When Karla Allsberry was elected Lincoln County’s clerk of the circuit court, she expected her office to be fully staffed. It wasn’t. She sued presiding judge, Patrick Flynn, who has general administrative authority over workers within the circuit’s judiciary.
“Not having a fully staffed office is a problem,” Allsberry said. “When you can't staff your office, it's starving you out of your role as an elected official."
On Oct. 6, 2021, the Missouri Supreme Court permanently enjoined Flynn from allegedly preventing Allsberry from performing her duties.
Cole County Judge Jon Beetem subsequently found Flynn to be in contempt of that order.
Flynn controlled the Lincoln County Employment Committee but did not feel bound by its decisions even though a Court of Appeals stay order required hirings be approved in advance and in writing by both Flynn and Clerk Allsberry, according to Beetem's order.
“In three instances, the committee approved the hiring, and in the same three instances, clerk Allsberry agreed in writing to those hires by insisting upon the execution of a form which was not required by the Court of Appeals,” Beetem wrote. “Judge Flynn blocked the hiring of three otherwise agreed to people.”
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, Flynn placed Allsberry on indefinite administrative leave and banned her from performing circuit clerk duties, which included stepping foot into the Lincoln County courthouse.
“I had no idea this could happen to a circuit clerk,” Allsberry told the St. Louis Record.
Flynn removed Allsberry because she committed a misdemeanor in office, however, Allsberry said she's never been charged by any prosecutor or the attorney general.
"I feel sorry for any circuit clerk who would have to go through anything like this because you're willing to serve your community and serve within this position and yet the judge you're working with tries to eat you alive," she said.
Flynn appealed the contempt of court ruling arguing that Beetem stripped him of his authority as Presiding Judge by holding him in contempt of court for issuing an Administrative Order directed to the safety of court employees.
“Karla Allsberry, the elected Circuit Clerk of Lincoln County, was suspended by Judge Flynn, the Presiding Judge of the 45th Judicial Circuit of Missouri, for creating a dysfunctional work environment for the Lincoln County Circuit Court,” Flynn’s attorney, W. Dudley McCarter, wrote in his June 30 pleading to the Missouri Supreme Court.
On July 1, the Missouri Supreme Court denied Flynn’s petition for a writ of prohibition against Beetem’s contempt of court order.
“He's appealing it in the Eastern District and I don't see that it's been transferred to the Missouri Supreme Court,” Allsberry added.