By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney Ron Holliday is stepping down after serving in the office since 2005, first as an assistant, then as prosecuting attorney.
Holliday says he has enjoyed the work, especially the major cases, especially murder cases.
“Not only murder cases. I’ve worked on serious shooting cases, serious assault cases, all kinds of cases,” Holliday tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in an interview. “But, it’s those trials, the most serious crimes, that stick in your memory, that wake you up at three o’clock in the morning, thinking about them.”
Holliday is 72 and has decided to retire, for the most part. He will continue to practice law, but in a limited capacity.
Holliday began his career as an Overland Park, Kansas police officer. After receiving his law degree from the University of Missouri, Holliday became an assistant prosecutor in Jackson County. He served as Andrew County Prosecuting Attorney from 1983 to 1990 and has served as city attorney for Savannah and Country Club Village.
Holliday came to the Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in 2005 when then-Prosecutor Dwight Scroggins recruited Holliday to serve as his First Assistant Prosecutor.
Holliday was elected Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney in 2018.
Holliday says a prosecutor faces many pressures, but there is one primary pressure that stands above all others.
“The most difficult task that a prosecutor has is determining if a charge should be filed and, if so, what kind of charge?”
Holliday says his office files only about half the cases referred to it. Holliday says the office simply cannot file all the cases brought to it and acknowledges that causes a clash with law enforcement at times.
Holliday has seen an increase in crimes involving guns the past few years, with nearly all the violent crime related to the drug trade.
“We’ve had a lot of very serious crime since 2005 that are related to gangs fighting with each other, people trying to rip off other drug dealers with guns and gun fire erupts,” Holliday says.
This is the first part of a two-part series with Holliday. We discuss changes he has seen over the years in part two tomorrow.