ST. LOUIS — Byers' Beat is a weekly column written by Investigative Crime and Courts Reporter Christine Byers, who has covered public safety in St. Louis for 17 years. It is intended to offer context and analysis to the week's biggest crime stories and public safety issues.
The number one question everyone asks me whenever I report a story about former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is, "Will she ever be held accountable?"
The question resurfaced a lot again this week after our reporting on the Gardner Report, a 62-page document Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued summarizing his findings about how the former top prosecutor ran – or didn’t run – her office.
More than 25,000 police cases that were taken under advisement by her prosecutors were simply dismissed – no advisement taken.
Among the common themes found in the scathing report, crime victims were kept in the dark on their cases, defendants were often detained longer than necessary before court hearings, and assistant prosecutors were overworked and short-staffed.
Bailey’s investigators followed Gardner at least twice, catching her doing clinicals as part of a master's in nursing degree she had been pursuing since 2021. On the day Judge Michael Noble infamously called her office a “rudderless of ship of chaos,” Gardner spent most of that day in clinicals, too.
Bailey is now suggesting Gardner’s time in school could negate her sovereign immunity. That’s the legal term for the protections elected and government officials have that protect them from liability when they act in their official capacities.
In other words, by skipping work, she might've surrendered her only shield of legal protection from civil or criminal liability.
According to Bailey, that means she could be open to a civil lawsuit by any number of victims, defendants, or city officials who believe they were harmed because of her decisions.
“She undertook duties that were not part of her official duties and thereby waived her sovereign immunity,” Bailey said. “If there was harm caused because of those behaviors, potentially there's liability there as well.”
Gardner’s time in class is also problematic because the law states she must devote her time in its entirety to the duties of her office. Bailey says despite his investigators finding that she was not doing so, the law doesn’t have the teeth it needs.
This issue also came up after St. Louis County Executive Sam Page admitted he was moonlighting as an anesthesiologist during his time in office. His political foes argued he should be removed from office because he was not devoting his time in its entirety to the duties of his office. He claimed he was only working at the hospital on his personal time.
Ultimately, Page said he stepped away from his side job and remains in office.
Gardner resigned before a judge could rule on whether Bailey had enough evidence to remove her from office.
Bailey said someone could notify the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel about the evidence his office collected in the Gardner Report. That body could ultimately decide to disbar her.
Bailey also said he’s not done with his probe into her administration. He said her office refused to turn over thousands of documents requested as part of subpoenas – records the city still retains. Now that she’s out of office, he said he’s still going to go after those records, and he’s not sure where all that information could lead.
The next shoe expected to drop in the Gardner saga will be an audit, which Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick is leading into Gardner’s finances. That report will likely be released in January.
Should it show any discrepancies in how money was spent or accounted for, Bailey says Gardner could be charged with a crime.
And, that could mean jail time.
So, the short answer to the most often-asked question is: it’s not over.
There’s possibly more to come.