Region digest 08/03/05

Rep. Emerson starts farm tour Friday

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson will hold her weeklong annual farm tour in Southeast Missouri starting Friday. Emerson will be accompanied on the farm tour by U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Goodlatte will join Emerson on Friday at the Delta Center in Portageville for a 90-minute roundtable discussion with representatives of various agriculture associations including the Missouri Farm Bureau. Emerson will make stops in Scott County Aug. 10, at Beggs Farm in Blodgett at 1:30 p.m. and at the Sikeston Jaycee Rodeo that evening. On Aug. 11, she will visit Diebold's Orchard at Benton from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Trooper's suspension in shooting upheld

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri appellate court on Tuesday reinstated a state trooper's suspension for shooting a gun out of the hand of a suspect who had threatened suicide. A three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District in Kansas City ruled that the Missouri State Highway Patrol superintendent's discretion to suspend Sgt. Clay Crowe for improper use of force superseded that of a Cole County circuit judge who found the shooting justified and ordered the suspension nullified. The appeals court said the circuit court's review was limited to whether the superintendent had the legal authority to suspend Crowe and not to second-guess the wisdom of doing so. Crowe was a sniper with the patrol's Springfield-based Troop D on Feb. 5, 2003, when he fired the shot that knocked the pistol from the suspect's hand. He was suspended without pay for one day. Superintendent Roger Stottlemyre had testified that troopers aren't trained to use potentially deadly forced to disarm a suicidal suspect.

New judge named in trooper killing case

VAN BUREN, Mo. -- A Cape Girardeau County judge has been assigned to preside over the case of a Van Buren man accused of gunning down a Missouri State Highway Patrol sergeant in his driveway. Presiding Circuit Judge William L. Syler has been named the judge in Lance D. Shockley's case. The 28-year-old is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. earlier this year. Circuit Judge R. Jack Garrett recused himself from the case July 22.

-- From staff, wire reports