As Cape Girardeau Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle prepares to move to a federal prosecuting position at the U.S. Attorney’s office, his replacement has yet to be named.
Swingle has been Cape Girardeau County’s prosecuting attorney for 25 years.
No local political parties have yet made any official recommendations for Swingle’s replacement to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon.
Swingle says regardless of whom the Governor appoints to take over the position, the office is in capable hands.
“Right now, between my five assistants, they have almost sixty years worth of trial experience,” Swingle said. “So I hope that whoever comes in realizes that I have the best group of assistant prosecutors in the state, that all the new person has to do is point them to the courtroom and pull the trigger and the case will be well tried.”
A spokesperson for Governor Nixon’s office said they will “fill the position as quickly as possible with a well-qualified person.”
Swingle says he would be happy to see one of his assistants fill the position.
“I would love it if it would be one of my current assistants, but one of the things I have to understand is it’s out of my control and it’s going to be up to the governor. But one good thing is the governor is a lawyer himself and he was the attorney general before he was governor, so he knows how important it is to have a good prosecutor. So I’m sure he’s going to find a good one,” Swingle said.
The appointed replacement would take over the rest of Swingle’s term until the next election year, 2014.