Missouri Court Disbars Judge

Jefferson City, MO (AP) – John D. Hasler, 56, former St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge, was ordered disbarred from the practice of law yesterday by the Missouri Supreme Court “for gross misconduct as a judge and as a lawyer.”

The action was based on Hasler’s conduct during a divorce suit between Delmar Shelby and his wife, Jean Poole Shelby, an attractive, 26-year-old go-go dancer who was seeking a divorce in his court.

He was accused of having private meetings and telephone conversations with Mrs. Shelby regarding the divorce suit “without the knowledge of Mr. Shelby or his counsel.”

Hasler resigned as judge last August just before he was to appear before the state Supreme Court to face impeachment charges by the Missouri House of Representatives.

In a letter delivered to Governor Warren E. Hearnes yesterday, Hasler said he had a deep conviction he had done nothing legally or morally wrong. However, he said he felt he had a deep responsibility to uphold the integrity of the judiciary and that published accounts of his impeachment, plus the county trial in which he was found guilty of misconduct in office, had caused him to question his effectiveness as a circuit judge.

Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) – August 24, 1968 and Saturday, June 28, 1969

John D. “Jack” Hasler, age 95, of Port Saint Lucie, Florida passed away Thursday, September 20,  2007. He was born January 23, 1912 in Olney, Illinois son of Charles E. and Leona I. (Inch) Hasler. He married Mary Alice Barnard in New York in 1937. They were the parents of five children. He later married Lucille they were the parents of three children.

Information from Ancestry