ST. LOUIS — On two consecutive weekdays last year, a state investigator tracked former Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner to a medical clinic for underserved ºüÀêÊÓƵans.
It was April. Gardner’s office was severely understaffed. Prosecutors sometimes didn’t show up for trials. Two judges were threatening to hold Gardner in contempt. Elected officials were calling for her removal.
But on those days, Gardner — who later admitted she was taking nursing classes — went to the nonprofit Family Care Health Centers on Manchester Avenue.
She was there for at least three hours on the first day, according to a memo from an investigator assigned by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. And she returned the next day, at about the same time, though she left after sitting in her car for about 25 minutes.
Months earlier, Bailey had filed suit against Gardner, accusing her of neglecting ongoing cases, failing to keep victims informed and amassing a backlog of thousands of new charges submitted by police. Those actions, the suit claimed, made her “a usurper who must be removed from office.â€
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Late Wednesday, Bailey’s office released thousands of pages of documents gathered as part of that suit: city budgets, case files, charging information, at least one deposition, and videos and transcripts of Gardner’s public comments.
Among the records are also a series of photos and a memo that shed light on Bailey’s efforts to track Gardner’s work on her nursing degree.
Gardner’s office confirmed last year that Gardner was working on her degree at the time but said “any suggestion that she is not fully committed to her duties as Circuit Attorney is blatantly false.â€
“The issues in our criminal justice system often relate to our broken health care system,†spokesperson Allison Hawk said then.
Neither Gardner nor Bailey responded to requests for comment Thursday.
Gardner took office in 2017 on a progressive platform pledging to reform the justice system and build public trust in prosecutions. But within months of taking office she came under scrutiny for mass staff departures — a trend that would continue even when she was elected to a second term in 2020.
By early 2023 the circuit attorney’s office had roughly half the number of prosecutors as when she started. Cases were often delayed, and when judges wouldn’t grant continuances, they were dismissed and refiled to restart the clock.
State lawmakers revived an effort that would have stripped Gardner of most of her power.
Then, in February 2023, a car speeding through downtown streets crashed, slammed into another car and pinned a teen, who was visiting ºüÀêÊÓƵ for a volleyball tournament, between two cars, severing both of her legs. The car’s driver, Daniel Riley, had been free on bond after court delays despite the fact that he had violated the conditions of his release multiple times.
Gardner’s office was widely blamed for not revoking his bond. Calls for her resignation mounted.
Gardner doubled down, calling them political attacks.
But the pressure continued. In late April, two city judges filed to hold her in contempt after prosecutors failed to appear at two trials in consecutive weeks.
In one of those cases, Judge Michael Noble called a hearing for the afternoon of April 27. Gardner sent two deputies.
There, Noble called her office a “rudderless ship of chaos†and said she had a “complete indifference and a conscious disregard for the judicial process.â€
Now Bailey’s records show Gardner spent the morning at the nonprofit medical clinic.
Attorney general investigator Robert Jauer had driven to the Family Care Health Centers in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood, where, at 9:55 a.m., he spotted Gardner’s city-owned SUV parked outside.
Authorities suspected even then that Gardner was spending time on her coursework during the work week.
A few hours later, just before 12:45 p.m., Jauer watched Gardner leave the health center, and followed her back to her offices in the downtown courthouse.
The next day, Jauer did the same. But this time, Gardner didn’t get out of the car and left the medical clinic without going inside, Jauer wrote in his memo.
“The vehicle was later observed parked in front of the Carnahan Courthouse where it remained,†Jauer wrote.
The memo doesn’t say what Gardner was doing there on either day.
But Bailey’s office subpoenaed ºüÀêÊÓƵ University for records tracking Gardner’s student schedule and clinical work; none were included in the files obtained by the Post-Dispatch this week.
SLU has not responded to repeated requests for Gardner’s enrollment status.
Gardner abruptly stepped down as circuit attorney in May last year.
Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, appointed Gabe Gore, a longtime attorney at multiple prominent ºüÀêÊÓƵ firms, as her replacement. Bailey then dismissed his suit against Gardner.
In the months since, Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick has continued a review of Gardner’s office finances.
After months of searching, this week his office finally met with Gardner in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, said auditor spokesman Trevor Fox.
Fox said Thursday he could not say what was discussed.
But he said Fitzpatrick has subpoenaed ºüÀêÊÓƵ University, too, for Gardner’s dates of attendance, academic programs, transcripts, and class and clinical schedules.
“It was this subpoena,†Fox wrote in a text message, “that resulted in her current attorney reaching out to us, which ultimately led to her scheduling a time to meet with our auditors.â€