ST. LOUIS — A former prosecutor says she wants to turn over evidence in a lawsuit that seeks to oust her former boss, but the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Circuit Attorney’s Office is trying to stop her.
resigned from the circuit attorney’s office on April 14 after handling homicides and other violent felonies. Before she left, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which filed suit earlier this year to remove Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner from office, ordered Ogurkiewicz through a subpoena to turn over documents about her training, authority to make offers for plea agreements, and other case data.
But attorneys for Gardner’s office filed a motion to throw out several subpoenas, including the one for Ogurkiewicz, claiming they were overly broad and violated state law. Ogurkiewicz says they have no authority to do so, and she wants to turn over the documents.
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“Ms. Ogurkiewicz recognizes the importance of the issues at stake to those she took an oath in this litigation, and accordingly intends to comply with the subpoena directed to her,†the filing states.
The filing is the latest jab in a legal battle over the future of the Circuit Attorney’s Office. Gardner has faced criticism for years for understaffing and in her office. Those complaints came to a head in February when , a 21-year-old who was out on bond in a pending robbery case despite violating the conditions of his GPS monitor dozens of times, was charged in a car crash that injured a visiting ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
Politicians of all persuasions called for Gardner to stop down. The state legislature ramped up an effort to , and Attorney General Andrew Bailey .
Last week, Gardner in the removal suit. Attorneys for her office said they should not have to turn over the bulk of items listed in a 59-point subpoena from the attorney general’s office.
On Wednesday, they doubled down on many of those points in a filing, arguing that Bailey’s office had “deliberately created a scenario of overbroad requests.â€
“He asks for that which he cannot receive, hoping to complain of not receiving it,†attorneys wrote.
But Ogurkiewicz questioned whether those attorneys — one from a Washington D.C.-based law firm and the office’s chief warrant officer, Chris Hinckley — could even argue subpoenas be quashed at all.
The Circuit Attorney’s Office, she argued, operates as a branch of the city that should be represented by the city, not a standalone entity that can hire its own attorneys.
They do not have the authority to stop her from turning over documents Ogurkiewicz has compiled herself, the filing states.
“Ms. Ogurkiewicz is ready, willing and able to comply,†it says.
Attorneys for all parties are set to appear again Tuesday for another hearing in the case.