ST. LOUIS — A judge has set an initial hearing date for the Missouri attorney general’s lawsuit seeking to remove St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner from office.
Judge John Torbitzky has scheduled a case management conference for April 18 and “all motions pending before the court at that time will be heard.”
Those motions include Gardner’s motion to dismiss Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s quo warranto petition.
The order comes one day after Torbitsky gave Gardner 11 more days to respond to 121 pages of new allegations against her, accusing her of willfully neglecting her duties as the city’s top prosecutor.
In Wednesday’s order, the judge outlined 12 topics he wants attorneys on both sides to be prepared to discuss during the April hearing, which include:
- The simplification of issues
- The necessity or desirability of amendments to the pleadings and the time within which to do so
- The possibility of obtaining admissions of fact and of documents that will avoid unnecessary proof
- The limitation of expert witnesses
- The sequence and timing of discovery
- The time for disclosure of experts, if any
- When documents prepared, reviewed, or received by a retained expert must be disclosed
- Whether to and to what extent any retained expert must disclose his or her publications
- Whether and to what extent any retained expert must disclose prior deposition or trial testimony or expert reports prepared
- The date by which this matter can be ready for trial
- Discovery of electronically stored information
- Such other matters as many aid in the disposition of the action
On Friday, Gardner’s Chief Warrant Officer Chris Hinckley filed a motion asking the judge to issue a protective order and to quash the subpoenas sent to employees in Gardner’s office including himself, Assistant Circuit Attorney Natalia Ogurkiewicz, former Assistant Circuit Attorney Marvin Teer and First Assistant Circuit Attorney Serena Wilson-Griffin.
Teer has announced he will be resigning from the office Friday.
Ogurkiewicz was the prosecutor assigned to the 2020 armed robbery case involving Daniel Riley. The case was scheduled to go to trail in July 2022, but Ogurkiewicz told the court the state was not ready to proceed. Riley then remained out on house arrest, violated it dozens of times including the day police say he crashed into 17-year-old volleyball player Janae Edmondson, causing her to lose both of her legs.
Gardner claims her office asked a judge to revoke Riley’s bond in oral motions, but there is no record that ever occurred.
Bailey filed the rare quo warranto petition to remove Gardner from office on Feb. 23 – not long after Edmondson was injured – accusing Gardner of “willfully neglecting her duties” as the city’s top prosecutor.
He then filed a barrage of subpoenas to Gardner, her employees, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and Comptroller Darlene Green. The mayor and comptroller have already produced about 30,000 documents, which served as some of the basis for the allegations within the amended petition.
Bailey accused Hinckley and Teer of contempt because they have not produced documents related to the subpoenas, according to court documents.
The attorney general is seeking information and documents related to the employees’ work for the office and office documents the employees may have access to, according to Hinckley’s motion asking the judge to quash the subpoenas and issue the protective order.
“The subpoenas should be quashed on the basis that they are unreasonable, oppressive, overly broad, unduly burdensome, in violation of Missouri public policy, and nothing more than an inappropriate fishing expedition,” Hinckley wrote.
Torbitzky has not issued a ruling on Hinckley's motion.
