Brentwood High School Hosts Missouri Court of Appeals

Brentwood High School students have seen many things on their Auditorium stage. Now they can add the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District to the list.

Roy Richter is on the three-member court, and is also a 1968 graduate of Brentwood.

He said the court’s district goes from Cape Girardeau to Hannibal. They’ve been both directions for dockets but never to a school.

“I said, what about Brentwood? So here we are,” Richter said.

"Richter said the students saw appellate arguments, which is something most people never see. Lawyers argued points of law, rather than points of fact.

They’re not sexy,” he said. “Nobody does television shows about appellate lawyers or appellate judges. There are no Perry Mason moments.”

The students saw two criminal cases and one civil.

Richter went to Drury, after Brentwood, then Mizzou law school. He moved to Montgomery City, was prosecutor for a term, them a judge for 27 years. He’s been on the court of appeals for six years.

Senior Lucy Sappington was in the audience, and is on the Brentwood debate club.

“I do have a special interest in this, because it will really give me an idea of how you can apply those skills to the real world,” she said. But she’s not interested in law. “…sounds really stressful to me."

Senior David Rivera said he’s interested in becoming an engineer not a lawyer, but was still looking forward to seeing the justice system in action.

“I’m really hoping to be able to see the two sides,” he said. He’s also on the debate club. “Seeing how they interact in real life could help me in my debate career.”