When Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker prosecuted the Bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph more than a decade ago, she was aware that it could be career suicide. Although she won several more terms in office, her tenure as county prosecutor was always filled with heavy criticism.
Law enforcement and public officials, including Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, accused Baker of "playing games" in prosecuting the case of former Kansas City Police detective Eric DeValkenaere, who was found guilty of killing Cameron Lamb and sentenced to prison. Parson has said he's considering pardoning DeValkenaere, against Baker's warnings.
But Baker said she's proud of how she handled that case, and others.
“I was thinking, if I don't carry this case, I would be a coward,” Baker told KCUR's Up To Date.
While going after the Catholic Church was a career risk, going after the police ended up being a personal risk for the prosecutor and her family.
Baker said she thought the threat would dissipate, but eventually her family relocated for safety reasons.
“[A] lot of the palpable anger I received was directly from police officers, and often in police uniform, they were very comfortable, unfortunately, letting me know how much they despised me,” she said.
The threats are one of the reasons Baker chose to walk away from the job this year, and not seek reelection. But she said that the heavy rate of violence in Kansas City bruises her heart.
“What has really burdened me over time is just the weight of violence of the people that you meet that have had the worst happen to them," Baker said. "And I always wanted to serve them, those families, those victims’ families, as best I could possibly do, as best as the system could deliver for them. I wanted that for them. And over time, that takes a toll."
- Jean Peters Baker, prosecutor, Jackson County
