A judicial nightmare

By Allen Edmonds

allen@northcassherald.com

In the wake of the 2014 Ferguson riots, the Missouri Supreme Court set out to correct a bail system many complained had kept poor people unfairly confined in the state’s jails for months and even years in connection with crimes and infractions few would consider a danger to society.

As is often the case when government tries to quickly fix a legitimate problem with a one-size-fits-all solution, it costs lives.

We don’t know the full thought process Cass County Associate Circuit Judge Jason Howell used in his decision to release Allen Prince on his own recognizance after being charged with felony harassment last fall following an alleged violent threat against a family member in the Pleasant Hill home they shared. We do know the Cass County Sheriff’s Office deputy responding to the report was told Prince’s declining mental state was frightening to those around him, and his that his drug use was exacerbating the problem. Threatening to blow his sister's head off with the shotgun stored in his closet was just that day's incident.

The deputy was concerned enough for the family’s safety that he asked for a monetary bond that would ensure his separation.

The $10,000 bond set at Prince's Oct. 1, 2025, arraignment barred him from possession of firearms or other deadly weapons, and from contact with the victims of his harassment charge in addition to requring him to sign up for electronic location monitoring. At his next court appearance, one week later, Howell released Prince on his own recognizance with the conditions he not possess firearms, not have “harmful contact” with anyone and obey all laws. No protection of the specific victims, no electronic location monitoring and no drug monitoring.

And according to court documents, the court, or Howell, made the bond decision “on its own motion,” meaning that while arguments were heard, the decision was made without a formal motion from newly assigned defense attorney Craig Napier.

In other words, move him out.

Monday’s tragic consequence has been feared by law enforcement and many court observers for more than a decade. While it is true that many non-violent offenders had been held in areas of Missouri far beyond the requirements of justice, overcorrection has pressured local judges to make decisions that threaten their community’s safety over the years. Whether pressure from Jefferson City played into Howell’s decision to release Prince last fall or not, we don’t know.

But here’s what we do know: a 45-year-old mother and grandmother named Amy Coon from Strasburg who simply made a grocery run to Pleasant Hill on Memorial Day afternoon is dead.

A teenager named Ayden working his part-time job at the grocery store who should be making plans for another glorious high school summer (there are just four of them and the memories stick for a lifetime) is currently in intensive care at an area hospital with a long, difficult rehab ahead.

Those are the real consequences for decisions like this. And if Prince does manage to survive after shooting himself in the head, he’s set to face Howell in court again. That’s who his new case has been assigned to.

The murder case will, of course, be elevated to the circuit level and either Judge Mike Wagner or Judge Stacey Lett quickly after arraignment. But the harassment case from last fall remains active in Howell’s court after months of case reviews that records show have not advanced toward a resolution. And perhaps most concerning, they show no mental health assessments assigned or requested.

How does this happen?

We know the answer, of course. An overburdened judicial system operating on a budget barely fit to support a county half our size will yield results that look like this eventually. But even under those constraints, this was unnecessary and entirely predictable. The suspect literally said this was what he was going to do at some point, only to be sent on his merry way with little in the way of constraints a week later.

Locally elected judges that are pressured to yield to the demands of a state administrative system rather than represent the citizens that elected them have been a problem for more than a decade in this state.

We in Cass County have been incredibly fortunate this hasn’t happened more often. It hasn't because, for the most part, our judges have made decisions based on all the information in front of them. Apparently, that run of luck is over. For two families – three if you count the family of the perpetrator which has lived its own kind of hell – it certainly is.