Global Courant 2023-04-29 21:56:43
A Missouri judge on Thursday detained a George Soros-funded prosecutor for “indirect criminal contempt” after she and her subordinates failed to show up for multiple court hearings, taunting her office as a “motionless ship of chaos.”
Judge Michael Noble announced he will appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the contempt case against St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, the city’s top prosecutor, and Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Desilets after no one from Gardner’s office showed up at a trial and the subsequent hearing in an assault case that injured an 11-year-old girl.
“It appears that Ms. Gardner has complete indifference and a conscious disregard for the judicial process,” Noble said at a hearing to address the no-shows. “There is sufficient evidence of contempt and disregard for judicial process to determine that the conduct of both Ms. Gardner and Mr. Desilets supports a finding of indirect criminal contempt. In addition, any violation by an attorney of a court order constitutes a willful disobedience and demonstrates a clear intent to disregard the power and authority of the judicial process.”
The contempt case comes as Gardner, already mired in negligence and misconduct charges, faces a legal effort from the Missouri Attorney General to have her fired for allegedly neglecting her duties. Gardner is one of the first progressive prosecutors to fund Soros, a liberal billionaire and Democrat mega-donor, in 2016 and again for her 2020 reelection. She announced last month that she is seeking a third term.
In a January 13, 2020 file photo, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner speaks in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jim Salter)
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Noble began Thursday’s hearing by noting that Gardner was not there and sent Assistant District Attorney Rob Huq as her designee. However, Huq had trouble answering questions about the assault case when questioned by Noble.
“I asked for a designee, but you sent someone who was incapable of being in Ms. Gardner’s shoes,” Noble said.
The assault case that Gardner is potentially being held in contempt involves suspect Steven Vincent Jr., who faces nine charges, including first-degree assault, after police say he shot a gun in a St. Louis neighborhood and hit an apartment building. Bullets went through the wall and one hit an 11-year-old girl sitting in her bedroom.
Vincent’s trial was scheduled to begin on April 10, but Desilets did not appear. Another prosecutor told Noble at the time that Desilets had to miss court for a doctor’s appointment. The judge then asked Desilets to appear in court on Monday, April 24, for a hearing with evidence of the doctor’s appointment and to reschedule the start of the trial. However, Desilets then also failed to show up, prompting Noble to summon Gardner or a designated person, as well as Desilets, to appear at Thursday’s hearing.
Desilets explained that he had not been there on Monday because he had to deal with cases before another judge that morning, adding that when he finished and went to Noble’s courtroom, no one was there. When asked why he had not notified the court that he would be late, Desilets said that all attorneys in the St. Louis circuit are routinely late between multiple courts. unemployed.”
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, right, and Ronald Sullivan, a Harvard law professor, arrive at the Civil Courts Building on May 14, 2018. (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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However, the judge was in no mood for an apology and placed most of the blame on Gardner. After describing Gardner as “the captain of the ship” early in the hearing, he concluded the proceedings by using another sailing analogy.
“The circuit’s attorney’s office seems to be a rudderless ship of chaos,” said Noble. “Kim Gardner is the circuit attorney and her job is to manage the case of each member of staff. Chris Desilets has about 104 felony cases. Any prudent practitioner would expect such a case to cause countless irreconcilable conflicts. It doesn’t seem like that she has done so. has made every reasonable effort to avoid the ensuing chaos.”
Ongoing staffing issues have plagued Gardner’s office, which has long been understaffed and now reportedly has just three prosecutors to handle hundreds of felony cases.
Gardner, who took office in 2017, had more than a 100% turnover rate for lawyers in her first two years in office and employed about half as many lawyers earlier this year as when she took the job. The effects of the high turnover in Gardner’s office were “a state of dysfunction, low morale and a lack of legal wisdom necessary to protect the public from potentially dangerous criminals,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch previously reported. .
Earlier this month, one of the few remaining district attorneys handling the city’s most violent crimes abruptly resigned, citing a “toxic work environment” in which the basic prosecutor’s duties were not being accomplished.
Law enforcement officers are investigating the scene of a shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School on Monday, October 24, 2022 in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
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Noble’s harsh words for Gardner came just days after another judge disdained Gardner in court after prosecutors from her office failed to show up for a murder trial.
An 18-year-old was due to go on trial Monday on charges of murdering a man in 2021, but no one from Gardner’s office appeared in court. The prosecutor assigned to the case is on sick leave.
“This conduct frustrates and defeats the authority of the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis,” Judge Scott Millikan wrote in his filing, ordering Gardner’s office to demonstrate why she should not be held for criminal contempt and ordered to pay a fine or face imprisonment.
Millikan ultimately chose not to scorn Gardner, but lamented that the matter “fell between two stools”.
This wasn’t the first time Gardner’s prosecutors failed to show up. Several hearings have been postponed in recent months because no one from her office was present to argue them. In 2021, Gardner came under fire after three murder cases under her jurisdiction were dismissed within a week because prosecutors in her office failed to show up for hearings or were unprepared. Authorities later learned that the district attorney who failed to show up for one of the trials that was completely dismissed was given 30 cases while on maternity leave.
Another increasingly common problem for Gardner is the denial and resubmission of cases as her understaffed office struggled to prepare for trials. Earlier this month, for instance, prosecutors dismissed and re-filed charges against two men accused of killing a father and his seven-year-old daughter, likely delaying the trial by months. According to an investigation by the local CBS-affiliated KMOV, the reason for the dismissal and re-enrolment is that “the prosecutors were not ready for the trial,” which was due to take place in a few days.
George Soros delivers a speech at the 2023 Munich security conference. (Open Society Foundations/YouTube/video screenshot)
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The issues have only fueled pressure to oust Gardner, a Democrat, as Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, seeks to remove her from office. Bailey claims that Gardner is not enforcing the law or protecting public safety.
For years, Gardner’s office was criticized for mishandling cases and dysfunction of the office. The last straw for Bailey came in February, when a teenage volleyball player visiting St. Louis with her team was hit by a car and lost both her legs.
The man was charged with assault, armed criminal action and operating a motor vehicle without a valid license in the accident, and was on bail awaiting trial for a separate armed robbery charge despite violating the terms of his bail on dozens of occasions . Gardner argued that her office had tried to put the suspect back in jail, but a judge denied their request. However, there are no court documents from her office, which is responsible for overseeing compliance with bond terms and revoking them when those terms are violated, and is asking for Riley’s bond to be revoked, according to local reports.
Both Republicans and Democrats across Missouri called for Gardner’s resignation following the incident. Bailey filed a petition quo warranto, the legal mechanism under state statute that allows the attorney general to fire a prosecutor who neglects his duties.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey speaks to members of the media following oral arguments outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, February 28, 2023. Photographer: Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Bailey claims that nearly 12,000 criminal cases have been dismissed into what he calls Gardner’s failures. He also says that more than 9,000 cases were dismissed because they were about to go to trial, forcing judges to dismiss more than 2,000 cases due to what Bailey described as a failure to provide evidence and speedy trials to the defendants.
Gardner, who has refused to leave office, called Bailey’s efforts a political witch hunt and a form of “voter suppression”, suggesting that racism and sexism are behind some of the criticism of her.
A judge in St. Louis has set a tentative trial date for September 25 to hear arguments from both sides.
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Meanwhile, Noble said Thursday he will allow Gardner and Desilets to hire attorneys and seek evidence to defend themselves against the contempt charge. Both prosecutors could face jail time or a fine if found guilty. A hearing is scheduled for May 30.
Gardner’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Aaron Kliegman is a political reporter for Fox News Digital.
