Hoover resigns as chief public defender to return to private practice; Citro appointed as interim chief

QUINCY — Jonathan Hoover has resigned as the chief public defender in Adams County to return to private practice, and John Citro has been appointed as the interim chief.

Circuit Judge Scott Larson confirmed Hoover’s resignation and said his last day on the job was Friday. Circuit Judge Roger Thomson signed the order giving Citro the interim position effective Friday.

Larson said a timeline for finding Hoover’s replacement will be established when the circuit judges meet Wednesday, and a job vacancy will be posted soon for the position. After applications are accepted and interviews are conducted, Larson said he expects the position to be filled in about three months.

“(After accepting Hoover’s resignation,) our next step was to name an interim, and John’s ready to jump right in,” Larson said. “Obviously, there’s no concern about any lag in the representation of any of the clients served by the public defender’s office. The office should pretty much remain status quo.”

Citro has been with the public defender’s office since 2019, and he served as the interim chief public defender after Chris Pratt resigned in May 2024 to become a circuit judge.

Citro, 41, graduated from Quincy Notre Dame in 2002 and Quincy University in 2006. He earned his Juris Doctor from Valparaiso (Ind.) University in 2010. He’s been an adjunct business professor at QU since 2015.

Other attorneys in the public defender’s office are Mark Taylor, Betsy Bier, Kent Dean, K.P. Moon and Mark Lavery.

Hoover said Friday he plans to return to private practice. His appointment as chief public defender was by a vote of the judges of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, and he began his duties on July 15, 2024.

Hoover was proud to say he used grant money to add two client advocates, who started in January, and an investigator, who started in February, to the public defender’s office during his term as the chief.

“(Those hires) helped reduce the case work of the attorneys (in the public defender’s office),” Hoover said. “The client advocates help clients get into a treatment program if they need that, or they might make them aware of certain benefits or help them with some kind of paperwork. That’s the stuff that helps them solve the other parts of their life that will, in turn, affect either what the outcome of their criminal case is or just make it so they don’t get in trouble again.”

Hoover will specialize in litigation in private practice.

“My area has always been litigation,” he said. “I do criminal defense, and that’s not going to change, and it also includes civil litigation. My practice included federal cases as well as state cases, and I am licensed to practice in Missouri as well as Illinois. I enjoy running my own business, doing it my way, and things like that.”

Hoover said he missed some of the aspects of being in private practice.

“When you’re a public defender, you’re appointed by the courts to represent an individual, but that is limited,” he said. “If you represent someone who’s charged with a criminal offense, you don’t really represent them on the collateral side of it, like getting back their license, getting a case expunged, things like that, which is a part of my prior practice that, quite frankly, I miss doing.

“In terms of your actual scope of legal representation (as a public defender), it’s the criminal charge and dealing with that case specifically, and that’s about it. If they have a civil matter going on that relates to that, like an eviction or a divorce or anything like that, the public defender’s office doesn’t offer any legal assistance. We would direct them somewhere else. At times, it feels like one hand is tied behind your back. You can help them only so much, and then there’s part of it that you’re just not allowed to.”

Hoover earned his law degree from Washington University School of Law in 2006. He was a public defender in Missouri for 13 years, working in the 10th Judicial Circuit, which covers Monroe, Marion and Ralls counties. He was an associate at the law firm of Schmiedeskamp, Robertson, Neu and Mitchell, LLP, and he was a partner at Lemon, Matchett and Hoover, LLC, before his appointment to the public defender’s office. 

Hoover has been an adjunct professor at Quincy University since 2008.

Hoover’s replacement will be the third person to fill the chief public defender position in Adams County since Todd Nelson resigned in February 2024.