Soft on crime George Soros-backed prosecutors have been nothing short of a disaster for American cities. Things like not prosecuting low-level crimes and no cash bail have turned cities into lawless hellholes where criminals are clearly running the show. Fortunately, the people of many of those cities have spoken and sent those prosecutors packing. But in the case of former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, she apparently has come to the misguided conclusion that if no one can find her, all of her problems will just, poof, go away. If everything you have done is on the up and up, why do you need to hide?
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Developing: Missouri Officials Can’t Find Former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner – Is Accused of Misusing Taxpayer Funds and Rights Abuses. pic.twitter.com/dSyn1xI28m
— Laszlo Knows 🇺🇸 (@Laszlo99659) May 8, 2024
That seems to be exactly what Gardner is doing. An investigation into the practices of her office began in 2021 by then-State Auditor Nicole Galloway as part of a St. Louis citywide audit that the St. Louis Board of Aldermen had sought. Gardner had initially been cooperative with the investigation and provided some but not all of the requested documents. On Monday, current Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said that the investigation has now been delayed because auditors cannot locate Gardner to serve her with another subpoena.
The disappearing act Gardner has done has been a pretty effective one. State auditors have attempted to contact Gardner in a variety of ways including attempting to contact her attorneys, former coworkers, and have even made daily calls to phone numbers associated with Gardner but with no luck. Even calls to Gardner from the Associated Press were ignored. There have also been attempts to serve Gardner with a subpoena.
Kim Gardner’s tenure as St. Louis Circuit Attorney was turbulent from the beginning. She was elected in 2016 and became the Gateway City’s first black circuit attorney. She immediately followed in the path of fellow Soros-backed attorneys, opting for progressive “crime-fighting solutions” like mental health and drug abuse treatment for many low-level offenses. She was also criticized for low homicide conviction rates and what former prosecutors from her office have described as a hostile work environment resulting in high turnover rates and a hopelessly backed-up workload.
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You would think that a healthy relationship with the police would be a vital component of the Circuit Attorney’s office. Kim Gardner had anything but. In 2019, Gardner created a list of roughly 60 St. Louis city police officers whose cases she refused to accept in her office. She would not explain why those officers’ cases were prohibited, but a group called the Plain View Project had accused several of the officers of posting racist and anti-Muslim comments on social media.
Soros-backed former Democrat DA Kim Gardner is on the run, the Missouri State Auditor can’t locate her. These are Democrats, these are the type of people Democrats vote for.
— Harry (@harrytpk) May 8, 2024
In 2018, Gardner charged former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens with felony invasion of privacy when Greitens allegedly took a somewhat compromising photo of a woman with whom he was having an affair. The charge was ultimately dropped, and Greitens resigned in 2018. Gardner’s issues began to come to a head in February of 2023, when 16-year-old Jenae Edmonson, a volleyball player from Tennessee, was in town for a tournament and was hit by a car driven by a man who was out on bond while waiting to go on trial for armed robbery. Edmonson lost both of her legs in the crash. Gardner’s office was already under scrutiny from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. At the time, Bailey blasted Gardner’s office because the driver of the car that hit Edmonson, Daniel Riley, had violated the conditions of his bond numerous times.
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But the best part of Kim Gardner’s stint as St. Louis Circuit Attorney might have been the revelation in November of 2023 in a report by Bailey that, Gardner had been enrolled in a Master’s degree in Nursing program since fall of 2021. Before this came to light, Gardner had announced she would resign on June 1, 2023, from the Circuit Attorney’s office. However, she abruptly resigned on May 16, 2023. Nursing school may have been the reason Gardner did not have time to keep track of Daniel Riley.
Fitzpatrick stated of Gardner’s disappearing act:
“This is a pattern of behavior with Kim Gardner, who hasn’t shown a willingness to be transparent or accountable. Without question, she knows our audit is ongoing and that we want to speak with her about her time in office, but she has made no effort to comply with our requests or respond to our inquiries.”
As might be expected, Gardner says that Bailey’s charges against her are politically and racially motivated. You can run, but you can’t hide.
Auditor Fitzpatrick met with members of the media today to provide an update on the audit of the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office that has been delayed because of Kim Gardner’s unwillingness to make herself available to provide responses to audit staff.
“As I said when she… pic.twitter.com/ZBbOaSnOwP
— Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick (@Auditor_Fitz) May 6, 2024
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