Facing an attempt by the Missouri Attorney General to force her to resign for alleged neglect of her duties, the George Soros-funded prosecutor in St. Louis is now hit with new complaints of negligence and possibly misconduct in the performance of her job.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner has a history filled with allegations of misconduct and mishandled cases in her current job, facing admonition for failed prosecutions and what critics have considered soft-on-crime policies.
Such outrage continued over the past week, with Gardner’s office hit by a flurry of bad headlines and criticism that won’t help the embattled accuser, who is already in a legal battle to keep her position.
Earlier this week, a judge in St. Louis cleared Gardner’s office for withholding evidence in a double homicide case and releasing the suspect on bail.
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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Alex Heflin, 23, had been in jail without bond since January, initially charged with two counts of manslaughter and armed criminal action, according to local NBC affiliate KSDK. However, those charges have been reduced to involuntary and voluntary manslaughter. Heflin was scheduled to face trial on April 17, but the trial has now been postponed to June 12, with a pretrial conference scheduled for May 17.
This week, Judge Theresa Counts Burke ruled in favor of Heflin’s attorneys, who filed a motion accusing one of Gardner’s assistant circuit attorneys of violating discovery rules that required prosecutors to turn over evidence, including DNA reports and a recording of a 911 call.
“The court finds that the state has repeatedly delayed in obtaining discovery and providing it to the defense,” Burke wrote. “There was a lack of diligence on the part of the state to follow up and inform the defendant in a timely manner. As a result of the actions of the state and lack of diligence, the court grants the defendant’s second motion for sanctions .”
The Circuit Attorney’s Office has provided Fox News Digital with a statement saying it is working diligently to pursue justice in the case.
“In this case, the Circuit Attorney’s Office is working with law enforcement to bring justice on behalf of the residents of the City of St. Louis, the victims and their families,” a spokesman said. “The CAO is doing everything it can to hold the defendant accountable. The CAO has spoken to the family and will continue to work to ensure that justice is served.
Janae Edmondson was standing in a crosswalk with her parents on her way home from a volleyball tournament when police claimed Daniel Riley sped through a give way sign and hit her and another car. (City of Smyrna, St. Louis Police Department)
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“In any event, the Circuit Attorney’s Office is committed to ensuring that the office fulfills its duty to prosecute criminal cases in a manner that seeks justice on behalf of the residents of the City of St. Louis,” the spokesperson added.
However, in another case, Gardner’s office is under scrutiny for doing the exact opposite.
On Wednesday, St. Louis prosecutors dismissed and refiled charges against two men accused of killing a father and his 7-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 a trial,” which was due to take place within days.
Prosecutors did the same in the case in July, days before the alleged killers were due to go on trial, delaying the prosecution and both the families of the victims wanting justice and the defense lawyers, who want their clients to have their day in court. to have public, to become angry. court.
Case dismissals and refiles are becoming more common as Gardner’s understaffed office, which has lost several attorneys in recent years, has struggled to prepare for trials. Last year alone, prosecutors dropped and refiled at least a dozen homicide cases, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch analysis.
Kimberly Gardner (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tribune News Service via Getty Images | AP Photo/Jim Salter)
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The effect of the high turnover in Gardner’s office has been “a state of dysfunction, low morale and a lack of legal wisdom necessary to protect the public from potentially dangerous criminals,” the Post-Dispatch previously reported.
On Thursday, Gardner’s office appeared to blame the police for having to dismiss and resubmit the double homicide case.
“In this case, the CAO failed to provide timely evidence due to recognized staffing challenges in the police department,” Gardner spokeswoman Allison Hawk said in a statement.
The St. Louis Police Officers’ Association responded by criticizing Gardner’s office for trying to deflect blame.
“Police officers should not be scapegoated for an overworked, overdue and mismanaged Circuit Attorney’s Office,” the union said in a statement.
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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Gardner’s office provided KMOV with an identical statement on this matter to the one it provided to Fox News Digital on the Heflin case.
Meanwhile, the attorney for a man accused of hitting teen volleyball star Janae Edmonson with his car and causing her to lose her legs has pleaded not guilty on behalf of his client, but a judge was required to print a copy of the indictment. for him in court. That’s because Daniel Riley’s attorney, Dan Diemer, told the presiding judge that he never got a copy of the indictment for his client from Gardner’s Office, so the judge printed one for him while he was in court , according to local reports.
To make matters worse, the case’s assistant circuit attorney did not appear at the hearing, but his wife – Jamie Myers, the chief felony prosecutor in Gardner’s office – did appear, but never spoke in court.
“As chief of the firm’s felony division, Assistant Circuit Attorney Jamie Myers directs associate court for the Circuit Attorney’s Office,” Gardner spokeswoman Allison Hawk said in a statement. “She is handling these charges and was there this morning as she routinely does as part of her job responsibilities.”
Edmonson lost her legs in the incident while visiting St. Louis with her volleyball team. Riley, the man charged with assault, armed criminal action and operating a motor vehicle without a valid license, was out on bail awaiting trial for a 2020 armed robbery charge and, according to local reports, had served at least 50 times the terms of his bail breached.
George Soros delivers a speech at the 2023 Munich security conference. (Open Society Foundations/YouTube/video screenshot)
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There is no record of Gardner’s office, which is responsible for overseeing bond terms and revoke them when those terms are violated, asking for Riley’s bond to be revoked.
Such incidents couldn’t come at a worse time for Gardner, who faces a legal push from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to have her fired. In February, after the Edmonson tragedy, Bailey filed a petition quo warranto, the legal mechanism under state statute that allows the attorney general to fire a prosecutor who neglects her duties.
“This is about a body of evidence that shows her failure to prosecute cases, not inform and consult victims in cases, and not file new cases that have been referred by law enforcement agencies,” Bailey told Fox News Digital at the time. of the lawsuit. submit.
He said separately in a statement that Gardner “creates” victims rather than “protects” them.
On Thursday, Bailey subpoenaed the St. Louis City Comptroller’s Office and Budget Division, indicating that as part of his multifaceted effort to remove Gardner, he is attempting to investigate her office’s finances.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Gardner is one of the first accusers to fund Soros, a liberal billionaire and Democrat mega-donor, in 2016 and again for her 2020 reelection.
Her campaign website states that she has “made prison a last resort, reserved for those who pose a real risk to public safety”, while limiting “the arrest and detention of people charged with felonies and minor crimes” .
During Gardner’s tenure, crime spiked in St. Louis, with the city having a near-record homicide rate. The past two years have been among the city’s deadliest in decades, despite seeing fewer homicides than in 2020. Last year, WalletHub calculated that from July through September, St. Louis had the highest homicide rate per 100,000 of any city. US cities, making it the most dangerous city in the country due to its high crime rate and other dangers such as car accidents.
Amid high murder rates, Gardner has dismissed more cases, issued fewer warrants, charged fewer felonies, and prosecuted thousands less cases than her predecessor. As part of her reform initiatives, she has also deferred prison sentences for misdemeanor and nonviolent crimes.
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Gardner says this is all part of its “platform to reduce the number of cases that are unnecessarily charged to focus on the more difficult cases for trial.”
However, 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.
Gardner has refused to leave office during Bailey’s investigation, calling it a political witch hunt and suggesting racism was to blame for some of the criticism leveled at her.
Aaron Kliegman is a political reporter for Fox News Digital.