While Kimberly Gardner’s office is struggling to hire enough people to function, she is constantly criticized for not appearing in court.
A judge in Missouri filed a motion on Thursday seeking to detain a lawyer who is being paid by George Soros in “indirect criminal contempt” for missing repeated court sessions. In court, the judge referred to her department as a “rudderless ship of chaos.”
St. Louis’s top prosecutor, Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, and her assistant, Circuit Attorney Chris Desilets, are being held in contempt of court, and Judge Michael Noble has stated that he would appoint a special prosecutor to handle the case. This is due to the fact that no one from Gardner’s office attended the trial and hearing for an assault case in which an 11-year-old girl was injured.
During a meeting regarding the absences, Noble stated, “Both Ms. Gardner and Mr. Desilets’ actions show enough disdain and disrespect for the court system to support a finding of indirect criminal contempt against them both.” Furthermore, if a lawyer consciously disobeys a court order, it demonstrates a lack of respect for the judicial system’s authority.
At the same time that Missouri’s attorney general is attempting to have Gardner dismissed for allegedly not doing her job, a contempt action has been filed against her. Gardner’s negligence and malfeasance have previously been alleged. Liberal billionaire donor Soros backed Gardner’s 2016 election and plans to do so again in 2020. To our knowledge, Gardner is Soros’s first radical legal client. She declared her candidacy for a third term last month.
During Thursday’s meeting, Noble explained that Gardner was unable to attend and had instead sent Assistant Circuit Attorney Rob Huq. When Noble inquired further about the attack case, however, Huq was at a loss for words.
As the nobleman put it, “I asked for a representative, but you sent someone who couldn’t stand in for Ms. Gardner.”
If Steven Vincent Jr., who is suspected of firing a revolver in a St. Louis neighborhood and striking an apartment building, successfully brings a contempt of court charge against Gardner, he may face jail time. The nine counts against him include one for first-degree assault. A girl of eleven sat in her bedroom when bullets pierced the wall and struck her.
The hearing for Vincent was scheduled to begin on April 10, but Desilets never showed up. Another attorney had already informed Noble that Desilets would be absent from court that day due to a doctor’s appointment. The judge scheduled a hearing for Monday, April 24, and instructed Desilets to return then with documentation of his doctor’s visit. The court also requested a new trial schedule. Both times, though, Desilets was noticeably absent. Due to this, Noble has requested the presence of Desilets and Gardner or a representative at the meeting this coming Thursday.
Desilets explained that he was unable to make it on Monday because he had to attend to some business with another judge first thing that day. Aside from that, he claimed that when he was done and went to Noble’s courtroom, he found it empty. Desilets responded to a question about his tardiness by saying that all lawyers in the St. Louis circuit are sometimes late because they go from one court to another. After that, he said, “Every lawyer is late to a division every day, unless he’s unemployed.”
However, the judge was not interested in hearing any explanations and placed the bulk of the blame on Gardner. The hearing began with him referring to Gardner as “the captain of the ship.” He finished his testimony with a nautical metaphor.
To paraphrase Noble: “The office of the circuit attorney looks like a ship with no captain and a lot of chaos.” “Circuit attorney Kim Gardner is responsible for handling legal matters for all employees. Approximately 104 charges have been brought against Chris Desilets. An experienced expert would recognize that dealing with that many instances simultaneously would create insurmountable hurdles. It appears that she has done little to quell the mayhem.
Staffing issues have plagued Gardner’s office for years, and now there are reportedly only three lawyers handling hundreds of felony cases.
More than all of Gardner’s attorneys departed during her first two years in office, which began in 2017. She had almost half as many lawyers working for her at the start of this year as she had when she first took office. Gardner’s office has had considerable turnover, which the St. Louis Post-Dispatch claims has caused “a state of dysfunction, low morale, and a lack of legal knowledge needed to protect the public from potentially dangerous criminals.”
This month, one of the city’s few remaining prosecutors for the most serious crimes abruptly resigned, citing a “toxic work environment” in which even the simplest prosecutorial duties were going undone.
A separate judge held Gardner in contempt of court just days ago after her counsel failed to appear for a murder hearing.
There was supposed to be someone from Gardner’s office there on Monday for the trial of an 18-year-old who is accused of murdering a man in 2021. The lead attorney had to take time off sick.
According to the document judge Scott Millikan filed, “this behavior undermines the authority of the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis.” He instructed Gardner’s legal team to explain why their client should not be found in criminal contempt and sentenced to a fine or jail time.
Even though Millikan ultimately decided not to hold Gardner in contempt of court, he was frustrated that Gardner’s case “fell through the cracks.”
Gardner’s attorneys skipped yet another court date. Several meetings had to be postponed over the past few months because no one from her office could attend and put up a fight. Three murder cases under Gardner’s supervision were dismissed in one week in 2021 due to absent or unprepared attorneys from her office. The attorney who failed to appear in court for one of the dismissed cases had been assigned 30 cases to handle while on maternity leave, as was later discovered by the powers that be.
Because her office lacks the manpower to prepare for trials, Gardner has had to dismiss and refile an increasing number of cases. Earlier this month, for instance, two men were charged and then re-charged with the murders of a father and his 7-year-old daughter. The trial date will likely be pushed out as a result. According to an investigation by KMOV, a local CBS affiliate, the case was dismissed and refiled because “the prosecutors weren’t ready for trial,” even though it had been scheduled to begin in the coming days.
Considering the current state of affairs, it is more crucial than ever to remove Gardner, a Democrat. Republican Andrew Bailey, the state’s attorney general, is seeking to get rid of her. Bailey claims that Gardner isn’t being responsible and isn’t concerned with the welfare of others.
Over the years, Gardner’s office has taken a beating for the way it processes cases and operates as a whole. A girl’s volleyball team was visiting St. Louis in February when one of their own was hit by a vehicle and tragically lost both legs. Bailey could no longer handle it.
The incident resulted in many charges against the guy, including assault, armed criminal activity, and driving while unlicensed. He had breached the conditions of his bond hundreds of times, yet he was still out on bond for another armed robbery case. Gardner stated that efforts by her staff to re-arrest the suspect had been denied by a court. According to local media reports, her office has not filed a motion with the court to have Riley’s release revoked, even though it is responsible for monitoring bond compliance and taking action when terms are not followed.
Both Missouri’s Republican and Democratic leaders have called on Gardner to resign in the aftermath of the incident. As the legal procedure for the state’s attorney general to remove a prosecutor who isn’t doing their job, Bailey filed a petition quo warranto.
Bailey claims that around 12,000 criminal charges have been dropped due to Gardner’s errors. He also claims that over 9,000 cases have been dismissed just before trial. According to Bailey, judges had to toss out over 2,000 cases because of insufficient evidence and lengthy delays.
Gardner has shown no signs of leaving his post. He has claimed that part of the criticism leveled at Bailey is motivated by race and gender, and that her activities amount to a “political witch hunt” and an attempt to “suppress the vote.”
The trial, where either party can present their case, is scheduled to begin on September 25 in St. Louis.
On Thursday, Noble stated that Gardner and Desilets would be allowed to retain legal counsel and conduct independent investigations in their defense against the contempt allegation. Both of them face possible jail time and/or monetary sanctions in the event of a guilty verdict. There will be a gathering on May 30.
Gardner’s staff did not provide comment for this article despite repeated requests.