05/13/2009

Associated Press

A longtime aide to Gov. Jay Nixon and two current judges have been selected as finalists for a vacancy on the Western District, Missouri Court of Appeals.

Gov. Jay Nixon will have a choice of appointing one of them to succeed Judge Paul Spinden, who resigned to join the law school faculty at Liberty University in Virginia.

The three finalists, announced Wednesday, are:

_ Karen King Mitchell, 50, of Columbia, who served for 21 years in the attorney general's office, including the full 16 years that Nixon held that elected office. Mitchell was Nixon's chief deputy attorney general for the final 10 years and now is Nixon's director of the Department of Revenue.

_ Circuit Judge Jacqueline Cook, 50, of Belton, who is the presiding judge of the 17th Judicial Circuit in Cass and Johnson counties. Cook has served on the bench since 2001. She also was a finalist for an appeals court vacancy filled last week when Nixon instead appointed Columbia lawyer Mark Pfeiffer.

_ Gary Witt, 44, of Parkville, who has served since 1998 as an associate circuit judge in Platte County. Witt served as a Democratic state House member from 1991 to 1997 and led the committee that successfully sought the impeachment of Secretary of State Judith Moriarty.

Under Missouri's judicial selection process, applicants for appellate court vacancies are screened by the Appellate Judicial Commission, which submits a list of three candidates to the governor. Nixon now has 60 days to appoint one of them, or else the commission will make the final selection.

After someone is appointed to fill Spinden's spot, the judicial commission plans to meet again to select three finalists to replace Court of Appeals Judge Joseph Dandurand, who resigned to join the attorney general's office.