OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY

GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI

Darrell L. Moore

Prosecuting Attorney

1010 Boonville Avenue

Springfield, MO 65802-3804

(417) 868-4061 phone

(417) 868-4160 fax

OUR MISSION IS TO:

• Be Ministers of Justice

• “A public prosecutor is a responsible officer chosen for his office by the suffrage of the people. He is accountable to the law, and to the people. He is vested with personal discretion intrusted to him as a minister of justice, and not as a mere legal attorney. He is disqualified from becoming in any way entangled with private interests or grievances in any way connected with charges of crime. He is expected to be impartial in abstaining from prosecuting as well as in prosecuting, and to guard the real interests of public justice in favor of all concerned.” State v. Smith, 258 S.W.2d 590, 593 (Mo. Supreme Court en banc 1953)(emphasis added).

VISION IS TO:

• Seek Justice.
• Promote and improve public safety.
• Be leaders in quality prosecution.
• Aggressively advocate each case.

Welcome to the Greene County, Missouri Prosecuting Attorney’s Web Site. As your prosecutor, it is my hope that these pages will be of assistance to you in learning about your prosecutor’s office and the criminal justice system.

The Greene County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has long been recognized as a state leader and innovator in criminal justice. In 1983, your prosecutor’s office implemented tough new policies on the handling of driving while intoxicated (DWI) cases, and through the years has been recognized by the Missouri State Highway Patrol and Mother’s Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) as having one of the best policies concerning DWI cases and one of the best conviction rates for DWI cases in the state. In 2001, MADD noted this office’s "outstanding performance in DWI prosecution for the year 2000." This recognition was based on the Missouri State Highway Patrol report for 2000 which showed this office as having the highest conviction rate (98.9%) of the 114 county prosecutor’s offices in Missouri. The most recent recognition came in 2003 when MADD Missouri’s Top DWI Prosecutor’s Award was presented to Darrell Moore, Greene County Prosecuting Attorney. Also, in 1985, your prosecutor’s office established one of the first victim/witness services sections in the state, consisting of one advocate. Today, the victim/witness team consists of three victim/witness advocates and two clerical support staff.

In the 1990's, your prosecutor’s office recognized that the only way to ensure meaningful justice in the county was to collaborate with citizens and other groups on the issues of gangs, youth violence, domestic violence, drug prevention and suppression, child abuse, elder abuse, child support enforcement, bad checks and underage drinking. We have been involved with such groups as the Inter Agency Task Force on Gangs & Youth Violence; Ozarks Fighting Back; Violence Free Families; the Child Advocacy Center; Seniors and Lawmen Together (SALT); the Missouri Grocers Association; merchants and financial institutions; and the Task Force on Underage Drinking.

In 2002, this office received a grant from the United States Department of Justice to implement Project Safe Neighborhoods in Greene County. This allowed us to dedicate two prosecutors to aggressively prosecute career and other criminals who violate the law through the use or unlawful possession of firearms and other weapons. Project Safe Neighborhoods allowed us to collaborate with federal and state law enforcement and community groups to use prevention programs and suppression efforts to make our neighborhoods safe from weapon related crimes. In 2005, the project Safe Neighborhoods grant expired but this office’s collaboration with the United States Attorney’s Office continued with regard to these criminals. In 2005, the prosecutor’s office placed one assistant in the United States Attorney’s Office on a full-time basis to prosecute felons unlawfully possessing firearms and, in turn, the United State’s Attorney’s Office funded an assistant prosecutor position in your prosecutor’s office. In addition, the prosecutor’s office maintains another assistant prosecuting attorney who is cross-designated as a Special Assistant United States Attorney working both in the prosecutor’s office and in the United States Attorney’s office. This collaboration gives your prosecutor’s office just one more tool to hold career criminals accountable for their actions and to protect the community.

In 2005, your prosecutor’s office, in collaboration with the Greene County Commission, The Victim Center, The Greene County Sheriff’s Department, the Springfield Police Department and the Family Violence Center, Inc., and many other community partners, applied for and received a federal grant from the Department of Justice. With the award of this grant, we have established a centralized team, called the Domestic Violence Response Team, to investigate and prosecute domestic violence offenders. This grant both provides law enforcement resources for the fight against domestic violence and provides victims with access to advocacy services. This grant supplemented the office’s existing resources in the fight against domestic violence by adding a second paralegal to the existing paralegal and victim/witness advocate dedicated to domestic violence cases.

Recognizing that justice delayed can mean justice denied, you prosecutor’s office in collaboration with, the Missouri Highway Patrol, the Greene County Sheriff’s Department, the Springfield Police Department, the City of Springfield, and local and congressional leaders, continues to work to bring a regional crime laboratory to Greene County. Many of the pieces are now in place and a regional crime lab in Greene County should be a reality in the near future. The realization of this goal should significantly reduce the delay in obtaining forensic evidence.

To enhance the quality of our service, your prosecutor’s office underwent reorganization in 1999 dividing the office into six teams. In 2005, two of those teams were combined into the General Crimes Team and a separate Warrant Team was created. The office created the Warrant Team as part of the implementation of the recommendations of the Criminal Justice System Assessment prepared for the County by the Institute for Law and Policy Planning. The creation of the Warrant Team has made the office more efficient in screening and charging cases in turn providing you with better public service. Today the office is divided into the following six teams: Major Crimes, Persons, General Crimes, Warrant, Child Support and Victim/Witness Services. Each team is further divided into specific areas of functional responsibility.

Our goal is to seek justice for the Citizens of Greene County by providing public service that is both the highest quality and the most cost-efficient. We have five objectives we will continue to pursue over the next four years to meet this goal: (1) implementing a seamless, paperless information system allowing this office to interact with law enforcement agencies, the courts, defense attorneys, victims and the public in a more efficient and effective manner; (2) reforming to the criminal justice system (from beginning to end) to reduce the number of individuals re-entering the system with new offenses; (3) continuing to focus on child abuse prevention and intervention by collaborating with community groups to educate the community about identifying child abuse, how to report it, and the importance of the mandated reporter law; (4) continuing to focus on domestic violence prevention and intervention by collaborating with community groups and law enforcement to educate the community about the extent of domestic violence and how to combat it; and (5) maintaining a well trained and motivated staff (supported by adequate resources) who have a passion for justice and public service.

The underlying philosophy of this office is that we serve you as ministers of justice. That philosophy includes holding accountable those who violate the law and attaining justice for victims and the community. Defendant accountability will vary from the extremes of referral to a diversion program for select offenders to the aggressive and tenacious prosecution of violent and career criminals. It is neither our mission nor philosophy to play at legal technicalities nor create imaginary problems and barriers to justice. This office has the responsibility of charging the guilty with crimes and protecting the innocent from wrongful accusations. Our job is to uphold the law and do justice.