5 April 2018

The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, will be conducting oral argument at a special court docket Thursday, April 12, 2018, at Fort Zumwalt North High School in O’Fallon. The docket will start at 9 a.m. and will be held in the school’s auditorium. The court sessions are open to the public. The Court previously has held dockets in St. Charles County at Lindenwood University on several occasions.

Following the court sessions, judges will participate in a question-and-answer session with audience members and students regarding courts, the role of judges and the judicial system. 

“We are pleased to conduct our first-ever docket at Fort Zumwalt, and we delight in providing students the opportunity to see first-hand an appellate court in action,” Chief Judge James M. Dowd said. “As the court of appeals for the many counties that make up eastern district of Missouri, we regularly hold court sessions at various locations of our district and do not limit ourselves to hearing cases only in the main courthouse in downtown St. Louis.

Three judges from the court of appeals will be participating: Judge Robert G. Dowd Jr., Judge Sherri B. Sullivan and Judge Kurt S. Odenwald. The three-judge panel will hear oral arguments from attorneys involved in two criminal appeals.

Dowd was appointed to the appeals court in August 1994 after serving as a circuit judge from 1985 to 1992. He also was in private practice with Dowd & Dowd P.C. Sullivan was appointed to the court in August 1999 after serving as a circuit judge of the 22nd Judicial Circuit (St. Louis city) from 1989 to 1999 and as assistant prosecuting attorney from 1981 to 1989. Odenwald served as assistant public defender in the city of St. Louis and was partner with Guilfoil, Petzall and Shoemake LLC from 1986 to 2007 prior to be appointed to the court of appeals in October 2007.

The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, is the state’s largest appellate court, with offices in the historic Old Post Office in downtown St. Louis. There are 14 judges on the court, which handles approximately 50 percent of the intermediate appellate caseload in Missouri. The court regularly hears cases in St. Louis, Hannibal, Cape Girardeau and other locations in the eastern district.


Contact: Laura Roy, clerk of court
Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District
(314) 539-4300