St. Louis judge suspended after she turns cases over to her clerk

ST. LOUIS • A St. Louis judge was suspended Friday after a state judicial commission took the unusual step of recommending her removal from the bench.

The Commission on Retirement, Removal and Discipline’s report says Associate Circuit Judge Barbara Peebles abdicated her judicial responsibilities to her clerks, frequently showed up late and removed and destroyed a court document, then tried to cover it up by telling her clerk that the pair should “take (the incident) to our graves.”

The report also says that during a criminal investigation into Peebles’ conduct, prosecutors taped a phone call with her, and that the prosecutor found her explanation of the missing document not credible.

The criminal investigation and the commission’s 25-page report, filed with the court Thursday, were prompted by a Dec. 18 article in the Post-Dispatch that revealed that a clerk for Peebles handled at least 350 cases while Peebles was on vacation in China.

The clerks postponed and dismissed cases, refused to dismiss at least one and decided that as many as 18 arrest warrants should be issued. The warrants, however, didn’t become active until Peebles returned and signed them.

One lawyer called the practice “illegal as hell.”


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St. Louis judge suspended after she turns cases over to her clerk