ST. LOUIS — State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick released a new audit report Tuesday of the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office under the administration of former Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, saying the report supports a past statement of it being “rudderless ship of chaos.”

The report details how St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office experienced “a dramatic downturn in effectiveness” under Gardner partly because she used work hours to pursue a nurse practitioner certification rather than running the office.

“I’m extremely proud of the time and effort my staff put into this audit,” Fitzpatrick said during Tuesday’s press conference.

“I’m also proud of their dedication to truth and transparency.”

The office was given the lowest possible rating of “poor.” The audit highlights the more than $58,000 in unallowable purchases for disc jockey services, party location rentals, chili cook-out supplies, car detailing and personal legal expenses.

It mentions the “significant” decline in the number of cases referred, files and closed, while the time to prosecute the reduced caseload “significantly” increased.

On average, office personnel refused roughly 59% of referred cases, which is about a 40% increase by the prior administration. Under Gardner, the audit report says it took office personnel “significantly” longer to file charges and “significantly” fewer cases were filed.

The number of cases filed declined from an average of 4,666 cases per year under the prior administration to 2,529 cases per year during Gardner’s time in the position.

The audit report says that personnel under Gardner took approximately 463 days to dispose of a case on average, which was “significantly” higher than the prior administration’s average of about 293 days, and the current administration’s average of 142 days.

Additionally, the Circuit Attorney’s Office did not dispose of 95% of felony cases within 14 months of case filing as recommended by the Missouri Supreme Court.

There were a total of 6,700 cases referred by law enforcement that were not entered into the circuit attorney office case management system. When a case is not entered, charging decisions are not made and without a charging decision, a case cannot proceed at all, according to Fitzpatrick.

“When we finally spoke to Ms. Gardner, she placed the blame on the COVID-19 pandemic for the decline in office performance,” Fitzpatrick said.

“But if you look at the numbers, you’ll see the decline in most areas of the office began prior to the pandemic and it did not stop after the pandemic preceded.”

The hurdles Fitzpatrick’s staff encountered during the audit, including getting in touch with Gardner, made the process longer and more costly, he said.  

“The truth is, they did their work while facing numerable obstructions and obstacles,” Fitzpatrick said.

Gardner tried to prevent the audit from happening when it began in 2021, according to Fitzpatrick. Throughout the audit, Gardner’s office repeatedly ignored or delayed responding to requests regarding the audit and only provided partial responses after being subpoenaed.

She initially required all requests for records from the State Auditor’s Office be made to the first assistant circuit attorney and subsequently an outside attorney paid for by city taxpayers.

Her office also provided limited information, denied onsite access needed to conduct interviews and perform audit work and unnecessarily redacted documentation, according to Fitzpatrick. 

Full access to documents, personnel and the office itself was given after Gabe Gore took over as circuit attorney in May 2023, according to the audit.

The audit mentions how Gardner missed important case appearances while obtaining her nursing certificate from Saint Louis University (SLU).

Records show 40 separate instances where she spent normal business office hours completing clinical course work to receive a Family Nurse Practitioner, Post-Master's Certificate from SLU.

Gardner spent 34.5 working days or about seven weeks away from her circuit attorney duties.

Fitzpatrick said Gardner defended her actions by saying she was “trying to improve the office and bring mental health awareness to the Circuit Attorney’s Office.”

“This is obviously a ridiculous explanation and it’s clear her schooling was not for the benefit of her office, but instead was for her own personal gain,” Fitzpatrick said.

The audit says, on April 27, she failed to make a court appearance and sent a designee who knew little about the case in question. Gardner was in clinical classes that day when she was found to be in indirect criminal contempt of court.

The audit says that the judge referred to her as the captain of a “rudderless ship of chaos.”

The report additionally shows how Gardner’s neglect of the office contributed to “plummeting” staffing levels.

Half of staff attorneys told auditors that their workload was too large or overwhelming. During Gardner’s tenure, the legal staff dropped by 38%, from 94 to 58. The number of attorneys decreased 55%, from 53 to 24.

The office had 141 employees at the beginning of her tenure and declined to 89 by May 2023.

“The good news is the current administration has been able to reverse this trend, increasing the legal staff to 73, including 44 attorneys, Fitzpatrick said.

The audit focuses on the misuse of $58,482 for disbursements from the contingency fund for purchases including food, flowers, disc jockey services, wall art, party and community meeting location rentals, a Sam’s Club membership, chili cook-out supplies, Sunshine Law violation fines, car detailing, employee plaques, personal legal expenses, a new CAO website and credit card late fees and interest charges.

The contingency fund is only supposed to be used to pay for expenses associated with cases such as bringing in out-of-state witnesses and costs associated with prosecuting defendants, Fitzpatrick said.

The purchases were made from an account kept outside of the city treasury in violation of state law and lacked supporting documentation to prove they were prudent use of taxpayer funds.

The audit also shows that Gardner authorized a reimbursement to herself, totaling $6,688 for her personal legal fees.

The Missouri Supreme Court found that Gardner violated the Rules of Professional Conduct during her prosecution of former Gov. Eric Greitens in August 2022.

The court assessed her fines of $5,004. Gardner made four payments to the court totaling the amount, but then directed the Circuit Attorney’s Office to reimburse her.

She signed a diversion agreement on July 23, 2024, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, accepting responsibility for misusing more than $5,000 in public funds and agreed to pay back the money to the Circuit Attorney’s Office.

Gardner additionally improperly directed the office to reimburse her for two payments, totaling $1,684 to the Missouri Supreme Court for pro hac vice fees associated with the petition for quo warranto filed by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.

The audit highlights the failure of the office to solicit bids or proposals for goods and services as required by law and the failure to maintain documentation to support procurement decisions.

The audit identified 11 Circuit Attorney Office vendors that provided services during the audit period and were paid a total of about $1.92 million that should have been competitively procured.

The audit additionally found accounting control weaknesses, a failure to maintain a complete and accurate seized property inventory listing, a lack in procedures to ensure employees return office equipment upon termination as required by policy, and insufficient controls and procedures to limit Case Net access in accordance with court operating rules.

To read the entire audit, click here.