By Zach Van Epps
For the Fulton Sun
In the final days of his judgeship in the 13th Circuit Court, former prosecuting attorney Bob Sterner knew he wanted to continue working rather than retire outright.
It was perfect timing for Callaway County's current prosecuting attorney, Chris Wilson, to offer his former boss a temporary position. Wilson worked under Sterner during his time as county prosecutor.
Wilson needed someone to fill in for Casey Clevenger, his first assistant prosecutor, while she went on maternity leave.
"I was in the unenviable position of being an attorney short, and having to hire a new attorney all at the same time," Wilson said, referring to the third assistant prosecutor position recently approved by the county commission.
Part of Wilson's pitch to Sterner was that having an experienced prosecutor fill in for the 10-week period "would be hugely beneficial" to the office.
Sterner said that although he was ready to leave the judgeship, he was not yet ready to stop working. Wilson's offer came at the perfect time for the soon-to-be retired judge.
During Sterner's time filling in for Clevenger, Wilson continued to advertise for the new attorney prosecutor position created by the county in response to the increasing caseload of the office.
"I had asked them (the county commission) in my budget request to add an additional prosecutor, and that was based on a pretty dramatic increase that we saw in felony and misdemeanor filings," Wilson said. "We saw about a 50 percent increase in felony offenses that we filed, and ... a thirty to forty percent increase in the misdemeanor offenses we filed."
Wilson has estimated that the number of cases handled by a single prosecutor in his office has tripled in the last 20 years.
About a week before Clevenger returned from her maternity leave, Wilson and Sterner discussed how well his time filling in had been, as well as the possibility of keeping him on as the new assistant prosecutor. After speaking with human resources about keeping Sterner's retirement benefits while continuing to prosecute, he agreed to stay on.
The former prosecuting attorney for Callaway County, Sterner hired Wilson onto the office in 2006, eventually promoting him to first assistant prosecuting attorney a year later.
"He was my boss, my mentor, for four years," Wilson said. "And then when he decided he was going to run for judge, I decided I would run for prosecuting attorney, and both of us got elected. Then I practiced before him as a judge for four years."
Although he had some reservations about asking his former boss to work under him, Wilson said he knew just how beneficial Sterner's experience and work ethic would be in the prosecuting attorney's office.
"I knew how good of a prosecutor he was, and I knew how valuable he'd be to our office and this community," Wilson said.
One of the biggest benefits of hiring on a former prosecuting attorney and judge, Wilson said, was that there was no steep learning curve that would be present with a fresh-out-of-law school hire. The possibility of a new-hire leaving is often the case as well, but there was no worry that Sterner, who has lived in Callaway County for decades, was going anywhere.
"I think the biggest advantage," Wilson said, "was having someone with experience, that knew what they were doing, and had no plans to go anywhere else."
Sterner said that coming back to the prosecuting attorney's office was an easy transition to make, especially because most of the people in the office were hired by him.
As one of Wilson's three assistant prosecutors, Sterner mainly focuses on assault and drug related cases. Sterner takes all cases regarding crimes against police officers, such as assault or resisting arrest. He also acts as the office's liaison to Callaway County's drug court. Any unassigned felony that does not fall into a category covered by the four prosecutors is also handled by Sterner.
Sterner describes the change of working under Wilson as "remarkably, easily done," thanks to an eight-year working relationship and similar styles of employee relations.
"We had a good working relationship when I was the boss, there was respect going back and forth, so we have a good working relationship with him as the boss," Sterner said.
The prosecuting attorney's office is currently preparing for the Jake Gastler murder case, which goes to trial in April. Gastler is accused of beating his neighbor to death and sending his neighbor's father to the hospital. He faces charges of second-degree murder and first-degree assault.
Sterner said he will be secondary council for that case, working with Wilson, who will be lead council. As second chair, Sterner said his role will vary, but he will do anything from sitting-in on interviews to considering what should be said in the opening statement and closing argument.
While Sterner has had no problem transitioning into his role as assistant prosecutor, he says the biggest change since his time in the office has been the sheer number of case files.
"Chris told me of the change in number, and he told me the numbers and I said, "Wow, that's a lot.' But I don't think I truly appreciated that until I got up here, and just observed physically the volume of files, because there are more of these floating around" Sterner said, holding up a manila file folder.
Though there is a deep mutual respect between Sterner and Wilson, Wilson did admit that there was some unexpected awkwardness in being the boss of his former mentor.
"I think there have been some moments that were, I don't know, awkward?" Wilson said with a laugh. "The first time he came to ask me about a day off, that was really awkward."
If Wilson has faced any challenge in the changeover, it's that Sterner's enthusiasm for the job can be hard to rein in at times.
"It's a challenge sometimes to get him to take his foot off the gas a bit, so-to-speak. Bob's one of the hardest working people I've ever met in my life ... Absolutely dedicated to the job, absolutely dedicated to the people of this community."