ST. LOUIS —Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner beat a Tuesday deadline to respond to a revised filing from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in the Attorney General's bid to have Gardner removed from office. 

Bailey's amended complaint claimed Gardner has failed to comply with her discovery obligations to criminal defendants and their right to a speedy trial, refused to timely move for the disposal of evidence, “failed to appropriately fill vacancies and to staff her office to comply with her prosecutorial and administrative duties” in a way that “has created a toxic and dysfunctional work environment and unmanageable workloads,” among other allegations.

In a court filing late Tuesday afternoon that also included a motion to dismiss the matter, Gardner continued to flatly deny many of the charges and accused Bailey of improper selective prosecution in violation of her state and federal constitutional rights.

Gardner's filing defends the circuit attorney's staff while pointing out that she was not the attorney of record in many of the cases referred to in the Attorney General's complaint.

"Mr. Bailey improperly seeks to hold Ms. Gardner strictly liable for any purported mistake of an employee in the Circuit Attorney’s Office, without regard to whether Ms. Gardner took or failed to take any action with regard to that mistake, and without regard to whether Ms. Gardner ordered, approved or ratified the conduct at issue," Gardner's filing said, noting its belief that the Attorney General's filing did not meet the standard of proof necessary to warrant removal.

"The inescapable conclusion from these cases is that a § 106.220 proceeding is not a vehicle for inserting the courts into a political difference of opinion about how a prosecutor’s office should be run. Such a proceeding is not a forum for complaining about mistakes by a prosecutor’s office. Rather, the question is whether, with a corrupt purpose, the prosecutor was intentionally failing to act. Mr. Bailey’s allegations do not remotely meet that standard."

Gardner's filing said the quo warranto proceeding has been a distraction for the office and "hobbiles its its ability to engage in its function, and diverts resources that Ms. Gardner should be using to discharge her duties as the prosecutor in the City of St. Louis."

The parties will have their first court hearing next Tuesday where a judge is expected to hear motions to quash subpoenas as well as a the motion to dismiss. 

Gardner has already said she plans to run for re-election in 2024. Local defense attorney David Mueller has announced plans to challenge her.

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, a Gardner ally who has called for her to do some “soul searching” about staying in the office, deflected when asked late last week if she would support another Gardner bid for office.

“I can’t speak on what the Circuit Attorney’s going to do…election is still two years away but what I can speak on is we’re trying our hardest to keep control of our police department. We’re trying to make sure that the state takeover doesn’t happen to our police department because no one who supports this bill can tell us how it makes us safer.”

Two bills, one that would allow the Governor to name a special prosecutor to handle certain violent crime cases in St. Louis, and another that would put St. Louis police under the control of a state-appointed board, have passed the Missouri House but have not passed the Senate.