ST. LOUIS–A special prosecutor has been appointed in the contempt cases involving St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner and a now former assistant prosecutor over that attorney’s failure to appear for a trial. 

What You Need To Know

  • Allison Schreiber Lee has been appointed as a special prosecuting attorney for contempt cases involving St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner and a former assistant prosecutor

  • Lee formerly worked as a former St. Louis City assistant circuit attorney and served as a special prosecuting attorney for the indirect criminal docket in St. Louis County

  • The contempt case stems from attorney Chris Desilets not appearing in court for an April 10 trial 

  • Desilets and another assistant prosecutor involved in a separate contempt case have recently resigned 

The St. Louis Circuit Court appointed former St. Louis City assistant circuit attorney Allison Schreiber Lee as the special prosecuting attorney. Lee, a Sandberg Phoenix shareholder, currently practices family law. 

She was also a former assistant state’s attorney for Miami-Dade County, Fla. She also served as a special prosecuting attorney for the indirect criminal docket in St. Louis County. 

The contempt case involves attorney Chris Desilets. He did not appear in court on April 10 for what was supposed to be the start of a trial on assault and armed criminal action charges against Steven Vincent, accused in a 2020 shooting that injured an 11-year-old.

Court records said Desilets, according to another assistant circuit attorney in court that day, was dealing with a medical issue related to a knee injury. Desilets later failed to appear at an April 24 hearing on the same case before Circuit Judge Michael Noble.

After a hearing last week, the judge ruled that there was “requisite conduct and intent which could support a finding of intentional disregard for the judicial process”  on the part of both Gardner and Desilets. A hearing for the contempt proceedings is May 30. 

Desilets and assistant prosecutor Alex Polta recently resigned from an already understaffed circuit attorney’s office, according to an Associated Press story citing the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The report said that about 23 prosecutors are left to handle thousands of cases.

Gardner avoided a contempt ruling in the case involving Polta's failure to show up for a trial.