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The courts haven't closed, I tell them. They've just slowed down and have been forced to adapt like so much else since March 2020. Many pretrial hearings have gone virtual. The courthouses have fewer trials and are less crowded by design. People have to wear masks all the time and space out in the courtroom for safety.

Throughout the year, I've still had the chance to cover some major court cases in St. Ïã¸ÛÈý¼¶Æ¬. One that has dominated my time has been the relocation lawsuit against the Los Angeles Rams, the National Football League and all of its owners. It had been set for trial this coming January but recently ended in a $790 million settlement for St. Ïã¸ÛÈý¼¶Æ¬ and St. Ïã¸ÛÈý¼¶Æ¬ County. One scoop in that case came in June when the NFL filed their motion to throw out the case in St. Ïã¸ÛÈý¼¶Æ¬ Circuit Court. Most of the filings in this case have been under a 2018 protective order but either the Rams and NFL neglected to file this one under seal or the court inadvertently allowed public access to the documents, allowing me to read them before the court sealed them again. The records provided an illuminating glimpse into how the NFL sought to defend the lawsuit. Read that story on the case here.

One case that grabbed people's attention was when Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who waved guns at racial justice protesters last year, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges as part of a plea deal. They are still fighting in court to get their guns back while Mark McCloskey is defending an attempt to suspend his law license. Read the story on their guilty pleas here.

This year, the Missouri Supreme Court rejected Lamar Johnson's fight for a new trial. He has claimed for years that he was wrongfully convicted of murdering a man in St. Ïã¸ÛÈý¼¶Æ¬ in 1994. It's a case that has become central to Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner's criminal justice reform platform. Johnson has filed another petition for his release from prison that is awaiting a ruling from a judge. Read one of the stories here.

This summer, I broke stories on the successive dismissals of murder cases in St. Ïã¸ÛÈý¼¶Æ¬, one of which resulted from no-show prosecutors. I later learned that that case was among about 30 cases — mostly murders and other violent crimes — assigned to a prosecutor after she had left on maternity leave. The prosecutor later quit. My colleague Janelle O'Dea and I later analyzed years of personnel and budget data that showed major declines in the number of prosecutors and experience on the Circuit Attorney's Office's staff. Read the story here.

Another high-profile case was resolved in October when Thomas Bruce admitted to murdering one woman and sexually assaulting two others at a Catholic Supply store in west St. Ïã¸ÛÈý¼¶Æ¬ County in 2018. Bruce pleaded guilty days before his trial was to begin and received a sentence of life without parole plus additional life terms. Testimony from the victims and their relatives at the sentencing hearing was compelling.  Read the story here.