The Gardner STL Controversy
Emily Woodruff, Staff Writer
When you have lost the trust of your allies, perhaps it is time to consider resigning.
“Can you get the public’s confidence back at this point?” A reporter posed this question to St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner during a press conference she called after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a petition of quo warrant to to remove her. Instead of answering with ways she would work to improve the functioning of her office, Gardner watched while her supporters berated the reporter for asking that question and shouted their support for Gardner. She showboated while a 17-year-old girl lay in a hospital bed, missing her legs, because Gardner failed to do her job.
There are very few things that could get St. Louis’ Democratic Mayor Tishaura Jones, Republican Missouri Governor Mike Parson, a collection of Democratic Aldermen, and Republican House and Senate State leaders on the same page. Removing St. Louis ‘s Democratic Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner is one of those things.
As Circuit Attorney Gardner received praise and commendation, she won election to the Circuit Attorney’s Office in 2016, and assumed office in 2017. She won reelection in 2020, and her current term ends in January of 2025. She formerly served as the representative of District 77 in the Missouri House of Representatives from 2013 to 2017. As circuit attorney, she sued St. Louis City, the St. Louis Police Union, a former police officer, and others alleging that they were part of a racist conspiracy that prevented her from completing her responsibilities to the people of St. Louis. She also indicted former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens for felony invasion of privacy, though the charges were later dropped and Gardner’s office became the focus of an investigation for her work on the case. Gardner also focused on reducing incarceration for minor offenders, declined to prosecute several minor marijuana cases, and created an “exclusion list” of police officers whose cases she refused to prosecute. A car accident resulting in a 17-year-old volleyball player from Tennessee losing both her legs sparked the controversy that led Bailey to file the petition to remove Gardner. 21-year-old Daniel Riley was arrested in the case. Riley was under house arrest for a 2020 armed robbery case that Gardner’s office was prosecuting, but Riley violated his house arrest more than 40 times, including five days before the accident. Gardner was criticized for not revoking Riley’s bail before the accident. She claimed that a judge refused to revoke Riley’s bond. However, court records, and Riley’s lawyer, deny this allegation. Additionally, the accident revealed other mishandlings of the case.
In July of 2022, Gardner’s office dropped charges against Riley (although they later refiled them), because they said they were not ready to proceed with the case. One of the biggest problems in the case arose because Gardner’s office believed the victim of the robbery was dead. He was not. It was not until after the recent car accident that Gardner’s office realized the victim was alive. This mistake allowed the other suspect arrested with Riley to go free. According to Gardner’s office, the mistake happened because information was put into the system incorrectly or the system wrongly assigned a death certificate to the victim. Gardner offered both explanations and the validity of either answer remains unclear. Gardner’s office never contacted the victim’s family, and they were unaware of the error. We should consider, though, whether this incident was a one-off mistake or part of a larger trend.
Gardner’s office is no stranger to charges of negligence. In August of 2021 it was revealed that a prosecutor from Gardner’s office, who was on maternity leave, had her signature forged in more than 20 cases. When the prosecutor failed to appear in several cases, a murder suspect was released. Additionally, in May of 2022, reporters exposed that Gardner’s office had a backlog of over 4,400 cases. This number astonished many St. Louis crime experts and disappointed many St. Louis citizens. For comparison, Missouri’s other major city, Kansas City, has 1,700 pending cases in its whole county, which has a much bigger population than St. Louis. Additionally, next-door St. Charles County only has 640 cases under review. Furthermore, prosecutors from surrounding areas offered to help Gardner’s office with their caseload and short staffing, but she turned them down. Gardner never commented on her reasoning. Possibly, she did not want to appear politically weak or in need of help. It is also possible that partisan concerns stopped Gardner from agreeing to the partnership since the other prosecuting attorneys were Republicans and Gardner is a Democrat. This negligence became the focus of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
Riley was under house arrest for a 2020 armed robbery case that Gardner’s office was prosecuting, but had violated his house arrest more than 40 times.
Under Missouri law, a prosecutor can only be removed through a legal process. Bailey issued Gardner an ultimatum: resign or be faced with legal proceedings. When Gardner failed to resign, he filed a petition of quo warrant. According to KSDK his petition argues that Gardner “failed to prosecute cases,” “failed to confer and inform victims” of case developments, and “failed to charge new cases.” According to legal experts, to remove Gardner, Bailey will have to prove that her conduct was “willful, fraudulent or neglectful.” A judge appointed to the case gave Gardner two weeks to respond to the petition on February 27. If the court finds her negligent and removes her, most likely Missouri Governor Mike Parson would choose her replacement. This appointment could have many consequences for the St. Louis region. This reason may explain why many local groups, such as the St. Louis NAACP, have chosen to stand by Garnder despite the many failings of her office.
The growing case against Gardner has resulted in impacts to the St. Louis and Missouri governments. As part of the removal proceedings against Gardner, Bailey subpoenaed St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and Comptroller Darlene Green. He requested all their communication with Gardner from January 1, 2017 to March 2, 2023. The Mayor and Comptroller have until March 13 at 9 a.m. to comply with the subpoena. These proceedings will be one of Bailey’s first public moves as Missouri’s attorney general. He was appointed to finish out the term of Eric Schmitt who was elected to the United States Senate last November. The past two Missouri attorneys general (Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt) are the current Missouri senators, so Bailey may have his eye on a higher office. Many Missourians will see him for the first time during Gardner’s removal proceedings, and it is possible this publicity impacted his decision to take on Gardner and will continue to impact his handling of the case. Other state leaders
have criticized Gardner as well.
The Missouri House of Representatives recently passed a crime bill to allow, among many things, the governor to appoint a special prosecutor to handle certain violent crimes in areas where the homicide case rate exceeds 35 per 100,000 people. Currently, St. Louis is the only jurisdiction in Missouri that meets this standard. Supporters of Gardner say that this bill is an attempt to take away her power. Others say that this bill goes against the idea of the independent prosecutor system in Missouri. The Missouri Senate held hearings on this bill, and its fate remains unknown. If passed, this bill will have detrimental effects on Gardner’s office and on the circuit attorneys that come after her. Possibly, the authors of this bill want to push local leaders and other prosecutors to encourage Gardner to resign. Gardner, however, refused to resign and pushed back against claims of negligence and incompetence.
Gardner painted herself as a victim during this controversy. She called the petition to remove her “a political stunt of an unelected individual who wants to use politics to suppress the voters of St. Louis.” She decried the attempts to remove her as racist attacks. She also claimed this incident led to harassment of her employees. However, several prominent Democratic St. Louis leaders are among those who signaled their lack of faith in Gardner. Mayor Jones even tweeted out “I hope the Circuit Attorney recognizes that seeking accountability and change is not ‘pointing fingers.’” If she cannot do so, then she must do some serious soul-searching about her future as circuit attorney because she has lost the trust of the people. When you have lost the trust of your allies, perhaps it is time to consider resigning.
Emily Woodruff ‘24 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at ewoodruff@wustl. edu.