MO Appeals Court Won’t Intervene in Post-Dispatch Prior Restraint Case

The Missouri appeals court is choosing not to intervene in an order that blocks the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from publishing a story about an accused cop killer.

A St. Louis City Circuit Court judge ruled that the Post-Dispatch may not publish information from the mental health evaluation of Thomas Kinworthy, who is currently in jail on charges of killing a police officer in the Tower Grove South neighborhood in August 2020.

Kinworthy’s evaluation was accidentally made public in court records in May. Post-Dispatch reporter Katie Kull noticed it and sought comment from the Missouri State Public Defender’s office, who then asked Judge Elizabeth Hogan to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the paper from publishing material from the report. Hogan did, and in September, barred the paper from publishing until the conclusion of Kinworthy’s trial.

The newspaper appealed that ruling to the state’s appellate court in October, and yesterday Judge Michael Gardner denied that appeal. If the Post-Dispatch wishes to appeal again, it will have to be to the Missouri Supreme Court.

Attorney Dave Roland, with the Freedom Center of Missouri who wrote an amicus brief in support of the Post-Dispatch , says that Hogan’s ruling was “indefensible,” adding that if prior restraint is going to be used it needs to be a last resort. In this case, it was the court’s first.

“Missouri courts had previously held that they absolutely do not have the authority under the Missouri Constitution to prevent somebody from speaking or publishing whatever they want to,” he says.

He adds that, “The restraint here doesn’t just hurt Katie Kull and the Post-Dispatch , it hurts everyone, because it deprives them of information.”

Roland is less frustrated by the appellate court’s decision, because the newspaper’s appeal was an “extraordinary writ,” meaning that the court of appeals was being asked to do something they wouldn’t normally do. Roland says that yesterday’s ruling was less the appellate court agreeing with Hogan and more saying that now is not the proper time for them to weigh in on this.

Roland says he hopes the paper does appeal again to the Missouri Supreme Court.

“[This] is a major violation of the newspaper’s and the journalist’s First Amendment rights and their rights under the Missouri Constitution,” he says. “I hope that the Missouri Supreme Court would recognize the harm that is done for every day that passes that they’re not allowed to exercise their rights.”

St. Louis Police officer Tamarris Bohannon was killed while responding to a call in the Tower Grove South neighborhood. Police say an armed Kinworthy ran into a house on Hartford Avenue, leading the residents to flee. When Bohannon responded to the scene, Kinworthy allegedly opened fire, killing the 29-year-old father of three, who had been a city cop for three and a half years.

The mental health evaluation of Kinworthy has been described as “salacious” and “very long and very detailed” by people who have read it. The people trying to prevent its contents from being made public say they worry that its contents would taint the jury pool and make it difficult for Kinworthy to get a fair trial.

Kingworthy’s public defender Brian Horneyer said he responded with several expletives upon learning that a journalist had been able to access the report. Horneyer said at an August hearing that if jurors were to learn the contents of the report, for them it would be “difficult, if not impossible to compartmentalize.”

As of right now, Kingworthy’s murder trial is set to take place in January, more than five years since the killing of Bohannon.

‘Salacious’ Report at Center of Post-Dispatch Court Battle : A judge has barred the daily from publishing details of an accused cop killer’s mental health evaluation

Post-Dispatch Wants to Appeal Prior Restraint in Cop Killer Case : But the daily can’t, unless St. Louis Judge Elizabeth Hogan makes her order permanent

Judge Blocks Post-Dispatch Story about Accused Murderer : In a rare move, the newspaper is barred from publishing information about a man accused of killing a police officer in 2020