Lincoln County clerk sues judges, saying they improperly stripped her of power

LINCOLN COUNTY • The newly-elected circuit clerk here has filed suit against three local judges and their colleagues across the state, claiming that she was improperly stripped her of the power to run her office.

The suit was filed Saturday in Cole County Circuit Court. It follows an unsuccessful appeal of a January vote by the judges to remove Karla Allsberry's authority to hire and fire her employees and submit a budget.

Among the judges named in the suit are Presiding Judge Patrick Flynn and St. Louis Circuit Judge Steven Ohmer, who heads a state court committee that heard Allsberry's appeal.

The suit says Flynn wrongly claimed in the January meeting that he was forced to take action by a "crisis" in the clerk's office and has since verbally harassed a deputy clerk until she sobbed, threatened to place Allsberry on leave and assaulted Allsberry during a meeting by grabbing documents out of her hands.

Read more: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lincoln-county-clerk-sues-judges-saying-they-improperly-stripped-her/article_865f7e90-c573-5da7-8298-b886741f84d4.html