It didn’t take long for another vacancy to crop up in Jefferson County’s 23rd Judicial Circuit.
Troy Cardona, who has been the county’s Div. 6 circuit judge since the job was created in 2006, has announced he will resign his seat at the end of this year.
He sent a letter to Gov. Mike Parson’s office on Nov. 28 saying he will resign effective Dec. 31.
Cardona, 59, of Herculaneum said “it was time” for him to retire and have more free time to do other things in life.
“It’s been my privilege since being elected in 2006 to serve the state of Missouri and the citizens of Jefferson County,” he said. “God has blessed me in so many ways. But my sister passed away unexpectedly a few years ago, and I’m looking at 60 (his birthday is in February), so why wouldn’t I take advantage of what’s been given me? Life is short.”
The 23rd Circuit, which was expanded to its current complement of six circuit judges and six associate circuit judges in 2006, has been down an associate circuit judge most of the year after Div. 11 Associate Circuit Judge Ed Page was appointed to the Div. 2 circuit judge slot to succeed longtime jurist Darrell Missey, who was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson to direct the state’s Children’s Division.
Former county Municipal Judge Julianne “Juli” Platz Hand won the August election for the Div. 11 seat and she will be sworn in after the first of the year.
Another vacancy opened up in early November, after Div. 3 Circuit Judge Dianna Bartels resigned, but Parson moved quickly to appoint Travis Partney, a Jefferson County assistant prosecuting attorney who had defeated Bartels in the August election, to replace her.
Parson’s office has posted the Div. 6 vacancy on the state’s website (boards.mo.gov).
“I had contacted the governor’s office about the vacancy,” said Presiding Judge Brenda Stacey. “I was given every indication that they would move quickly to fill the space.”
The eventual appointee will serve through the end of 2024, when Cardona’s third six-year term would have expired.
“I’ll hope that Gov. Parson has mercy on us here and appoints someone relatively quickly,” Stacey said. “We’ll see. It’s always possible that an associate will apply to move up, which would then in turn create another vacancy, as we had with Judge Page. We’ll have to see how it all plays out.
“But I’m sorry to see Judge Cardona go,” she said. “I also wish him well in his retirement.”
After Missey left, Cardona and Div. 15 Associate Circuit Judge Shannon Dougherty, who both were elected in 2006, were the longest-tenured members on the county’s bench.
“I was talking with Judge Dougherty about this recently,” Cardona said. “I guess what that means is I’m old.
“As I age, sometimes I think I’m just becoming a relic. I have been an attorney for over 34 years. In my travels, I’ve gone from the Barnhart-Imperial area (where he was raised), from Windsor High School through college and a foreign exchange program to Japan, and then law school (at Northeastern University) in Boston and jobs in Hawaii and back to Japan, and then back to Missouri in the late ’80s, then back to Jefferson County in the early ’90s until now. I’ve been a public servant for about 30 of those 34 years. I must say it has been an honor to serve.”
Cardona said he took the service aspect of public service seriously.
“As an attorney and then a judge, I was always trying to help,” he said. “I take great satisfaction in that effort. I knew I was never going to make everybody happy, but I tried to be fair, and in the end, to help – both the parties that came before me and their attorneys.
“I pray that the results were fair,” he said. “I’ve never really considered myself anything more than a kid who in the summers worked building homes with his grandfather and father to someone who’s tried to help build better lives in cases for people in whatever capacity I may have been serving.”
Cardona said he doesn’t have any particular plans once he leaves the bench.
“I’ve just been smiling incessantly since I made this decision,” he said. “The possibilities are endless. I’ll spend more time with those I love. My parents are both alive and well. I got a camper two years ago in consideration of this and I would like to travel with them and my friends, which I’ve done the past couple of years. I want to spend more time with my dog, Stella (a French bulldog). I can’t even describe how much I love her. God has blessed me and now I want to share life even more with others in my life.
“I can help my fellow attorneys. I can write a book on my experiences as a lawyer and judge. I can be a consultant. I can go work at Bob’s Drive-In or Lowe’s or Home Depot. I can help out more with Guns ’N Hoses (an annual charity boxing event that benefits BackStoppers that Cardona participated in in the early 2000s). I might even go back to writing newspaper stories,” he said.
After graduating from college, Cardona said he covered high school sports for the old Courier-Journal newspaper.
“I don’t want to stop helping people,” he said. “Retirement gives me the opportunity to help different people in different ways.”
Under state law, circuit court judges must be at least 30 years old, residents of their circuit, licensed to practice law in Missouri, U.S. citizens for 10 years and Missouri voters for three years. They are paid $159,578 a year.