Dem attorney Kim Gardner hit with subpoena amid legal battle to remove her from office
Kim Gardner is concurrently fighting a legal action from state AG to have her removed from office for negligence
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has been subpoenaed by a Missouri state auditor to hand over documents as part of an ongoing audit of the city of St. Louis as Gardner faces a separate effort to have her removed from office.
Scott Fitzpatrick issued a subpoena against Gardner and the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office, asserting that Gardner’s office missed multiple deadlines of a document request.
Subpoenaed documents include bank statements, credit card statements, policy guidelines and other information. Fitzpatrick says his office originally requested these documents on Jan. 23 with a deadline of Feb. 14, according to Fox 2.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We’ve tried to work with the Circuit Attorney’s Office, but my patience has run out," Fitzpatrick told the local news outlet. "Serious questions have been raised about the performance of Kim Gardner’s office, and the fact that she refuses to produce basic financial documents for review is extremely concerning."
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St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner speaks in St. Louis on Jan. 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Jim Salter.)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The people of St. Louis, through their Board of Aldermen, have requested this audit, so when Ms. Gardner continues to evade her responsibility to produce critical documents as requested, she isn’t just refusing to cooperate with the State Auditor’s office, she’s also refusing to cooperate with her own constituents," Fitzpatrick told Fox 2.
The subpoena comes roughly a week after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a petition quo warranto to remove Gardner from office, claiming that Gardner has been negligent in her duties as city attorney.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner and Ronald Sullivan, a Harvard law professor, arrive at the Civil Courts building on May 14, 2018. (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.)
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Bailey claims that Gardner was negligent in the prosecution case against 21-year-old Daniel Riley, who had been out on bail after violating his bond multiple times. Riley struck teenager Janae Edmondson, who had been visiting St. Louis with her family to play in a volleyball tournament.
Police say Riley was speeding, failed to yield and caused a collision, and then struck and pinned Edmondson, who remains in the hospital after both her legs were amputated after sustaining injuries from the crash. Bailey says that Gardner is responsible for Riley's release on bond, but Gardner has denied that claim and said she had asked one judge to revoke Riley's bond.
Janae Edmondson was in a crosswalk with her parents on her way home from a volleyball tournament when Daniel Riley allegedly sped through a yield sign, striking her and another car. (Town of Smyrna, St. Louis Police Department.)
In a court filing late last week, GOP AG Bailey asked Judge John P. Torbitzky of the Eastern District of Missouri Court of Appeals, who is presiding over the case, to require Gardner to sit for the recorded testimony on April 14.
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On Monday, Judge Torbitzky set a deadline of 14 days for Gardner to respond to that quo warranto, giving her until March 13 to respond in court.