I can’t recall who, but someone said to aspiring attorneys during my time at the University of Illinois more than four decades ago that the most important professional thing an attorney had was a reputation for honesty. Once that was lost, it was lost for good. I would note that Johnston is a Republican elected as the District Attorney in a rural county of 23,000. Her lack of honesty, and any sort of morality, is obvious. The fact that she thought she could get away with this in a county where almost everyone is only two degrees of separation from each other, and where the local Courthouse is always gossip central, is mind-boggling. Hubris ever goeth before a fall, but particularly for lawyers and politicians.
Reputation
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
So, Ray County is northeast of Kansas City just N of the I-70, its county seat about 40 miles from KC city center. It’s not really an isolated “back hills” Missouri county.
Apparently now the wheels of justice are turning at last for Johnston: the state attorney general last week filed a petition quo warranto (“by what authority”) challenging her right to continue to hold office, having betrayed the public trust. The case will be tried by an experienced prosecutor from the MO Public Protection Section Senior Counsel‘s office.
If she had any sense, she would resign immediately. But the previous recitation of rather astounding allegations of misconduct suggests she lacks a salt shaker’s quantity of sense.
They never resign. They just double down. We had similar case with similar allegations in Michigan where she fought a removal order up to the Supreme Court which eventually required a 6-year suspension if she was reelected. She was charged with multiple felonies including perjury. She could have spent 15 years in jail but pled guilty and spent 6 months in jail. During that time, her license to practice law was suspended. Rather than just surrendering her law license which is what many attorneys with this history would have done, she was eventually disbarred.
I once met a man who was the DA in a Missouri County with a population about 25% smaller than hers. He was the only lawyer in the office.
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She’s 46 years old. The papers avoid saying what her domestic situation has been (other than harboring one of these squeezes), but she appeared for a photoshoot in 2022 with a child on each side of her.
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Positing she is guilty as charged, cannot help but note that this middle-aged woman (who looks like a gym rat) had three compromising affairs in a little over three years. How many she had with men who did not have business in front of the courts in opposition to hers is a matter of conjecture.
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Another person who merits the attention of the bar panel is that criminal defense lawyer.
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I’ve long thought a non-zero proportion of this nation’s prosecutors were sociopaths.
Either those who cared didn’t know, or those who knew didn’t care.