POLITICAL CHEAPSHOT ENDS DISTINGUISHED CAREER OF JUDGE

Let us put things in perspective. Circuit Judge A.J. Seier does not play golf. He works a 70-hour week. He has taken few vacations in the last 15 years. He has also moved his docket swifter than any other judge in Missouri and has one of the best judicial records in the state. Perhaps he was best known until now for being a tough and blunt-spoken adjudicator, who did not hesitate to cross prosecutors and defenders in his courtroom.

Earlier this fall, Seier refused to accept a plea-bargain struck between the prosecuting attorney's office and a man who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two girls under the age of 12. The prosecutor had offered a deal that, in essence, recommended no prison time for four class D felonies. Seier said this penalty did not fit the crime and refused it. Subsequently, the defendant pleaded guilty again and was sentenced to three years in prison.

In another episode within the past two years, Seier overrode arguments from supporters of then-Governor John Ashcroft, a Republican, to change the ballot language that described Proposition B, a $385 million tax increase for education. Seier ordered the words "with additional tax revenues" added to the ballot, where before there had been no mention the proposition would involve a tax increase. To the chagrin of some powerbrokers in Jefferson City, who would have preferred to fudge the language, voters rejected Proposition B overwhelmingly.

Many of us may have cheered Seier for forthright decisions, but such blunt and non-partisan action can rub some other people raw.

Elsewhere in today's newspaper, we report that a complaint was filed against Judge Seier in August 1992 for a possible misfiling of his state mileage expenses. The state initiated an extensive investigation into Seier's dealings. One extraordinary measure was the hiring of a private investigator to follow Seier and his court reporter for a six-month period that ended in March 1993.

When the complaint was brought to Seier's attention earlier this year, he reviewed his records and sent the state a check for $1,211.96.

"I find that for the time period from April of 1990 to the present I have been overpaid for my travel mileage," Seier wrote. "The total amount of the overpayment is difficult to calculate, but the maximum is $1,211.96."

That is the total of what the hullabaloo about Seier seems to be: $1,211.96 in double-billing, for which he made restitution, and for the discovery of which the state hired a private eye to discover.

As a matter of context, it is interesting to note that if Judge Seier had been paid overtime at only $1 per hour for the same three-year period, 1990-1993, he would be owed roughly $4,680 from the state. If he had been paid for his overtime at $65 an hour (the low-end of the fee most law firms charge), his extra value to the state would figure at least $304,000.

Seier was never charged with misuse of state funds, although his case did come before the Commission on the Retirement, Removal and Discipline of Judges.

According to participants in the process, Seier expressed willingness at that time to go public with the first open hearing in the history of Missouri judicial procedure. In the end, however, facing the possible loss of his pension (for a family that has served much and saved little), along with a reluctance to speak against others, Seier accepted early retirement and a change of pace from the system he had served so long.

No hearing was held and no fault was found. The files were sealed.

Apparently, though, cutting short the career of a hard-working judge was not enough for some who carry grudges against Seier. They wanted his name dragged through the mud.

Anonymous calls were received at this newspaper and to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (or its reporter in Jefferson City). Following up on the rumors, we found nothing other than reports that Seier and his court reporter had separately billed for some travel expenses when they had, in fact, car-pooled. We also discovered that Seier paid for the discrepancy.

Clearly, Seier was wrong for misfiling his reports, whether he did them intentionally or not. And he paid a penalty.

But we find it troubling that the big city newspaper that did not have the time earlier this year to follow the gaping, $200 million loophole in Senate Bill 380 (which itself socks Missourians with $360 million in new taxes), would send its Jefferson City reporter scurrying for a story that proves what news so often has become today: sensationalism.

Meanwhile, a judge who is told he can't respond because the records are sealed is dragged through the streets, through the front pages and over TV and radio while enemies gleefully inflame the innuendo.

Who can blame Seier for choosing to resign rather than face a hearing in today's world of "gotcha" journalism and political vendettas?

Stay tuned, we will be returning to this episode in future editorials. All the chips have not yet fallen.