Court to allow special prosecutor

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- It appears a special prosecutor will handle the rape and kidnapping case against a southwest Missouri man suspected of sexually attacking two Drury University students.

The Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District denied a petition Wednesday by Darrell Moore, Greene County prosecutor. He had sought to reverse a judge's ruling that disqualified his office from handling the latest case against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Stumph of Springfield.

A judge last week granted a request by Stumph's public defender to have a special prosecutor appointed to the case.

Public Defender Clate Baker argued that the Greene County prosecutor's office should be disqualified because Jill Geary, who now works as an assistant prosecutor for Moore, was Stumph's attorney in 1995 when he pleaded guilty in connection with attacks on three Springfield women.

Stumph was freed in September from the Farmington Correctional Center after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence for forcible rape, attempted forcible rape and felonious restraint.

He was 14 at the time of the attacks, but was certified to stand trial as an adult.

In addition, Baker pointed out that Geary's husband works in Moore's office and prepared the latest charges against Stumph, who is now 22.

Stumph was charged in January with two counts each of kidnapping, forcible rape and armed criminal action, as well as forcible sodomy and first-degree robbery.

Conflict of interest

The charges allege Stumph abducted at knifepoint and raped two female students in separate attacks near the private Springfield university.

In disqualifying Moore's office from the case, Greene County Associate Circuit Judge Dan Conklin agreed that the appearance of a conflict of interest existed.

Moore said through his office that he planned to file a writ with the Missouri Supreme Court by Friday.

Moore argued in his initial appeal that Conklin had abused his discretion in disqualifying the entire prosecuting attorney's office. He also noted that Geary had not shared any confidential information concerning her representation of Stumph with any one in the prosecutor's office.

Meanwhile, attorney Tim Finnical was appointed as special prosecutor in the case.

Finnical has been appointed to a number of high-profile cases, including Kevin Scott of Elm Springs, Ark., who was convicted last March in the night-long rape of four teen-age girls in McDonald County.