KANSAS CITY, Mo — Voters will choose one of three candidates to receive the Democratic nomination for Jackson County prosecutor during Tuesday's primary race.
Stephanie Burton, John Gromowsky and Melesa Johnson are up to replace Jean Peters Baker.
Peters Baker announced last year she would not seek reelection.
Tracey Chappell is the uncontested Republican candidate.
KSHB 41 reached out to all candidates for interviews ahead of the primary. Burton did not respond by the deadline of this publication.
However, KSHB 41's Alyssa Jackson did sit down with Gromowsky and Johnson ahead of the election.
Melesa Johnson
Johnson, Kansas City, Missouri's current director of public safety, was an assistant prosecutor for the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney's Office in 2014.
She oversees city-wide violence intervention programs and task forces.
"I grew up in the urban core. I grew up around a lot of crime," Johnson said. "I’ve been blessed with great educational and professional opportunities, and it might sound sappy, but this is my love letter to the community."
Her campaign and work have been centered around what she calls "transformative justice," which translates to pursuing justice for victims and providing opportunities for offenders to make better decisions.
Johnson said it is not the same as being "soft on crime."
"I live around seniors who’ve owned their homes 40 and 50 years who are scared to walk outside," she said. "Children are being hit by stray gunfire in my community. I have no interest in being soft on crime, but I think we need to be smart on crime. Six out of seven people sentenced to incarceration will return to the communities they came from, so why not invest in their transformation?"
Johnson is pursuing efforts including workforce development, conflict resolution training, a county-wide mentorship program for suspended students, and a new specialty court for nonviolent offenders focused on the root cause of crime — poverty.
She also wants to continue KCMO's revived focused deterrence program, formerly known as SAVE KC.
Johnson delivered the first "call-in" invitations for the launch this summer.
"Focused deterrence is based on a strategy where you focus on those who are most likely to shoot or be shot ... those most ingrained in a life of crime, and invite them to a call-in," she said. "You give them two choices — avail yourself of the services we have to offer to help change your life or land yourself in the prioritized prosecution list."
Johnson also wants to focus on prosecuting distribution-level drug offenses.
Peters Baker decided to stop prosecuting nonviolent, low-level drug cases in 2021.
"I will be charging those cases across the board," she said. "If we don’t, I think it’s rubber-stamping the distribution of poison in our community. I understand Jean’s rationale behind implementing this — the racial disparities in those being charged for nonviolent drug offenses — but I plan to tackle it a different way."
If elected, Johnson could become the first Black person to hold office as Jackson County prosecutor.
"It is baffling to me that in 2024, we are on the precipice of a potential first," she said. "As it pertains to representation and electing diversity, and of course I am beyond qualified, so I am not leaning on my race as a metric to get elected, but I do feel we are at a time post-George Floyd, post-civil unrest, starting with Trayvon Martin, that we understand race does play a role in fighting crime and the criminal justice system. The more we shy away from that reality, the further away from solutions we will become."
Watch Johnson's full interview below:
John Gromowsky
An Army veteran, West Point graduate and former defense lawyer, Gromowsky is currently an assistant prosecuting attorney for the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office.
"My cousin was murdered at W. 40th Street and Main Street, and that changed the course of what I wanted my service to look like," Gromowsky said. "Originally, I was in the Army and thought I’d make a career out of it."
Gromowsky believes his experience as a defender and assistant prosecutor makes him uniquely qualified for the job.
His campaign emphasizes prioritizing nonviolent offenses.
"Right now, we’ve got a real problem where there’s a sense of lawlessness in the community," Gromowsky said. "A nonviolent offense doesn't mean it's a victimless offense."
As far as violent crimes, he acknowledges there are a lot of existing programs but he wants to find a plan that's effective.
"Programs do play a role in breaking the link in the chain between people doing the crimes now and people who could do the crimes in the future," he said. "I’m already building a coalition in various parts of community with people that have an interest in public safety. There are peacemakers who don’t care about getting the credit for making peace."
He said the focused deterrence program needs to be around longer to gauge its success as a crime intervention tool.
If elected as prosecutor, he might consider tweaking the framework.
"We’re certainly hopeful. I am concerned the conversation around SAVE KC says known shooters are being invited to participate in programs," he said. "In my opinion, known shooters should see us at the prosecutor’s office because they committed a crime, a violent crime. That needs to be addressed by the prosecutor’s office and justice system as opposed to programs."
He is also focused on repairing the relationship between the prosecutor's office and police. He said the office is already making progress in that direction with KCPD.
Gromowsky also wants to continue existing programs that offer resources and financial assistance to surviving victims, including relocation and repairing damaged property due to crime.
Watch the full interview with Gromowsky below:
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