ST. LOUIS - A new audit uncovers patterns of mismanagement and neglect within the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office during Kim Gardner's tenure as the city’s chief prosecutor.

Gardner served as the St. Louis Circuit Attorney from January 2017 to May 2023, stepping down after several legal battles and calls to resign. Throughout her tenure, she faced frequent criticism from state leaders, who pointed to low rates of convictions for violent crimes and high office turnover.

The audit identified numerous failures by Gardner’s office, including:

• A significant decline in the number of cases filed annually from 4,666 cases per year prior to Gardner to 2,529 during her administration.
• A notable increase in case refusal rates, with around 56% of referred cases being refused under Gardner.
• Delays in processing cases. On average, it took around 463 days to dispose of cases, exceeding the prior administration's 293 days.
• Gardner failed to dedicate her full-time attention to the Circuit Attorney's Office, spending time on personal coursework and missing crucial court appearances.
• Staff turnover rate of roughly 37% from the start to the end of her tenure.
• Inaccurate bank account reconciliations and unaccounted for funds in restitution and bad checks accounts.
• Lack of proper documentation in place.

"'A rudderless ship of chaos.' Those were the powerful words chosen by Judge Michael Noble in April of 2023 to describe the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office under Kim Gardner's leadership," Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said.

"We looked at a lot of indicators, and they all told us the same thing. Under Kim Gardner's leadership, the circuit attorney's office was becoming less and less effective of fulfilling its purpose."

Fitzpatrick gave Kim Gardner a poor performance, the lowest rating. He said Gardner prevented a state audit, dozens of employees quit, and the office even misused thousands of dollars of public funds.

"That is a restricted fund that is only allowed to be used for costs associated with prosecuting cases, which include bringing in witnesses from out of state and actually prosecuting people that have been charged with crimes," Fitzpatrick said.

He said the state found $58,000 used for food, chili cook-outs, party rentals and more.

"There is no way to draw a line between a DJ and going to court to prosecute someone charged with a crime," Fitzpatrick said. 

According to Fitzpatrick, the audit found there to be around 6,700 cases entered by law enforcement but never entered into the circuit attorney's office system during Gardner's tenure.

"This is a shocking number of cases to be never looked at by prosecutors, and it further illustrates Kim Gardner's disastrous performance as circuit attorney," the state auditor said.

Additionally, Fitzpatrick said that the auditor's office collected subpeona records from Saint Louis University, which determined 40 separate instances of classwork during her normal business hours as the Circuit Attorney.

It was determined to be 29 full days and 11 half days, or what Fitzpatrick described as "approximately seven weeks" she spent to pursue her nursing certification during hours she was expected to be working as a Circuit Attorney. According to the audit, Gardner repaid $5,000.

"Of course, there's more than one factor that contributed to the office's decline, but in my view, the driving force was Kim Gardner's failure to make her job as circuit attorney her top priority," Fitzpatrick said.

The state's audit began in 2018 after Fitzpatrick said Gardner ignored the state's subpoenas for months and that she further hindered the audit process by delaying responses, limiting access to records, and restricting interviews.

"When we finally spoke with Ms. Gardner, she placed the blame on the COVID-19 pandemic for the decline in office performance," Fitzpatrick said.

However, the audit suggests the decline began before the pandemic, Fitzpatrick said.

The audit cited suggestions for future administrations to improve case processing times, enhance staff training and retention, and ensure greater accountability in handling office expenditures.

"I think she definitely owes the citizens of St. Louis who paid her and put her in office an apology," Fitzpatrick said. "Yeah, she failed to do her job."