OWENSVILLE — Judge Ada Brehe-Krueger called Robert Schollmeyer, the defense attorney of Henry Lorton, to answer questions in court on Oct. 23 regarding the potential violation of a gag order in relation to a video he admitted releasing to KRCG 13 in Jefferson City. The footage in question is a Ring camera video that allegedly shows Lorton and Tim Keeling speaking on Sept. 13 following the incident that resulted in the death of 21 year-old Owensville man Trey Johnson.

On Oct. 13, Brehe-Krueger filed a gag order that prohibited the attorneys of either party from releasing any evidence to the public. The judge called Schollmeyer before the court in response to the Gasconade County Republican’s reporting on the video that printed on Oct. 21 and by KRCG one day later.

“The reporting on it, the court does not necessarily have a problem with, as the media has a responsibility to keep the public informed,” Brehe-Krueger said in the Oct. 23 hearing. The Gasconade County Republican acquired the audio from the courtroom through a public records request.

According to a screenshot of an email, submitted as evidence by Schollmeyer, he had sent the video to KRCG at 8:12 a.m. on Oct. 13. Just hours later, at 12:45 p.m., the judge filed the gag order. He also submitted evidence–in the form of a screenshot of a text message -— which showed that he did an interview with a KRCG reporter at 11:47 a.m. the same day.

“I would never intentionally disobey an order of the court,” Schollmeyer told the judge.

Brehe-Krueger called it “disingenuous,” based on previous conversations in court, for Schollmeyer to suggest he didn’t expect a gag order to be filed. The judge accepted Schollmeyer’s evidence, but said she would follow up to ensure its accuracy.

Brehe-Krueger, Schollmeyer and Prosecuting Attorney Mary Weston were all on a phone call on Oct. 14 meant to ensure that both parties understood the intention of the gag order. Brehe-Krueger took exception to the fact that Schollmeyer did not inform the judge during that phone call that he had already released the video to KRCG.

Schollmeyer said that he neglected to inform the court of his actions then because he had a conversation with KRCG informing them of the gag order, and he was told that they were not going to publish the video. The judge was skeptical that a news organization would hold onto the video for a week before they eventually released it.

The judge said that Schollmeyer’s lack of candor during that phone call was potentially a violation of section 4-3.6 of the Rules of Professional Conduct that govern Missouri courts. That rule requires lawyers to use judgment that their release of information or evidence won’t have a “substantial likelihood” of prejudicing a potential jury, Brehe-Krueger said.

Schollmeyer questioned whether his actions would prejudice anything.

The judge said she would subpoena records from the media organizations involved “to try to get to the bottom of this,” and that she will “review the rules of professional conduct to see if there’s any violations committed.”

Brehe-Krueger subpoenaed both KRCG 13 and The Gasconade County Republican for records related to the video.

The Republican was advised by the Missouri Press Association’s Attorney Dan Curry that under other circumstances, media organizations would likely argue that the conversations with sources are private. However, in this case, the video was posted to The Republican’s Facebook page on Oct. 14 from another Facebook account under the name of Patrick Simmons. The Republican provided the judge with a copy of the printout of the publicly available Facebook page in court.

KRCG 13 also provided documents in court on the same day as The Republican.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for 1:01 p.m. on Nov. 4 at the Gasconade County Courthouse in Hermann.