Greetens case at center of investigation for St. Louis prosecutor
scheduled tribe. LOUIS — St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has reached a settlement with the Missouri Office of Disciplinary Counsel in which she admits mistakes in the conduct of the prosecution of former Missouri Governor Eric Greetens, but will not face severe penalties for those mistakes .
The “joint condition” settlement was announced Monday at the start of a disciplinary hearing before a three-person panel. In the settlement, Gardner admitted that she failed to produce the documents and mistakenly maintained that all documents were provided to Grettens’ attorneys in the 2018 criminal case.
The agreement stated that Gardner’s conduct was “reckless or perhaps reckless, but not intentional.”
In this a written reprimand has been sought. A more severe punishment — suspension or dismissal — would likely cost Gardner his job because state law requires elected prosecutors to hold an active law license.
The panel will still need to sign the agreement and make a recommendation to the Missouri Supreme Court within 30 days. It is not clear when the court may make a final decision.
Gardner, a 46-year-old Democrat, is St. Louis’ first black female circuit attorney and one of several progressive prosecutors elected in recent years with a focus on creating greater fairness in the criminal justice system. She told the panel on Monday that the mistakes were due to the fast-moving nature of the Grittens case.
“Yes, we had a process. But unfortunately, that process fell short,” she said, adding that her office has taken the matter as a “lesson” to move forward.
Grettens’ 2018 prosecution played a key role in his eventual resignation. Grittens is now attempting a political comeback and is a leading contender for the Republican nomination for a Senate seat, despite recent allegations of abuse by his ex-Telegraph.
The former Navy SEAL officer with presidential aspirations took a year into his first term when news of his affair with a St. Louis hairdresser surfaced three years ago in January 2018. The woman alleged that Greetens took the objectionable photo and threatened to use it as blackmail if it talked about their relationship.
“There was one victim, someone saying they were attacked,” Gardner’s attorney, Michael Downey, said in an interview.
But neither the FBI nor the St. Louis Police were inclined to investigate, Downey said. Gardner’s in-house investigator was away on military duty.
So Gardner hired private investigator William Tisabi, a former FBI agent. The investigation led to Grittens’ indictment on one felony count of invasion of privacy. Grittens claimed to have been the victim of a political witch hunt.
Jury selection had just begun when Gardner dropped the charge after a judge ruled that he would have to answer questions under oath from Grittens’ attorneys to handle the case. She said it put her in an “impossible” position to be a witness in the case she was prosecuting.
Meanwhile, Gardner filed a second charge accusing Grittens of tampering with computer data, which allegedly made a list of top donors to a veterans charity he founded, without permission to donate to his political fundraiser. disclosed.
Also under scrutiny by lawmakers, Greetens resigned in June 2018, and Gardner agreed to drop the criminal charges.
Then attention turned to how Gardner and Tisabi handled the investigation. In 2019, Tisabi was charged with six counts of perjury and one count of tampering with evidence. He pleaded guilty last month to tampering with evidence and received a suspended sentence of one year’s probation.
The case stems from Tisabi’s statement that he did not take the note during an interview with the woman, when a video later showed he had, and his statement that he had not received the note from the prosecutor’s office when he The woman was interviewed when the latter showed a document that she had.
Lawyers for Grittens expressed concerns about Gardner’s failure to correct the record on Tisby’s statements, and whether he concealed evidence.
Downey said that any mistake was unintentional, a result of Gardner’s heavy workload during the Grittens investigation.
Gardner has struggled a lot during his leadership of the circuit attorney’s office.
Last summer, charges in three murder counts were dropped in one week because prosecutors failed to appear in court or were unprepared after months of delay, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The newspaper also cited figures from the Circuit Court, which showed that nearly one-third of felony cases were dismissed – triple the percentage of its predecessor.
Gardner argues that his reforms have made the city safer and the criminal justice system more equitable. He has expanded a diversion program and stopped prosecuting low-level marijuana possession, which has helped ease prison overcrowding.
Gardner has often had conflicts with police, especially in 2019, when he placed dozens of officers on an “exclusion list,” preventing them from bringing cases. The list was developed after a national group accused officials of posting racist and anti-Muslim comments on social media.
In 2020, Gardner filed a lawsuit accusing the city, a police union and others of a coordinated and racist conspiracy aimed at ousting him from office. The lawsuit alleges a violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was adopted to thwart attempts to deny civil rights to racial minorities.
Downey said in a court filing that the ethical complaints included “another attempt by Ms. Gardner’s political enemies — primarily from outside St. Louis — to remove Ms. Gardner and thwart her champion systemic reforms.”
Greetens remained largely out of sight until Sen. Roy Blunt’s announcement in March 2021 that he would not seek a third term. Republican leaders worry that Greetens may win the primary but lose to Democrats in the general election, which should have been a fixed GOP seat.
In a court filing in a child custody case last month, Sheena Grittens accused her ex-husband of physically abusing her and their children. Eric Greetens called the allegations “completely fabricated” and “baseless”.
The case after Grittens first appeared on the Associated Press at the center of the investigation for the St. Louis prosecutor.
