A former Democratic prosecutor in St. Louis admitted she should not have used thousands of dollars in public funds to pay herself after she was fined for mistakes during the prosecution of a Republican governor, federal authorities announced Wednesday.
Kim Gardner resigned under fire last year after being elected the city’s first black circuit attorney in 2016. She will avoid federal criminal charges for misusing the $5,004 in public funds as long as she pays it back and follows the other rules of a preliminary diversion agreement. She signed the agreement last summer and it was finalized this month.
Gardner was part of a movement of progressive prosecutors who sought mental health or substance abuse treatment for low-level crimes, vowed to increase police accountability and freed prisoners who had been wrongfully convicted.
She was often criticized by Republican leaders who cited low homicide conviction rates, high turnover and other concerns. Before her tumultuous term ended in May 2023, she frequently clashed with police and conservatives.
In 2018, she charged former Gov. Eric Greitens, then a rising star in Republican politics, with a misdemeanor charge of invasion of privacy, accusing him of taking a compromising photo of a woman during an affair. The charges were eventually dropped. Greitens resigned in June 2018.
Investigation of the case led to the conviction of Gardner’s investigator, and Gardner received a written reprimand from the Missouri Supreme Court for problems with the way documents in the case were handled.
That reprimand, which spared her law license, also carried a $750 fine and additional costs of $4,254. Her lawyer said at the time that any errors were unintentional, the result of the heavy workload during the Greitens investigation.
Problems then arose, according to the diversion agreement, because Gardner directed her employees to issue a series of checks for the $5,004 from a St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office contingent fund to reimburse her, even though she was not entitled to the additional compensation. The city receives federal funds, which is how the U.S. attorney’s office got involved.
“This is a just and fair outcome to a case involving a former official and the misuse of public funds that fell just short of the minimum required under relevant federal criminal law,” U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming said in a written declaration.
Gardner’s attorney, Harvard professor Ronald Sullivan Jr., did not immediately respond to an email or phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a written statement that Gardner wanted to save the court’s time and resources by entering into the agreement.
“While Ms. Gardner was prepared to vigorously defend any allegations that may have been made against her, she and the government agreed to end any dispute and investigation with the pre-charge diversion agreement,” he said in an email -mail.
At the time of her resignation, Gardner was the subject of an impeachment attempt by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican. Republican lawmakers were considering a bill that would allow Republican Gov. Mike Parson to appoint a special prosecutor to handle violent crimes, removing most of Gardner’s responsibilities.
