As a litigant who feels slighted by family court insiders, Steve Rose was happy to receive an email announcing that a Lincoln County judge is retiring.
“It couldn't come fast enough,” he said. “He should have been removed probably long ago if anyone was paying attention.”
Rose, a 56-year-old former postal carrier contractor, was reacting to the news that Flynn's last day on the bench will be June 30, 2023.
Flynn did not respond to requests for comment but in a Jan. 18 letter to Gov. Mike Parson announcing his retirement, Flynn said he was grateful to have had the opportunity to serve in the Missouri judiciary for 17-plus years for the people of Pike and Lincoln counties.
"I will continue in a non-judicial role to defend and support the administration of justice for the citizens it serves," he wrote.
In the process of divorcing his wife Heather Finley, Rose said he disqualified Flynn for alleged bias and prejudice because Flynn would not recuse himself.
“This all started simultaneously with his battles with the elected court clerk,” Rose told the St. Louis Record. “The family I'm trying to divorce and that I filed for…they all grew up together and they all do business together. They do functions and they have intermarried.”
Flynn has been embroiled in a long-standing dispute with Karla Allsberry, Lincoln County’s former Clerk of the Circuit Court, in which Allsberry, a Republican, sued Flynn, a Democrat, alleging he overstepped his authority by placing her on indefinite administrative leave and banning her from performing circuit clerk duties.
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, Flynn was also reprimanded last year by the Missouri Supreme Court for failing to file timely reports of cases and allowing at least two legal cases to languish for two years without adjudication.
Flynn blamed the delays on assignments outside the circuit, COVID-19, his regular workload, and the time required to address alleged disorganization and discord within Allsberry's office, but the commission still found the conduct to be in violation of Supreme Court rules, according to an Aug. 5 report issued by the Commission.
Rose believes he is one of the litigants whose case was impacted by the alleged mismanagement.
“He had bias towards me and my attorney's legal filings,” Rose alleges of Flynn. “He changed the entries. He left the divorce case hanging without a single word or filing. So, no one knew what he was doing for six months and then entries popped in that said the trial had been canceled. We all attended it. It lasted all day.”
Flynn was elected circuit court judge in Lincoln County, which is part of the 45th Judicial Circuit, in 2018. The Missouri Supreme Court did not respond to requests for comment.
Rose said he's lost all of his assets and has not seen his 16-year-old son because he fears being falsely arrested.
"I didn't lose custody," he added. "I was never even given visitation early on."
When asked about the process for replacing Flynn, Kelli Jones, Gov Parson's communications director, said, "We usually open up the position roughly a month before the position is vacant. This is done on the Boards and Commissions website. There isn’t a specific person to replace him. People apply then we do interviews."