JEFFERSON CITY — The path to Kimberly Gardner’s resignation as ºüÀêÊÓƵ circuit attorney began to take shape Wednesday after she spoke with Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo about the status of legislation designed to oust her from office.
Rizzo, D-Independence, had served with Gardner when the two were members of the House seven years ago. And, as the minority party’s leader in the Senate, he was charged with rallying his fellow nine Democrats to try and stop the Republican-led effort if the bill came up on the Senate floor in the closing days of the Legislature’s annual session.
“The bottom line was, she reached out to me. She wouldn’t talk to anybody. I was more than happy to continue to facilitate this … and that’s what happened,†Rizzo said Thursday.
In their initial talks, Rizzo told Gardner that Republicans who control the House and Senate were serious about enacting legislation that would appoint a special prosecutor to take on violent crime cases in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
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Gardner, he told her, was their “punching bag.â€
Her concern, according to Rizzo, was the future autonomy of the office, which she believes should be handled by someone elected by city voters, not a state-appointed prosecutor.
At 2 p.m. Wednesday, Rizzo met with Senate President Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, to discuss the matter with Gardner via phone.
“She was on speaker with some of her attorneys and we were just walking through the parameters of what it would or wouldn’t be,†Rizzo said. “We obviously came to a place where she would be willing to resign†if the legislation was dropped.
“There was an agreement in place that that would happen sooner than later,†Rizzo said.
But actions later in the day by Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican who is suing to toss Gardner from office, changed the initial trajectory of her decision by calling a news conference for 5 p.m. Wednesday and giving voice to “rumors†about Gardner’s possible resignation.
“At 2 p.m. yesterday the train was on the tracks and Andrew Bailey gets wind of it. Everyone over here was moving in the same direction to relieve this pressure and he was doing as much as he could to keep the pressure in the jar,†Rizzo said. “He’s trying to campaign and we’re trying to do the people’s work.â€
After tempers cooled, Rizzo said the plan was for Gardner to make an announcement at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. But that schedule was jettisoned after one of her assistant prosecutors, James K. Heitman, was killed in a fiery car crash on Interstate 270 Wednesday night.
“She called me late last night and said, ‘JJ, I can’t resign today. I just had one of my attorneys die in a car crash,’†Rizzo said.
At approximately 3:45 p.m. Thursday, Gardner submitted her resignation during a staff meeting. She departs June 1.