17 October 2005

ST. LOUIS – The Twenty-First Circuit Judicial Commission announced the panel of nominees to be submitted to Governor Blunt to fill the associate circuit judge vacancy on the 21st circuit court (St. Louis County) created by the resignation of Judge Joseph Goeke. Those nominated by the commission are:

Dale W. Hood received his bachelor of science and master of science degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is a graduate of Saint Louis University School of Law. Following undergraduate schooling, he served as a regular Army officer in the U.S. Army, with varied assignments in the United States, Korea, Central America and Iraq. Prior to retirement, he served as a battalion commander in the 101st Airborne Division and Operation Desert Storm. Since 1990, he has served as an assistant prosecuting attorney in St. Louis County.

Margaret (Peg) Mosser McCartney was born in 1964 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in history in 1987 from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and with a law degree in 1990 from Indiana University in Bloomington. McCartney was an assistant circuit attorney for the city of St. Louis from September 1990 until April 1996. She was the associate director and director of career services for Washington University School of Law in St. Louis from September 1996 to September 1999. She was appointed in July 1999 by the 21st circuit court to be a traffic court commissioner, where she currently presides in Division 47. She was elected the president of the Women Lawyer's Association of Greater St. Louis in August 2003. Her husband is Michael McCartney, an attorney with Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. They have three daughters.

Mary Victoria Mullen McKee is a family court commissioner presiding in Division 64 of the St. Louis County circuit court (21st circuit). She was appointed by the court en banc in 1994. Prior to her appointment, McKee was an assistant prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, where her duties included felony and misdemeanor trials, probation revocations, grand jury, warrants, and coordinating the sexual abuse unit. She received a bachelor of arts degree, magna cum laude, in psychology in 1974 from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and her law degree in 1977 from the University of Missouri-Columbia. McKee is a member of The Missouri Bar and the Missouri Association of Probate and Associate Circuit Judges. McKee is married and lives in St. Louis County.

The commission believes these candidates, chosen from a field of extremely qualified individuals, possess those qualities of compassion, intellect and high moral purpose essential to the fair and efficient administration of justice.

The members of the Twenty-First Circuit Judicial Commission are: Judge Glenn A. Norton, chief judge of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District; Thomas Lang; Matthew McCormick; Gerard Noce; and Laurie Westfall.