Missouri lawmakers want justice for Rowan Ford, stepfather fired from state job
Local lawmakers continue to demand the firing of a man who played a big role in the rape and murder of his stepdaughter, Rowan Ford, in rural Newton County in 2007.
Missourinet reports Joplin Rep. Lane Roberts and others sent a letter to the state agency in December, voicing their outrage over the employment of David Spears.
Spears spent several years in prison after taking a plea deal that reduced his sentence to child endangerment and hindering prosecution.
In December, Christopher Collings was put to death for killing Ford.
But Spears remains employed by the Public Defender System office in West Plains and has worked there since 2016, shortly after he got out of prison.
A Missouri House Budget Committee hearing with state Public Defender System leaders grew tense at times on Thursday.
Rep. Roberts asked Director Mary Fox where the justice is for Rowan:
Roberts has several concerns about Spears employment:
“He has not and will never pay his debt to Rowan Ford. He hindered prosecution,” said Roberts. “How can anybody say that employing this man and providing him with a good future, in some fashion, furthers the interest of justice for Rowan Ford, a nine-year- old-child who died violently while her stepdad stood back and kept his mouth shut.”
“I do not believe that victims of crime ever receive real justice from the criminal justice system. I mean that that’s just not…it’s not the way the system is set up. Rowan Ford suffered horribly. Her family suffered horribly. You can’t fix that. I can’t fix that,” said Fox. “In my mind, when a person has completed their sentence, employing them, making certain that they become taxpayers, that they are gainfully employed, is a positive, not a negative.”
House Budget Committee Chairman Dirk Deaton, R-Seneca, told Fox that the reputation of the Public Defender System is at stake because of Spears’ employment.
“People deserve second chances, and if you’ve served your time, and if… not everybody deserves to work for state government. Nobody’s owed a taxpayer job, and this is just one of the worst lapses in judgment I have ever seen,” said Deaton.
Missourinet reports that after Fox requested to go back to the Public Defender System Commission to discuss Spears’ employment again, the lawmakers decided to reschedule their hearing.