Gov. Mike Parson is currently reviewing three nominees submitted by the Appellate Judicial Commission to fill a vacancy in the Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals.
The vacancy is being created by the looming retirement of Judge Mary Kathryn Hoff in August. The nominees are Ellen S. Levy, Jeffery T. McPherson, and John P. Torbitzky.
“All three would make great additions to the Eastern District,” said Western District Missouri Court of Appeals Judge Gary Witt. “They're all incredibly, eminently, and well-qualified. The governor's got a tough choice to make.”
The Appellate Judicial Commission hosted five hours of public interviews, three hours of deliberations, and nine rounds of balloting before settling on Levy, McPherson, and Torbitzky, according to a press release.
“If I were the governor, I'd spend a lot of time reviewing their applications,” Witt told St. Louis Record. “I would spend some time talking to various people that are supporting or opposing each one of them to see what they believe are the strengths or weaknesses of each applicant. Then, I would make the call based upon all the information that I could possibly get.”
Levy is the only candidate of the three nominees who is currently a trial judge in St. Louis.
“She was a family court commissioner, then she was an associate circuit judge, which deals with everything from small claims cases and traffic tickets to divorces and landlord-tenant disputes,” Witt said. “As a circuit judge, she's handling cases with jury trials, large civil cases, and significant felony cases, including possible death penalty cases. I don't know that she's handled a death penalty case but a lot of trial judges do.”
McPherson is a partner at Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis and resides in Webster Groves. He earned his bachelor of arts in English in 1990 from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and his law degree, magna cum laude, in 1994 from Saint Louis University School of Law.
“Jeff MacPherson has handled over 200 appeals, and has been on the side of one of the parties and been through the appellate process in both state and federal appellate courts on the Court of Appeals level and at the Supreme Court level,” Witt said.
Torbitzky is a member of the St. Louis law firm Reichardt Torbitzky. He earned his bachelor of arts in English, cum laude with departmental honors, in 2007 from the University of Missouri-Columbia and his law degree, summa cum laude, in 2012 from Saint Louis University School of Law.
“Torbitzky worked for a judge that was appointed by a Republican to the Missouri Supreme Court but that doesn't mean that it’s his political party,” Witt added. “There are people who have served in elective office as Democrats or Republicans that are appointed by the governor of the opposite political party and hopefully the candidate's politics are not what drives any governor to make a decision on appointing a judge.”
The governor has 60 days to select one member of the panel to fill the vacancy and if misses the deadline, the Missouri Constitution directs the Appellate Judicial Commission to choose one of the nominees for the appointment.