A judge has overruled the Missouri attorney general’s request to remove Ray County Prosecuting Attorney Camille Johnston from office without a trial.

Forty-Third Circuit Court Judge Daren Lee Adkins recently heard arguments on the state’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. Adkins took the matter under advisement before overruling the motion the following day.

The case is scheduled for a one-day trial beginning at 9 a.m. Dec. 8.

In its motion, the state maintained Johnston’s admissions in her response to the quo warranto petition were sufficient to establish that she had willfully violated or neglected her official duties as prosecuting attorney. The state contended those admissions entitled it to judgment as a matter of law without resolving the remaining disputed allegations at trial.

During arguments, Assistant Attorney General George Lankford focused largely on Johnston’s conduct involving Juan David Gutierrez,

who was investigated and later charged in Ray County with first-degree sod…