18 September 2003

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 Governor Bob Holden its panel of nominees to fill a vacancy on the Missouri 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 in May 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, New York. She lives in St. Louis.

Farragut-Hemphill is an associate circuit judge in the 21st Judicial Circuit (St. Louis County). She was born in December 1953 in Tampa, Florida. 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 in November 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, North Carolina, and her law degree in 1989 from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. She lives in St. Louis.

Governor 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.

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Note: The governor appointed Patricia Cohen to fill this vacancy.

Note: Links to nominees' application materials typically are disabled after the governor makes his appointment.

Contact: Beth S. Riggert

Communications Counsel

Supreme Court of Missouri

(573) 751-3676