Kingree won't appeal removal from ballot

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Carter County Prosecuting Attorney Rocky Kingree will not appeal his removal as a candidate for Division II associate circuit judge in Butler County if local Republicans nominate someone to take his place on the general election ballot.

"After [Monday] at 5 p.m., I cannot be placed on the ballot and that includes by an order issued from the [Missouri] Supreme Court," Kingree said. "... I plan to forego my constitutional right to appeal upon nomination by the Butler County Republican Party.

"... The only possibility of me requesting a stay on the judgment or an order from the Supreme Court placing me back on the ballot is if the Butler County Republicans refuse to appoint a candidate."

Kingree was removed from the ballot through an order signed Friday by Presiding Circuit Judge Fred Copeland of New Madrid County and filed in Butler County Circuit Court.

In the order, Copeland wrote the court found Kingree did not meet a one-year residency requirement contained in Section 478.320.7 of the Missouri Revised Statutes. The judge also found the residency requirement was not unconstitutional, as Kingree had argued.

Copeland ordered Butler County Clerk Tonyi Deffendall to remove Kingree's name from the ballot.

A resident of Ellsinore, Missouri, Kingree listed his law office in Van Buren, Missouri, when he filed his declaration of candidacy. He was the lone Republican on the ballot for the Aug. 5 primary election.