ST LOUIS DISPATCH
9/1/16
A disgraced former St. Louis prosecutor who admitted helping cover up a city police detective’s beating of a handcuffed man has been stripped of her law license by the Missouri Supreme Court.
Bliss Barber Worrell was disbarred Aug. 10 and no longer has a right to practice law in the state of Missouri.
She pleaded guilty in October to misprision of a felony, or helping conceal a crime. She admitted failing to tell supervisors and a judge what she knew about the officer’s attack, and also admitted helping file a bogus charge against the victim.
Worrell said she was repeatedly told by then-detective Thomas A. Carroll that he had beaten Michael Waller and stuck a gun in his mouth, possibly chipping his teeth. It happened at a police station in 2014, after other officers caught Waller with a credit card stolen from Carroll’s daughter’s car.
Worrell would later help file charges against Waller, including attempted escape. Those charges were dropped after other prosecutors approached supervisors with concerns that the case was a sham, according to court testimony.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors recommended probation if she testified truthfully in court. She testified against Carroll in a two-day hearing. The former officer was sentenced in July to 52 months in federal prison.
The next day, Worrell was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 18 months on probation and 140 hours of community service.
Worrell was hired in the prosecutor’s office in August 2013 and left her job in late July 2014 amid internal and criminal investigations into allegations of misconduct. She is the daughter-in-law of former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Todd Worrell.
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