St. Louis prosecutor spent weeks away from office while in nursing school, audit finds

[January 08, 2025]  By SUMMER BALLENTINE

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — St. Louis’ embattled former Democratic prosecutor Kim Gardner spent the equivalent of seven weeks in nursing school classes during business hours, according to a scathing report released Tuesday by the state auditor.

Republican Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick's review also found widespread staff turnover, misuse of public funds and a significant drop in cases filed, referred and closed before Gardner resigned under fire in 2023.

“In my view, the driving force was Kim Gardner’s failure to make her job as circuit attorney her top priority,” Fitzpatrick told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The audit found Gardner spent “34.5 working days, or approximately 7 weeks” doing nursing school coursework at Saint Louis University during business hours.

Gardner told auditors that she was pursuing a family nurse practitioner post-master’s certificate “to improve the office and bring mental health awareness” to the office.

The Associated Press left phone and email messages with lawyers for Gardner on Tuesday.

Other issues cited in the audit include more than $58,000 in public funds spent on flowers, a disc jockey, car detailing, an office picnic, a chili cookout and Gardner's personal legal expenses.

Getting information from the office while Gardner was in charge was difficult, according to auditors. Employees denied or delayed audit requests for two years until subpoenaed, and “full access to documents, personnel, and the office itself was only given after the new administration took over,” according to the audit report.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner sits behind her attorneys in a courtroom on April 18, 2023, in St. Louis, in the first hearing of a lawsuit by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey seeking to remove Gardner from office. (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, Pool, File)

Criticism of Gardner is not new.

At the time of her resignation, she was targeted for removal by Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey. And GOP lawmakers were considering a bill allowing the Republican governor to appoint a special prosecutor to handle violent crimes, effectively removing the bulk of Gardner’s responsibilities.

Gardner was part of a movement of progressive prosecutors who sought diversion to mental health treatment or drug abuse treatment for low-level crimes, pledged to hold police more accountable, and sought to free incarcerated people who were wrongfully convicted.

Republican leaders often criticized Gardner for a low homicide conviction rate, among other concerns. She frequently butted heads with police and conservatives.

In 2018, Gardner charged former Gov. Eric Greitens, then a rising star in GOP politics, with felony invasion of privacy, accusing him of taking a compromising photo of a woman during an affair. The charge was eventually dropped. Greitens resigned in June 2018.

Scrutiny of the case led to the conviction of Gardner’s investigator, and Gardner received a written reprimand from the Missouri Supreme Court for how her office handled documents in the case.

Gardner got into more trouble after she directed her employees to issue checks to pay off a $5,004 fine related to that case, although she wasn’t entitled to the additional compensation. She agreed to repay the money with her own funds to avoid federal prosecution.

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