Contact: Beth Riggert, Communications Counsel Supreme Court of Missouri Desk: 573-751-3676 Cell: 573-619-2849

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Ronnie L. White, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri and chair of the Appellate Judicial Commission, today announced that the Commission has submitted to Gov. Bob Holden its panel of nominees to fill a vacancy on the Court of Appeals, Eastern District. The vacancy exists due to the retirement of the Honorable Judge Paul J. Simon.

The panel consists of The Honorable Patricia L. Cohen, The Honorable Sandra Farragut-Hemphill and Rebecca S. Stith.

Cohen is a circuit judge in the 22nd Judicial Circuit (St. Louis City).  She was born May 24, 1956, in St. Louis. She received her bachelor's degree in 1978 from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and her law degree in 1982 from Cornell University School of Law in Ithaca, N.Y. She lives in St. Louis.

Farragut-Hemphill is an associate circuit judge in the 21st Judicial Circuit (St. Louis County). She was born December 9, 1953, in Tampa, Fla. She received her bachelor's degree in 1975 from Spellman College in Atlanta and her law degree in 1979 from the Spessard Holland Law Center at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She lives in St. Louis.

Stith is a senior trial attorney at the St. Louis district office of U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She was born November 27, 1956, in St. Louis. She received her bachelor's degree in 1979 from John Hopkins University in Baltimore, her master's degree in 1982 from Duke University in Durham, N.C., and her law degree in 1989 from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. She lives in St. Louis.

Gov. Holden has 60 days to select one member of the panel to fill the vacancy. If the governor should fail to do so, the Missouri Constitution directs the Commission to make the appointment.