Judge rules Lee’s Summit council candidate cannot serve

Franklin Tatro, a candidate for Lee’s Summit City Council, agreed in court Monday that he is not qualified to hold the office because of a 20-year-old felony conviction for stealing.

Judge James Kanatzar ordered Jackson County election officials to post signs where Tatro is a candidate in Tuesday’s elections, informing voters that he is ineligible to hold office. Tatro would not be sworn in if he won, nor would any votes cast for him be released.

Those were stipulations Tatro agreed upon with the county prosecutor after a brief meeting held in the courtroom. But before meeting, Tatro said he might want a continuance to get a lawyer. The prosecutor’s office was faxed a Lee’s Summit Journal article about Tatro’s record on Friday, and the lawsuit was filed late Sunday. He said Tatro hadn’t had sufficient time to find a lawyer.

The lawsuit, known as a quo warranto, is filed to prevent a person or corporation from “usurping a power they do not have,” according to court documents.

“Since yesterday afternoon, I’m still in a whirlwind,” Tatro said. “I don’t know how to approach this without legal representation.”

Kanatzar said he’d take Tatro’s request under advisement, and prosecutors put Tatro’s record and state statutes into evidence. Documents he signed for Lee’s Summit specify that felons are not eligible for office.

Jean Peters Baker, the Jackson County prosecutor, told the judge she asked for the emergency hearing because Tatro was an ineligible candidate, the election was imminent, and the quo warranto was needed to protect voters.

“We felt Missouri law was very clear on this point,” Baker said.

She asked the judge for a brief recess to discuss the issues with Tatro. When they finished about 20 minutes later, Tatro had agreed not to contest the lawsuit and not to ask for a continuance.

“Voters in Lee’s Summit and across Jackson County should be assured that every candidate on the ballot meets the minimum requirements of the law to hold office. They deserve to know their votes will count,” Baker said.

Tatro said in an interview after the hearing that because he is a registered voter, he had believed he was eligible to hold office. He was convicted of stealing in 1996 and was incarcerated in several Missouri prisons until released in 2000.

He added that he was crestfallen when he first learned that he would be the focus of a newspaper story, but then realized he could start campaigning again with a two-year start on the 2018 council election.

“I want to explain my record,” Tatro said in an interview. “I’ll have my record expunged, crushed, then I’ll run again in two years.”

This story was originally published April 4, 2016 at 8:55 PM with the headline "Judge rules Lee’s Summit council candidate cannot serve."