ST. LOUIS — Police leaders are accusing St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner of allowing drug evidence and unclaimed property to pile up, and now a judge has ordered evidence from nearly 7,000 drug cases be destroyed to eliminate the health risk it poses to crime lab workers.
Judge Jason Sengheiser issued his order at about 5 p.m. Monday, just hours after a 45-minute hearing.
Assistant St. Louis City Counselor Ray Flojo argued Fentanyl and marijuana have backed up at the crime lab, and Gardner’s office failed to respond to routine requests to destroy the evidence for almost two years.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department filed suit against Gardner’s office on Oct. 5, saying some of the drugs had developed mold and posed a safety risk to crime analysts who work there.
Gardner’s Assistant Circuit Attorney Rob Huq opened the hearing Monday by saying a cursory review of the cases showed at least 30 cases of the 6,890 cases in question were still open, and Gardner’s staff would need at least six more months to review them.
Flojo said the cases Huq cited dated to 2015 and 2019, the statute of limitations had likely run out on them, and most of them were drug possession cases. Flojo added Gardner’s office has had the list of thousands of cases to review since March 2021.
Sengheiser said he understood Huq’s concern, but added: “What am I supposed to tell the crime lab about how they're supposed to do their jobs on a day-to-day basis because you guys have delayed this since 2021. I mean, I haven't heard any reasonable explanation as to why there was no response from that time until now.”
The judge asked Huq why there had not been any response.
Huq said, “I cannot speak to that.”
In his order, Sengheiser wrote: “It is clear that the only reason the Court is asked to make this decision is because of unexplained delay and mismanagement of the CAO. Normally, a hearing like this is not even necessary. However, there has been nothing but silence and delay from the CAO. The Court is simply not willing to risk the health and safety of people working in the crime laboratory because the CAO wants to look into old cases it likely cannot prosecute anyway due to the statute of limitations. Moreover, if it could prosecute those cases, it certainly should have told someone since there have been numerous inquiries since March 2021.”
Gardner refused a request for an interview and issued a statement, which read: “In every case, the Circuit Attorney’s Office is dedicated to ensuring that the office carries out its duty to prosecute criminal cases in a manner that seeks justice on behalf of the residents of the City of St. Louis. In order for justice to be served, the CAO is committed to ensuring evidence necessary for cases that remain open or have a possibility of appeal is not destroyed.”
In an email obtained by the I-Team, Assistant Crime Lab Director Mary Beth Carr forwarded emails dating to March 2021 to Gardner’s Chief Warrant Officer Chris Hinckley. In May 2021, she asked if he could help with the situation and added, “We’re drowning in drugs.”
He responded two hours later, stating, “’Drowning in drugs’…interesting. I’ll see what I can do.”
Carr checked in with Hinckley again in November 2021, but did not receive a response.
Maj. Eric Larson wrote an email saying he met with Hinckley on April 5 and “informed him of the critical nature of drug storage issue and that assistance was needed. He made no commitments or offered any timeline for assistance.”
“We are we are in a situation where there are so many drugs, something needs to happen in order for us to be able to function as a crime laboratory,” Carr said.
Carr also noted how Gardner’s office has complied with routine requests to destroy evidence in the past, including in February 2017, July 2019 and October 2020.
“We have drugs in every location that we can possibly put them in the drug unit, and it is very difficult to move around,” Carr said. “Eventually, we will be at a point of capacity that we cannot even do a 180 or a 360-degree turn within that room in order to be able to function and clearly move around the room to store the drugs.”
In an Aug. 4 letter to Gardner, Interim Chief Mike Sack wrote about the crime lab evidence issue, but also noted unclaimed property was piling up at police headquarters. Mayor Tishaura Jones’ Director of Public Safety Dan Isom was copied on the letter.
“The SLMPD is facing critical storage issues with unclaimed property,” Sack wrote.
He said the last time Gardner’s office signed off on a property purge was 2018, and his predecessor John Hayden had sent a letter to Gardner’s office as well.
“SLMPD members and the Circuit Attorney’s Office have had periodic meetings. It appears that any progress came to a halt in 2020. SLMPD members have reached out to the CAO’s office several times since then, but no progress has been made. Unfortunately, our storage space is not unlimited and prompt action is warranted.”
He asked that Gardner’s office file a motion for a property purge no later than Oct. 3.
The I-Team is waiting to hear back on whether that ever happened.