierker has presided over numerous civil and criminal trials, including nine capital murder trials and actions relating to partial-birth abortion and election contests, according to yourmissourijudges.net.
In addition to presiding over a high-profile Times Beach dioxin trial in 1990, he presided over the court’s asbestos docket from 1993 to 2003, the site states. He also has sat by designation at the Missouri Supreme Court and the Missouri Court of Appeals.
He authored two books on Missouri criminal procedure and co-authored books on tort and contract law.