Retirement of Judge Christine Carpenter

Circuit Judge Christine Carpenter announced her retirement date will be August 31, 2017, her last working day. She was first sworn in as a judicial officer on September 1, 1999. Judge Carpenter’s statutorily mandated retirement date is October 19, 2017. She plans to continue to be available to serve as a senior judge.

Judge Carpenter first was appointed to the bench by the 13th Circuit Court en Banc as a Drug Court Commissioner. At that time, the new Drug Court program had about 20 participants. Under her leadership, the 13th Circuit developed an additional Drug Court in Callaway County as well as DWI Courts in both Boone and Callaway counties. Boone County started a Mental Health Court in 2003, and a Veterans Treatment Court in 2013. More than 1,400 participants have successfully completed those programs.

In 2001, Judge Carpenter was appointed to a newly created associate circuit judge position, Division IX, by Governor Bob Holden. She was re-elected to that position three times. In 2010, Governor Jay Nixon appointed Judge Carpenter to fill the vacancy as circuit judge, Division I, after the retirement of Judge Gene Hamilton. She was subsequently elected to that position. Judge Carpenter served as the Presiding Judge of the 13th Circuit from January 30, 2015 to January 31, 2017.

Throughout her tenure on the bench, Judge Carpenter has been a leader in both Missouri and the U.S. in the field of recovery courts. She presided over the various treatment courts as well as maintaining an active trial docket in both civil and criminal cases. She served on the Board of Missouri Association of Treatment Court Professionals and has been a member of the Missouri Supreme Court Committee on Alternative Treatment Courts since it was created in 2007. Judge Carpenter is a faculty member of the National Drug Court Institute and the National Judicial College. The Boone County Drug Court was selected as a National Mentor Court for three years under her supervision.

Judge Carpenter is married to Attorney Joe Bindbeutel and they have four sons. She was formerly in private practice in both Boone and St. Louis counties and worked in the Boone County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and the Jefferson County Public Defender’s Office. She is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Law and has B.A. in art history and archaeology from the University of Missouri-Columbia.