3 November 2025
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Sixteenth Circuit Judicial Commission has met and selected a panel of three nominees for the circuit judge vacancy in Division 7 of the Jackson County circuit court, created by the retirement of Judge S. Margene Burnett. The nominees are:
Michelle L. Cocayne – attorney at Law Office of Joe Rambolt, LLC, Leawood, Kansas; five votes in support.
Ashley N. Garrett – senior attorney at Sanders, Warren and Russell, LLP, Overland Park, Kansas; five votes in support.
John G. Gromowsky – associate circuit judge, Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, Division 30, Jackson County; five votes in support.
The commission has submitted the panel to Governor Michael Kehoe, who will have 60 days to appoint one of the nominees as circuit judge for Division 7.
The commission is chaired by Judge Anthony Rex Gabbert, chief judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, and is composed of attorneys Jill Kanatzar and Thomas Porto and lay members Terry Anderson and Doug Cowan.
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Note: Links to nominees' applications typically are disabled after the governor makes his appointment.
Contact: Kimberly K. Boeding, clerk of court
Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District
(816) 889-3600