ST. LOUIS — The addition of another prestigious legal mind to the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office this week showed the continued progress circuit attorney Gabe Gore is making to fill the holes left over from his predecessor’s controversial reign.
Gore created a new position called chief training officer and filled it with former Missouri Supreme Court Judge George Draper III.
Now, the prosecutors in his office will have someone with a rare legal resume of having served at every level of the state’s judiciary to look to for advice and guidance in handling cases.
It is quite the get.
But, no matter how fast Gore moves, victims say they are still feeling the aftermath of the failures of former circuit attorney Kim Gardner’s administration in the courtroom.
This week, it hit the family of Matthew Nikolai.
The 17-year-old was struck and killed while crossing Chippewa Street in front of the Ted Drewes custard stand in front of his friends and family on July 29, 2022.
The case stayed in the news for days as police searched for the truck that hit the teen and took off.
Pictures of the truck with its front-end damage lead newscasts on the air and online.
A good samaritan at an auto body shop then tipped off police that a man was trying to get his truck fixed at a shop in south St. Louis County and his name was Jacob Adler.
Adler, then 25, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and tampering with physical evidence.
Gore took office on June 1 – more than a year after the crash.
Up until that point, no one from the prosecutor’s office had ever followed up with those who were with Adler at Biggie's restaurant in the moments before the crash to see if he had been drinking.
On Thursday, in court, the Nikolai family learned it still hasn’t happened.
They also learned Gore’s office was offering Adler a deal – seven years in prison.
But Adler is a first-time offender.
So, a judge could release him on probation after serving just 120 days.
The teen's mother, Maggie Nikolai, looked at assistant circuit attorney Bill Green with tears in her eyes and told him: "My son's life was worth more than 120 days."
A spokeswoman for Gore said the office would not comment on the case while it is still pending.
The deal was a surprise to Adler, too.
His attorney, Peter Bruntrager, told the court his client learned about it Thursday. Adler did not accept the offer, and his attorney requested a hearing to set a trial date.
Judge John Bird scheduled another hearing for 30 days from now to give both sides time to agree on a trial date that will happen next year should Adler not change his mind and accept the offer before then.
Adler and his family and friends filled the back row of the courtroom.
The Nikolais and four of their friends sat in the front row.
They wondered why there was no victim’s advocate from Gore’s office there, and said they have had to call the prosecutor’s office themselves to keep up with the case.
The Victim’s Advocate's Office was another civilian department left decimated by the Gardner administration.
As I watched all of this unfold in the courtroom Thursday, I thought about the press conference I covered announcing Draper’s hiring just two days before in front of a packed courtroom filled with additional new hires, lights, cameras and faces full of hope for the office.
And I couldn’t help but think about how it’s going to take some time before the effects of hires like Draper trickle down to victims like Nikolais.