Former Mo. judge gets 60 days in jail for drug charges

PLATTE CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A former municipal judge was sentenced to 60 days in jail Thursday for possession of drug paraphernalia when he crashed his car last year.

Charles M. McKeon, who was a judge in the Kansas City suburb of Riverside, was sentenced after pleading guilty in Platte County Circuit Court.

McKeon's law license will also be suspended. McKeon agreed not to oppose the suspension of his law license pending further disciplinary action by the Missouri Supreme Court, said Platte County prosecutor Eric Zahnd.

McKeon, 49, was arrested on Feb. 26, 2006, after hitting another car at a McDonald's restaurant in Kansas City. A search of his car at the scene turned up a substance that tested positive for cocaine, prosecutors said.

McKeon was then charged with possession of cocaine. Zahnd said the small amount of cocaine could not be weighed by the crime laboratory's scale.

He resigned his position as judge the following day. He pleaded guilty on April 28, 2006, in Kansas City Municipal Court to two misdemeanor charges of drunken driving and leaving the scene.

The probable cause statement accompanying the felony cocaine possession charge also said McKeon slammed his head into a door frame while being processed after his arrest, then after being taken to a hospital, pretended to be unconscious when police officers were around.

The Platte County prosecutor's office said toxicology reports from the hospital showed the presence of cocaine, marijuana and alcohol in McKeon's system.

McKeon had been a judge for 12 years before his arrest.

Judge Abe Shafer on Thursday ordered McKeon to spend two years on probation after he is released from jail. McKeon will give monthly random drug tests and must install an ignition interlock device on his vehicle.