ST. LOUIS–Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has 14 days to respond to the petition filed by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to have her removed from office.

Eastern District Court of Appeals judge John Torbitzky, who was assigned the proceedings after all of the judges in the 22nd circuit recused themselves because they could potentially be called as witnesses, issued his first order in the case, granting Bailey’s Quo Warranto petition.

Under the order, Gardner can remain in office.

Bailey filed the petition Thursday after Gardner refused to resign, following years of criticism over her office’s handling of cases, an exodus of career prosecutors and a fractious relationship with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

Those issues came to a head last week after a Tennessee teenager lost her legs in a traffic crash police say was caused by a suspect in an armed robbery case who had violated the terms of his bond more than fifty times. 

“My office cannot force a judge to revoke bond for a defendant,” Gardner said at a news conference late last week. She has described the Quo Warranto petition as a “political stunt”.