St. Louis prosecutor threatened with contempt after no one in her office shows up at murder trial

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is facing contempt of court threats from a state judge after she failed to send anyone from her office to argue a murder trial, reported the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

"Jonathon Jones, 18, was set to face trial starting Monday on charges he shot and killed a man in 2021 near the Gateway Arch grounds, but no one from Gardner's office appeared for the beginning of trial. The prosecutor assigned to the case is on sick leave," reported Katie Kull. "Judge Scott A. Millikan filed an order for Gardner's office to show cause for why she should not be held in criminal contempt and ordered to pay a fine or face jail time."

In the order, Millikan wrote, "This conduct thwarts and defeats the authority of the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis."

"Gardner's office has faced years of criticism for understaffing and organizational dysfunction. Several hearings in recent months have been delayed because no one from Gardner's office showed up to argue them, and in 2021, a murder case was dismissed altogether because a prosecutor failed to show up for trial. Authorities later learned the prosecutor had been assigned 30 cases while on maternity leave," said the report. "And the office has a dwindling number of staffers to call for help. In recent weeks, multiple prosecutors who handle the city's most serious felonies have left Gardner's office, including one who wrote of a "toxic work environment" in her resignation letter."

This comes as Missouri's Republican Attorney General, Andrew Bailey, is seeking to remove Gardner from office.

Republicans in Missouri have been enraged at Gardner ever since the investigation of former Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in disgrace after a sex scandal. Last year, an ethics probe looked into Gardner's conduct during the Greitens investigation, and she was fined $750 by the state Supreme Court but allowed to keep her law license.

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