The change of seat
John Gromowsky served in the Army and graduated from DePaul’s law school in Chicago in 1998. He clerked for Jackson County Circuit Judge John R. O’Malley and spent three years in the prosecutor’s office. His next work included insurance defense and a criminal defense practice he established himself. By 2021 he had returned to prosecution. The order of those jobs says more about his experience than either label taken alone.
Which question did the juvenile court decide?
A September 29, 2026, opinion of the Western District identifies Gromowsky as the trial judge in the matter of M.L.K. The appellate court used initials to protect the young person. The issue before it was whether the evidence supported the family court’s exercise of jurisdiction and provision of services under a specific part of Missouri’s juvenile code. The opinion affirmed the judgment.
The opinion distinguishes a status offense, which in this proceeding required clear and convincing evidence, from a delinquency offense, which requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. That distinction is easy to lose in an account organized around the underlying events. A journalist who reports a criminal conviction from this opinion would misstate the kind of judgment under review. Court, charge and standard of proof can be reported accurately while preserving the child’s anonymity.
I write about public authority and those who challenge it. Gromowsky’s record permits a reader to follow a local lawyer through prosecution, defense and judgment.
I write independently on law and politics from the standpoint of a Mormon historian and litigant. A community’s freedom to report and criticize the use of public authority matters to ordinary defendants and to people defending religious liberty.
Reading the December appointment
Governor Mike Kehoe appointed Gromowsky to Division 7 on December 3, 2025. He had already served as an associate circuit judge in Division 30. In writing about law and politics I distinguish the task of defending a particular person, the public authority to charge an offense and the office that decides contested questions. Gromowsky’s career furnishes public records for all three.
Public records and sources