SALTER: Missouri’s new attorney general learned courtroom ropes from a Mississippi grandfather

Submission by Sid Salter

Someplace from a spot excessive on God’s mountain, lifetime Neshoba County resident Hugh “Boots” Harpole is smiling and bragging about his grandson Andrew Bailey, the newly-minted legal professional basic of the State of Missouri.

“Boots,” whose love and mastery of horses (particularly the trotters and pacers like these concerned within the harness racing loved yearly on the Neshoba County Honest) supplied his nickname, was the longtime district legal professional’s investigator for Mississippi’s Eighth Circuit Court docket Judicial District of Leake, Neshoba, Newton and Scott counties in east central Mississippi.

Harpole and his spouse, Frankie, made a great life in Philadelphia. They raised two lovely and gifted daughters – Lorraine and Jessica. Now lengthy retired, Mrs. Harpole is a beloved former elementary faculty educator and artist. “Boots” died in 2013 at age 88.

I at all times revered “Boots” and appreciated his kindness to me once I lined my first felony trials for The Neshoba Democrat some 40 years in the past. As destiny would have it, that first trial was a homicide case through which a husband was accused of the crime-of-passion slaying of his spouse.

Recognizing a rookie newspaper reporter in unfamiliar environment, Mr. Harpole informed me: “This in some methods is like church. Rise up and sit down when everybody else does, keep awake, and concentrate.”

It was good recommendation. Till Mr. Harpole retired from the state trial court docket’s judicial system, he was within the courtroom for nearly each felony case I lined in Neshoba and Scott counties. He served the taxpayers effectively.

One in every of “Boots” and Frankie Harpole’s grandsons is now the beneficiary of his grandfather’s affect from these lengthy days again within the Neshoba County Courthouse. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Nov. 23 appointed Andrew Bailey as the brand new Lawyer Normal of the State of Missouri.

Bailey, 41, is the son of Jessica Harpole Bailey and her husband, Ty, of Gluckstadt. “Andrew’s love of the legislation began when he was a toddler by means of my father,” Jessica Bailey informed The Neshoba Democrat final week. “He (“Boots”) would take Andrew and his brother Simon to the courthouse whereas he was an investigator for the District Lawyer in Neshoba County, and that’s the place Andrew realized to like the authorized system.”

The resume for Bailey is strong. He’s a adorned navy veteran (together with two Bronze Stars and a Fight Motion Badge throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom), a former county prosecutor, a former Normal Counsel for the Missouri Dept. of Corrections, and earlier than his AG appointment was serving as Gov. Parson’s Normal Counsel.

Bailey and his spouse, additionally named Jessica, have 4 kids between the ages of six months and 10, together with three foster kids. He’s a graduate of the College of Missouri and the College of Missouri College of Legislation.

Notably, the final two people who served Missouri as legal professional basic have discovered themselves representing that state within the U.S. Senate. Bailey is succeeding Republican U.S. Sen.-elect Eric Schmitt, who likewise succeeded Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley. Parson’s appointment of Bailey invited some media speculations in Missouri about his future.

Missouri media, connecting the dots with Schmitt and Hawley, questioned aloud whether or not Bailey would observe an analogous path to increased workplace. However within the Bailey introduction press convention, he made clear that he could be in search of election as legal professional basic.

In making the appointment, Gov. Parson stated Bailey “is the appropriate candidate to steer Missourians as our subsequent Lawyer Normal” and that his designee “understands the necessity to do higher, to be higher, and with Andrew, higher is not going to solely be doable however achieved.”

Missouri State Senate Professional Tempore Caleb Rowden was circumspect in his evaluation of Bailey, telling the Kansas Metropolis Star: “I believe it’s a bit unfair to Andrew to match him to anybody, you realize. I hope he takes workplace and makes it what it’s speculated to be, which is, you realize, actually looking for the folks of the state because the chief legislation enforcement officer.”

One thing alongside the mould of the way in which Bailey’s grandfather “Boots” Harpole did it again in Mississippi trial courts.