ST. LOUIS — The judge overseeing Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's effort to remove St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner from office has given the city's top prosecutor 11 more days to respond to the latest allegations against her.
Judge John Torbitzky gave Gardner until April 11 to respond to the 121-page amended petition Bailey filed against her on March 21. Originally, the judge gave her until March 31 to respond.
Gardner’s attorneys asked the judge Friday for an extension. The attorney general’s office opposed the extension.
“No further extensions will be granted,” Torbitzky’s order stated.
The judge further ordered all attorneys of record on the case to contact his chambers by 5 p.m. Wednesday regarding their availability during the week of April 17 for a hearing on “all pending motions, including any motions filed in response to the amended petition.”
In his order, Torbitzky also wrote how attorneys on both sides “are encouraged to confer on a date for the hearing in advance of contacting chambers. This order does not preclude counsel from setting any motion for hearing prior to April 17.”
That could open the door for the attorney general’s office to schedule a hearing on any of the motions that have been filed before April 17.
Also 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 a rare quo warranto petition to remove Gardner from office 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 amended petition.
Bailey accused Hinckley and Teer of being in 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.