Nicholas Jain, Missouri's notorious drunk-driving prosecutor, has left his position in Greene County and apparently plans a run for public office in the Bootheel

Nicholas Jain

Nicholas Jain, the drunk-driving Missouri prosecutor who pursues others on the same DUI charges for which he has been convicted, has left the Greene County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

A source told us late last year that Jain planned to leave his PA job and run for public office, likely in Dunklin County and his hometown of Kennett. That process apparently already is taking shape. According to his LinkedIn page, Jain left his Greene County position in January and moved to Kennett, where he is listed as self-employed.

Along with his boss, Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson, Jain showed quite a knack for bringing criminal charges without probable cause. He did it in the "assault on a law enforcement officer" case involving my wife, Carol, and our unlawful eviction in September 2015. He did it again in a DUI case involving Springfield resident Charles Hollis Roux. In fact, trial judge Margaret Palmietto granted the defense's motion to suppress in the Roux matter, tossing the case for lack of probable cause.

Jain and Patterson appealed, and the Missouri Court of Appeals went against its own precedent to overrule Palmietto and force Roux to trial on April 26. He pleaded guilty to two minor vehicle-related infractions, and Palmietto took the DUI matter under advisement.

As the Roux case headed for trial, the prosecutor on the case was listed as Aaron Vinson Wynn. Defense lawyers were Dee Wampler and Scott B. Pierson, of Springfield.

What about Jain's political ambitions? We will keep an eye on that. It seems he's counting on news of his drunk-driving conviction not reaching Kennett in the Missouri Bootheel, the southeast corner of the state, not far from Memphis. Perhaps he believes voters in his home area will be uber forgiving of a native son, supporting a drunk driver for public office because of his . . . well, his glaring brilliance as an attorney. Perhaps Dunklin County citizens just like the idea of facing criminal charges that have no basis in probable cause. Jain has lots of experience with that.

Maybe Jain is right; postmodern voters -- the people who elect folks like Luther Strange, "Luv Guv" Bentley, and Jeff Sessions in Alabama, and who put Donald Trump in the White House (with an assist from Vladimir Putin) -- cannot be explained. But we plan to keep an eye on Jain's activities.