The Star’s endorsement for Jackson County prosecutor in August Democratic primary | Opinion

Each of the three candidates in the Democratic primary race for Jackson County Prosecutor brings unique experiences and perspectives to the office. But only one will advance to November’s general election to face Republican Tracey Chappell.

Outgoing Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker chose not to seek reelection.

Defense attorney Stephanie Burton is a high school dropout turned lawyer who helped kick-start Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree’s conviction integrity unit. Her compelling story and background make her a viable candidate for prosecutor. A single mother of four children, Burton has pulled herself up by the bootstraps and become a successful defense attorney. She knows her way around the courtroom and has deep knowledge on how the criminal justice system works.

Former federal defense attorney John Gromowsky is an assistant prosecutor for violent crimes in Baker’s office. Before becoming a defense attorney, Gromowsky was an assistant Jackson County prosecutor. He’s been in his current position since 2021. Gromowsky’s considerable experience as an attorney cannot be discounted.

The third candidate is Kansas City’s director of public safety, Melesa Johnson. She’s a decorated attorney who won the Missouri Lawyers Media Up & Coming award in 2017. The same year, the Ivy-League educated attorney was recognized as one of Ink Magazine’s 30 Under 30. Johnson is a resident of Kansas City’s 3rd Council District, and has a decent pulse on the root causes of violent crime that plague the city.

By the thinnest of margins, Johnson is The Star’s recommendation in this hotly-contested race.

We did not come to this decision lightly. We considered each candidates’ background, experience, campaign platforms and promises, as well as their responses to a survey we sent to each of them.

None of the candidates is perfect. Each has their own shortcomings as the county’s potential top prosecutor. But, despite serving only just over two years as an assistant prosecutor under Baker years ago, Johnson gets the nod.

A knock against Johnson and the other candidates is they all sought the endorsement of the Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 99. Gromowsky received the FOP’s support.

To be clear, we are not knocking the Fraternal Order. The organization has a job to do by protecting the interests of Kansas City’s rank and file police officers. But the FOP is an advocacy group whose job is to protect police officers at all costs.

How can any of these candidates hold Kansas City police officers accountable for their actions if they have explicit support of the police union? Yes, we want peace between the Kansas City Police Department and the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office. And thanks to Police Chief Stacey Graves and Baker, we have that now after years of discord between the two entities.

Each of the candidates promised to prosecute property crimes at a higher level than Baker. Each made comments about the importance of establishing a robust conviction integrity unit. Only Burton has actual experience in this realm, which worked for and against her in this process.

Burton worked in Dupree’s office for less than nine months, and its conviction integrity unit has been criticized for slow-walking a number of innocence cases.

Focused deterrence saw success in the past

In our opinion, Gromowsky represents the old way of doing things — which is no slight, but Jackson County needs a new and fresh approach to combating all crimes here. In response to our questionnaire, Gromowsky said he’d govern in a manner similar to former three-term prosecutor Albert Riederer, who died at age 67 in 2012.

Riederer is credited with creating the modern prosecutor’s office in Jackson County with the drug unit, the COMBAT anti-crime program and drug court, according to our research. We appreciate this approach, but in the three years Gromowsky has been an assistant prosecutor, he could not pinpoint during this process a specific program or novel idea that he orchestrated.

By contrast, Baker’s decision to stop prosecuting nonviolent drug offenses — this strategy reduced the workload for prosecutors — is the sort of tactic we need in Jackson County. Gromowsky wants to go back to prosecuting such crimes, he told us.

To address an uptick in property crimes, Johnson wants to start a standalone property crimes prosecution division that can also serve as a law student clinic.

“The cases will get the exclusive focus that they deserve, the victims will feel heard and advocated for thus expanding trust in the system, and the offenders will be held accountable before they escalate to more violent crimes,” she responded to our questionnaire.

She also aims to strengthen the focused-deterrence strategy implemented recently called SAVE KC, a collaboration between the Jackson County Prosecutor’s office and Kansas City police.

“The last time focused deterrence was utilized in Kansas City in 2014 was the last time we saw less than 100 homicides in a calendar year,” Johnson replied. “I am committed to continuing focused deterrence with the variety of tweaks we have made to make the strategy more palatable to the community including the utilization of restorative practices at the call-ins.”

As we see it, Johnson has the best chance to address some of the inequities found in the criminal justice system here, and she is our recommendation for Jackson County prosecutor.

This story was originally published July 18, 2024 at 5:01 AM.