As Judge Vacationed in China, Clerks Issued Warrants and Continuances

Clerks for a Missouri judge handled a number of her cases while she was in China on vacation for 10 days in October, dismissing five, issuing as many as 18 bench warrants and continuing more than 300, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. For some defendants, that meant a longer stay in jail than might have been required if a judge had decided the matter differently, the newspaper notes in a lengthy article. However, the situation, confirmed by a number of observers and case records, wasn’t all that different from the way Associate Circuit Judge Barbara T. Peebles handled her call when she was present, some told the the…