Butler County's newest assistant prosecutor is no rookie

After retiring to the banks of the Black River following a 40-year career as an assistant prosecutor, Dwight Warren was back in the courtroom on Thursday in Butler County.

Warren, 70, was sworn in Wednesday as the county’s newest, full-time assistant prosecutor and “hit the ground running” Thursday in Associate Circuit Judge C. Wade Pierce’s courtroom.

“It went well,” but there were some adjustments in procedures and the criminal elements, Warren said. “There are many crimes I had not really handled.”

As an assistant circuit attorney in St. Louis City, Warren said, he was the chief prosecutor of the homicide division and later prosecuted Class A felonies, mostly homicides.

Before his retirement in 2017, he had “been in homicides since the mid-’90s,” he said.

Warren estimated he tried “very easily 10 (homicide) cases a year. That’s 12 years, probably 120 to 150 homicides … plus many of the homicides I had would plead guilty.”

In total, Warren said, he handled more than 300 homicide cases during his career.

“I was not into drugs professionally during my career,” Warren explained. “I’m getting used to the nuances of drugs, adult abuse and the different misdemeanors.

“It will be an ongoing process. That’s not a problem. I’m reading files.”

Warren said there have been some changes in procedures and criminal law in recent years.

In his research, Warren said, he has found the “meth problem down here is instrumental in several of the homicides, so they are not separate issues.”

Warren’s career path was not a straight one into the law.

“After I completed high school, a short time (later) I entered the Army in 1966,” Warren explained. “I spent four years active” during Vietnam in the infantry with the 75th Regiment.

When Warren “got out, I had no college” and used the GI Bill to “put myself through college,” he said. “At the end of my college, I decided to become a policeman.”

Warren worked for about five years as a City of St. Louis police officer.

“In the academy, we were instructed by a lawyer in criminal law,” said Warren. “I said to myself … ‘I could do that,’ so I applied for law school and was accepted.”

Warren worked full time as a police officer while he attended law school, graduating in three years and one semester.

“I was a police officer one day and became an assistant circuit attorney” the next, he said.

As a former officer, Warren said, he has “great empathy and even sympathy for the plight of the police officer.”

While working for the circuit attorney’s office, Warren said, he also became a reserve officer in the U.S. Army, “having picked up from my post-Vietnam time. I retired when they required me at age 60.”

Since coming out of retirement, Warren said, Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kacey Proctor has been helping him greatly.

“He’s been a very good teacher,” he said. “He’s very knowledgeable and extremely helpful.”

After living on Black River for two years, Warren’s decision to return to the law was spawned by what he described as an “extensional crisis, I felt like I need to do something.

“I still was healthy enough and decided I could contribute something somewhere. (The law) is what I know.”

Warren said he dropped off a resume to Proctor, who hired him to replace Paul Oesterreicher, who retired in December.

“Many times when trying to hire an assistant prosecutor, we end up getting someone fresh out of law school, with little experience,” Proctor said.

After Oesterreicher retired, “we’ve gone five months of being short staffed and down one assistant because I was holding out for someone who could fill that role who had a substantial amount of experience,” Proctor said. “I didn’t want to hire just anyone for that position.

“As luck would be, Dwight was looking for a position in this area, and we were able to hire him.”

Proctor said he feels his office is “extremely lucky to have (Warren) with his experience, and I’m looking forward to watching him and learning from him in his first Butler County jury trial.”