Ex-St. Louis prosecutor admits she misused public funds and avoids criminal charges

A former Democratic prosecutor in St. Louis admitted she shouldn’t have used thousands of dollars in public funds to pay herself back after getting fined for mistakes while prosecuting 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 prosecution for misusing the $5,004 in public funds as long as she pays them back and follows other rules of a pretrial diversion agreement. She signed the agreement over the summer and it was finalized this month.

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 inmates who were wrongfully convicted.

She was frequently criticized by Republican leaders who cited low rates of convictions in homicide cases, high office turnover and other concerns. Before her tumultuous term came to an end in May 2023, she frequently butted heads with police and conservatives.

In 2018, she 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 issues with how documents in the case were handled.

That reprimand, which spared her law license, also carried a fine of $750 and additional costs of $4,254. Her attorney at the time said any mistakes were unintentional, the result of a heavy workload during the Greitens investigation.

Problems then arose, the diversion agreement said, because Gardner directed her employees to issue a series of checks for the $5,004 from a contingent fund in the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office to reimburse her, although she wasn't entitled to the additional compensation. The city gets federal funds, which is how the U.S. attorney's office got involved.

“This is a just and fair outcome for a case involving a former official and the misuse of public funds that just met the minimum required under the pertinent federal criminal statute,” said U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming in a written statement.

Gardner’s attorney, Harvard professor Ronald Sullivan Jr., didn’t 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 spare 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 lodged against her, she and the government agreed to end any dispute and terminate any investigation with the pre-charge diversion agreement,” he said in an email.

At the time of her resignation, Gardner was the subject of an ouster effort by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican. GOP lawmakers were considering a bill allowing Republican Gov. Mike Parson to appoint a special prosecutor to handle violent crimes, effectively removing the bulk of Gardner’s responsibilities.