SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Pursuant to Supreme Court of Missouri Rule 10.28(d), the 31st Circuit Judicial Commission releases the following information relating to the applicants for the circuit judge vacancies in the 31st Judicial Circuit (Greene County) created by the retirement of the Honorable Thomas Mountjoy, effective October 31, 2022; the appointment of the Honorable Becky Borthwick to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District; and the retirements of the Honorable Jason Brown, effective December 31, 2022, and the Honorable Michael Cordonnier, effective January 31, 2023. There are 18 applicants who submitted completed applications with all required materials: 13 men and five women, 10 presently employed in the private sector and eight presently employed in the public sector. The applicants’ mean age is 45 years.

Also pursuant to Rule 10.28(d), the commission announces it will interview all 18 applicants who submitted completed applications with all required materials. Interviews will be held in a randomly determined order. The applicants to be interviewed are:

Derek A. Ankrom

John Foster Appelquist
Kevin Austin
D. Clayton Ballard
Joshua B. Christensen
Randall D. Eggert
Philip Fuhrman
Kaiti Greenwade
Christopher M. Hoeman
Ann Mills
T. Todd Myers
Kristen M. O’Neal
Kirsten E. Poppen
Kevin James Rapp
Brian D. Risley
Josephine “Jody” Larison Stockard
Joseph Wantuck
Daniel R. Wichmer

The commission will conduct interviews for the Mountjoy vacancy starting at 8:30 a.m., Wednesday, November 2, 2022, and November 3, 2022, at the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, 300 Hammons Parkway, Springfield, Missouri, in the third-floor courtroom. The public is invited to attend and observe interviews. The commission will meet immediately after interviews are completed on November 3, 2022, to select three nominees from this applicant pool for the governor’s consideration.

As previously explained, at a time to be announced in the future the commission expects to reopen the application process briefly for any additional individuals who wish to be considered for the Borthwick vacancy. The commission anticipates it will interview only new applicants; it does not plan to re-interview those who interviewed for the Mountjoy vacancy. The commission then will meet to select — from both applicant pools — the three nominees for the Borthwick vacancy. The commission expects to announce the specific timeline for the reopened Borthwick vacancy in due course after the governor has made his selection for the Mountjoy vacancy. This process will be repeated for the remaining vacancies.