Missouri Releases Audit of Kim Gardner’s Office

Former Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner spent more than $50,000 without permission and allowed the rate of cases processed to crater while spending nearly 35 work days taking nursing courses, an audit from the Missouri State Auditor said.

“Taxpayers should be outraged by how this office was run into the ground by Gardner at the same time she was using tax dollars to throw parties for her staff, and to pay for her personal legal fees that were a result of her own incompetence,” Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said in a press release.

Fitzpatrick released the report Tuesday, three and a half years after the investigation started. The report said part of that delay was due to Gardner “repeatedly” ignoring or delaying requests from the auditor’s office for two years and only responding after being subpoenaed.

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Adolphus Pruitt heads the St. Louis NAACP and believes the audit findings are part of a culminating vendetta against the first Black prosecutor elected to that position.

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5 On Your Side had previously reported that Gardner spent work days studying for a nursing degree rather than fulfilling her duties as circuit attorney. {snip}

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The audit said Gardner oversaw a steep decline in cases processed and a significant increase in the length of time needed to dispose of cases.

According to the audit, Gardner’s office took an average of 463 days to dispose of a case. That was 170 days longer than the preceding administration and more than double the current administration’s average of 142 days. The Missouri Supreme Court recommends prosecutors clear 95% of case within 14 months, but Gardner’s office failed to do that, the audit said.

The audit found that in 2021, Gardner’s office was taking an average of 75 days between when cases were referred to her office and when charges were filed, more than seven times longer than any year reviewed in the audit from her predecessor Jennifer Joyce or the current office under Gabe Gore.

In addition to the slower clearance time, Gardner’s office was refusing charges more frequently. Her office refused charges 59% of the time. That was about a 40% higher rate than Joyce and Gore.

The audit said the number of cases filed decreased from an average of 4,666 cases per year during the prior administration to only 2,529 cases per year under Gardner’s time in the position.

Fitzpatrick also said there 6,700 cases referred by law enforcement, which sat in an email inbox, and were never entered into a case management system.

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Another issue found during the audit was the misuse of nearly $60,000 by her office.

The audit said her office maintained a contingency bank account outside of the city’s treasury, which violated state law. That money, which is supposed to be used to help prosecute cases with things like transporting out-of-state witnesses, was then used on things like party rentals, a Sam’s Club membership and paying Gardner’s personal legal fees.

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