St. Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner to resign June 1 after weeks of resistance

ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner announced Thursday that, after weeks of blistering pressure from Missouri lawmakers, she would indeed resign.

In a letter addressed to Gov. Mike Parson, Gardner made no mention of the turmoil in her office nor the extensive staff departures in recent weeks. Instead, she said she was stepping down, effective June 1, to prevent the state Legislature from passing a bill that would strip her of most of her power and “permanently remove the right of every St. Louis voter to elect their Circuit Attorney.”

“The most powerful weapon I have to fight back against these outsiders stealing your voices and your rights is to step back,” she writes. “I took this job to serve the people of the City of St. Louis, and that’s still my North star.”

News of her departure sent shockwaves through the halls of the two downtown courthouses where victims, defense attorneys, judges and even Gardner’s own staffers had complained for months about critical office departures and widespread dysfunction. It also reverberated through the Capitol in Jefferson City where lawmakers had been debating a bill to strip her of power.

Officials across the region on Thursday welcomed Gardner’s departure. But many shared deep concerns about who would handle upcoming hearings, communicate with victims, and pick up the pieces of an office that now has roughly a third of the attorneys as when Gardner was elected.

St. Louis Circuit judges said in a statement Thursday that they were “deeply concerned about the high volume of serious criminal cases scheduled for trial in the coming weeks without assigned prosecutors.”

“We hope St. Louis’ next Circuit Attorney is successful in restoring stability to the office and rebuilding its ranks with experienced prosecutors,” the statement said.

Gardner’s supporters remained steadfast. “We just witnessed a modern-day lynching,” said Adolphus Pruitt, head of the local NAACP.

“It is unfortunate that all of the forces against Kim Gardner chose to make it impossible for the office to function in the way that it needed to,” he continued, “and in so many ways, chased away any talent that might have wanted to work for that office.”

Gov. Mike Parson will appoint Gardner’s replacement. He said in a statement he would immediately start the replacement process.

Gardner declined to speak to a Post-Dispatch reporter as she left an all-staff meeting at the Carnahan Courthouse on Thursday afternoon.

Gardner, 47, St. Louis’ first Black circuit attorney, swept into office in 2017 in a national wave of victories for progressive prosecutors, who pledged to be a unifying force and build public trust in the criminal justice system.

Negotiations begin

But she came under scrutiny within months of taking office for staff departures. Then, about a year into office, she indicted sitting Gov. Eric Greitens for taking a partially nude photo of a woman in a Central West End basement without her consent. But charges were eventually dropped, an investigator she hired pleaded guilty in federal court to concealing documents in the case, and Gardner herself was reprimanded by the Missouri Supreme Court and forced to pay a $750 fee in an ethics case over her office’s mishandling of evidence.

She continued to face public scrutiny over her “exclusion list” of St. Louis police officers, whose work she didn’t trust, and also for her decision to charge a Central West End couple with brandishing guns at racial justice protesters.

Still, Gardner was reelected for a second term in late 2020 in a landslide. She pledged to continue fighting for equality and criminal justice reforms in St. Louis.

But her second term brought more staff departures, leaving her with half the number of attorneys as when she took office. The state Legislature filed bills that would strip her of most of her power.

Then in February, the scandals intensified when a car speeding through downtown streets crashed, pinning between two vehicles a teen visiting St. Louis for a volleyball tournament, and leading to the amputation of both of her legs. The car’s driver, Daniel Riley, had remained free after court delays, despite violating his bond dozens of times.

Gardner’s office was widely blamed for delaying Riley’s trial and not filing to revoke bond. She, in turn, blamed a judge for not accepting a bond reduction request and released a statement: “This is not the time for finger-pointing,” she said then.

The reaction was swift. Many, including former allies, began calling for Gardner’s resignation. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit seeking her removal.

Gardner doubled down, calling the lawsuit a politically motivated attack on her office. She blamed subordinates for failures as the spotlight turned on individual case dismissals and delays. She announced she would run for reelection in 2024.

But prosecutors continued to resign.

Then, last week, a St. Louis judge found there was evidence Gardner should be held in contempt of court for failing to show up for a pair of court dates in an assault case. Bailey’s lawsuit cleared its first legal hurdle. And state senators announced they would debate a bill stripping Gardner of most of her power.

By Thursday, it was clear that Gardner had begun to negotiate her departure.

‘Years to clean up this mess’

Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, a Democrat from Independence, said Gardner reached out to him. Rizzo told Gardner that Republicans were serious about appointing a special prosecutor to take on violent crime cases in St. Louis.

At 2 p.m. Wednesday, Rizzo met with Senate President Caleb Rowden, a Republican from Columbia, to discuss the matter with Gardner via phone.

“She was on speaker with some of her attorneys and we were just walking through the parameters of what it would or wouldn’t be,” Rizzo said. “We obviously came to a place where she would be willing to resign” if the legislation was dropped.

Thursday afternoon, she called an all-staff meeting, told her staff she loved them, and said she would resign.

“We love you too,” staff members echoed.

Her letter to Parson came minutes later.

In it, she defended her tenure highlighting her office’s diversion programs, attention to police misconduct and work to overturn wrongful convictions, such as the one this year that successfully reversed the murder conviction of Lamar Johnson.

“We have achieved so many important victories together,” Gardner wrote. “But I cannot be the final Circuit Attorney ever to be elected in St. Louis. You must be able to have a voice in your criminal justice system.”

Still, on Thursday, city officials, attorneys and former staffers said Gardner had to leave.

Prominent St. Louis defense attorney Scott Rosenblum called her leadership untenable.

“This was overdue,” he said. “The office was running amok.”

Former assistant prosecutor Natalia Ogurkiewicz, who quit last month, blasted Gardner for taking “the easy way out.” She wanted to see what Bailey would uncover in trial.

“She asked for this fight and then she backed down so that the information would not get out, and the people in the city, the countless lives that she has ruined with all of this, they all deserve to have these answers,” she said.

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, a former Gardner ally, said no one wanted to see Gardner’s office fail.

“We are hopeful,” she said in a statement, “that the governor will work with local leaders to appoint a successor who reflects the values of communities across St. Louis.”

Defense attorney Terry Niehoff said recovery won’t come quickly.

“It’s going to take years to clean up this mess,” he said. “I’m relieved, but now the hard part of rebuilding this thing is going to take effect.

“It’s monumental.”

Kurt Erickson, Taylor Tiamoyo Harris, Erin Heffernan and Austin Huguelet of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Originally published at 3:48 p.m. Thursday, May 4.