Law license suspended for former St. Louis prosecutor who covered up assault of handcuffed suspect
The law license of a former St. Louis prosecutor who admitted helping cover up an officer’s assault of a handcuffed suspect has been temporarily suspended.
The suspension, disclosed in a court order Tuesday, is in place pending the outcome of lawyer disciplinary proceedings against former prosecutor Bliss Barber Worrell, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Worrell, 28, pleaded guilty last fall in federal court to one count of misprision of a felony. Sentencing is set for April 13.
Although the charge carries a possible sentence of up to three years in prison, prosecutors and defense lawyers have agreed to recommend that Worrell be placed on 18 months’ probation.
Worrell is one of two prosecutors for the City of St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office who were asked to resign last year. Those requests were made following allegations that a detective had assaulted a handcuffed suspect who had been charged with using a stolen credit card belonging to the detective’s daughter. The two prosecutors soon learned about the alleged assault but didn’t report it to supervisors. They also helped file a bogus escape charge against the suspect that was later dropped.
Worrell had been working in private practice since her resignation from the prosecutor’s office.
