A Springfield woman who fought to have her monkey declared a service animal said Thursday she was shocked a federal judge rejected her lawsuit.
“It’s devastating; it’s devastating,” Debby Rose said of the outcome of her lawsuit against the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, Cox Health and Wal-Mart East.
“I feel like I’m discriminated against in Greene County. What can I say?”
Catch trial attorney Ed Dowd Jr. down on the family farm near St. Clair, Mo., and he’s known as “Slim” and one of the finer horsemen in the Dowd clan.
He greets everyone with “partner.” “Slim” is embroidered on his chaps.
“He insisted when we were at the farm we all have cowboy names,” said his brother James “Kid Shelleen” Dowd, a former Missouri Court of Appeals justice now in private practice.
A Cole County judge said three administrative law judges can’t be terminated from their positions for budgetary reasons.
Earlier this year, five administrative law judge positions were dismissed from their posts. Four of the judges were let go, and a retiring judge was not replaced. Gov. Jay Nixon said the move was meant as a cost-cutting measure in the midst of a tough budgetary situation.
But three of the judges – Henry Herschel, John A. Tackes and Matthew Murphy – sued to keep their positions. They argued that they could only be dismissed under a specific system set up in the state’s statutes.
Five Missouri firms with fewer than 50 attorneys also got work from the Fortune 100, giving credence to managing partners’ assertions that big companies have been willing to look beyond the large national firms to smaller, less expensive firms to save on outside counsel costs.
The futures of three administrative law judges are in the hands of a Cole County judge.
Attorneys presented final arguments on Wednesday in a case deciding whether the three ALJs can stay on job. Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration dismissed Henry Herschel, Matthew Murphy and John Tackes earlier this year, citing budgetary concerns. Two other judges’ positions were also cut.
Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem issued a preliminary injunction earlier this year that prevents the Nixon administration from firing or retaliating against the three judges. The plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction that would keep them in place.
St. Louis firm Dowd Bennett announced James E. Crowe III joined the firm in June. Crowe served for the past five years as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of Illinois.
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the city of Arnold’s use of red-light traffic cameras. But opponents of the traffic cameras haven’t given up yet.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas C. Mummert III, of the Eastern District of Missouri, granted the motion by the city and co-defendant American Traffic Solutions, or ATS, for summary judgment on the grounds that the city’s ordinance governing red-light cameras is civil in nature. The ordinance would have had to be criminal in nature for the plaintiffs to be able to pursue their due process claims.
A Cole County circuit judge has issued a preliminary injunction that prevents three administrative law judges from being forced out.
Henry Herschel, Matthew Murphy and John Tackes sued in June to prevent Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration from dismissing them. While Nixon said they were let go for budgetary reasons, an attorney for the judges says the move violated statutes that lay out a specific dismissal process.
Judge Jon Beetem issued a temporary restraining order late last month, a move that prevented the judges from leaving their positions for 15 days.
Three administrative law judges contesting their dismissals will get at least a couple more weeks to continue at their posts.
Jon Beetem, a Cole County associate circuit judge, issued a temporary restraining order against a bid by the state to lay off three administrative law judges. Without such an order, the three men – Henry Herschel, Matthew Murphy and John A. Tackes – would have been forced to leave their positions by June 30.
“The Court finds that plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm in the form of the loss their appointments as Administrative Law Judges in the absence of this order,” Beetem wrote in the two-page order issued Monday.
A Cole County judge said he will decide by Tuesday whether to keep three dismissed administrative law judges on the job.
Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration dismissed four administrative law judges earlier this month, while the position of a fifth judge who retired will not be filled. The judges are supposed to leave their posts by June 30 – the end of fiscal year 2009.
Three of the judges – Henry Herschel, Matthew Murphy and John Tackes – sued earlier this week, arguing that state law protects them from being dismissed without a formal process.