A defense attorney is accusing the St. Louis County prosecutor's office of letting a personal dislike for him unduly influence the prosecution of the woman he is representing in a trial set to start next week.
"If you don't like me, don't take it out on my clients," lawyer Jerryl Christmas tells the Riverfront Times, referring to the case of Jonique Borroum, 27, whose trial for assault and armed criminal action is set to begin Monday.
The incident at the heart of the charges against Borroum occurred January 2020 when, according to a police report, another woman was packing her things up to move out of the Pagedale home where Borroum was living. A scuffle ensued between Borroum and this woman, and Borroum shot her in the jaw.
Christmas says that at the time Borroum fired her weapon, the other woman was on top of her, "getting the best of her."
In February of this year, as the case against Borroum proceeded, Christmas told the RFT that Borroum’s prosecution (along with another woman’s) represented "a disturbing pattern of prosecution against Black women clearly in self-defense mode."
At that time, Christmas argued for both cases to be dropped.
Instead, he says since then the charges were upped from second degree to first degree assault.
Prosecutors charged Borroum with second degree assault in January 2020, and for two and a half years it was those charges that remained pending against her. Christmas says they were only upgraded to assault first on June 28, about three weeks ahead of trial.
"I see it as prosecutorial misconduct," he says.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, who is also running for U.S. Senate, says in a statement that the more severe charges have to do with the specifics of the case. The alleged victim met with county prosecutors to prepare for trial, and as prosecutors came to better understand the facts of the case, "they came to believe that Assault 1st Degree would be a more appropriate charge."
He adds that it was when the defense asked for a continuance in the case that prosecutors had ample time to take the case back in front of a grand jury, who issued the new, more severe charges.
The maximum punishment for second degree assault is 10 years, whereas the range of punishment for first degree assault is between 10 and 30 years in prison.
"The stakes are a whole lot higher now, and I see no reason for this late superseding indictment," Christmas says.
Christmas adds that he thinks the increased severity of the charges has to do with him speaking publicly about the case.
"You should not be punished for exercising your constitutional rights," he says.
Bell disputes this: "Our office does not make charging decisions based on what defense attorneys say in the media," he says.
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