St Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner continues to do a GREAT job

[LittleLebowski]

The hand of Soros.
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...36c0d3789.html

A circuit judge dismissed a 2020 murder case last week and said the Circuit Attorney’s Office “abandoned its duty” after St. Louis prosecutors failed three times to show for court hearings or respond to a court order to produce evidence.

Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser on Wednesday dismissed first-degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful gun possession charges against Brandon Campbell, 30, after no one from the Circuit Attorney’s Office showed up for scheduled hearings in May, June and July.

“The court does not take this action without significant consideration for the implications it may have for public safety,” Sengheiser wrote in his order. “Although presumed innocent, (Campbell) has been charged with the most serious of crimes. While the court has a role to play in protecting public safety, that role must be balanced with adherence to the law and the protection of the rights of the defendant.”

Sengheiser continued, “The Circuit Attorney’s Office is ultimately the party responsible for protecting public safety by charging and then prosecuting those it believes commit crimes. In a case like this where the Circuit Attorney’s office has essentially abandoned its duty to prosecute those it charges with crimes, the court must impartially enforce the law and any resultant threat to public safety is the responsibility of the Circuit Attorney’s Office.”

https://fox2now.com/am-show/kim-gard...-murder-cases/

On Wednesday, July 14, a St. Louis judge dropped murder charges against an accused killer.

A prosecutor from St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office never showed up to court hearings in May, June, and again on Wednesday, July 14 because she was on maternity leave.

There were two other murder cases dismissed this week because of absent or unprepared St. Louis City prosecutors.

[LittleLebowski]

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/lo...d-d0228ecde16f

Someone signed the name of St. Louis’ lead homicide prosecutor onto at least 20 cases while she was on maternity leave earlier this year – and she resigned Tuesday, the I-Team has learned.

Kim Arshi began her maternity leave May 10. But her electronic signature appears on more than 20 cases in court documents listing her as the lead prosecutor – even though she was not in the office and did not sign them herself, according to a source familiar with the cases.

Arshi declined to comment. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The I-Team reported on one of the cases Tuesday for which Arshi was entered on after her maternity leave began.
Arshi was a no-show for three hearings on the case.

[LittleLebowski]

Remember when Kimberley Gardner went after the former Navy SEAL turned Missouri Governor?

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...576e1b8.html#1

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner hired William Don Tisaby, an ex-FBI agent, to investigate the invasion of privacy case against then-Gov. Eric Greitens.

After the charge against Greitens was dropped, Tisaby's actions came under investigation. He was indicted in 2019 on six counts of perjury, and one count of evidence tampersing.

[vcdgrips]

This is not a good look. I texted the following to a buddy re this very issue:

"Wow, it is a perfect storm.
1. You have an elected prosecutor who believes she was elected to be an agent of change.

2. You have the natural ebb and flow of of prosecutors/defenders offices where folks tend to come and go and come and go, sometimes interoffice and sometime intra office.

3. COVID

4. Inconsistent/Ineffective admin controls/policies re tracking cases.

5. An atty on Medical Leave

6. Quality Folks on both sides of the isle can often do better re money/wk conditions etc in the neighboring counties/state and are doing so in the STL/KC Metro areas and elsewhere.

7. That bench is only going take the file/dismiss/refile strategy so many times.

8. I have seen another article claiming that her office has had a 90% turnover since she was most recently elected."

As an aside, many routine documents are now electronically "signed" by an admin person with a click of a key on behalf of a given atty. The fact that an atty, active or even on leave, has her name appear "electronically signed", in and of itself, is not unusual or improper.

Indeed, in my courthouse, pre covid, my "wet" signature (in Blue) was only required for certain search warrant oriented documents and an original Grand Jury Indictment.


Edited to add: I would also note so often in the legal context we want things to be A or B or C, when in fact they are D, all of the above. i.e.

Rationale for targeting a particular defendant has political overtones or

Investigator(s) have/had/will have their own baggage or

Target was deserving of investigation on any objective measure or

All of the above

[farscott]

The fact that an atty, active or even on leave, has her name appear "electronically signed", in and of itself, is not unusual or improper.

Indeed, in my courthouse, pre covid, my "wet" signature (in Blue) was only required for certain search warrant oriented documents and an original Grand Jury Indictment.

I understand how a signature could be "electronically signed" while the person whose signature is being recorded on the document is there and working, but I do not understand how that is allowed when the person is on leave. Being on leave implies the person has not read the document nor consented to his or her signature being applied to it.

When I am on leave (technically PTO), one of my subordinates is designated via email to the entire organization as "acting" and that person signs any documents with their name and "acting" title. That email serves to let the organization know I am not available as well as indicating who is responsible while I am not available. I also find "acting" is both great training and a great indicator of who is ready for more responsibility. I rotate the "acting" assignment around the team for both of those reasons.

My boss, conversely, often fails to notify the team when absent. That has led to some spectacular implosions when things have failed to move or progress as per schedule.

[vcdgrips]

FS

I am speaking in general terms. I have no knowledge re what happened in the maternity leave case discussed above.

I see that you are an engineer. The administrative customs/practices re an engineering firm and an entity that is constantly filing pleadings in a court may be two very different things.

Having said that, there are certain stock/boilerplate pleadings filings that are filed as a matter of course. It is a matter of public record that:

I charged someone via complaint on 6/23/21. They were indicted by a Grand Jury yesterday. They will make their first appearance to be read the indictment next week and an atty will be appointed to represent them to the extent they do not retain counsel.
My brand new to me secretary filed a motion to dismiss the complaint as that charging document was replaced by the indictment. They only reason she had me look at it before she filed it was because we had just started working together. The normal custom and practice would be that it would have been filed over my electronic signature by a legal secretary or paralegal. It literally says please dismiss the complaint because the defendant has been indicted, signed me. I would not have looked at that pleading like that before it went out.


When I am on annual leave, I am still checking my email and directing that pleadings be filed in cases when they are administrative in nature as outlined above. Where that often comes into play would be an extension of time for me to respond to a pleading or a pleading that says I do not object to the def's request for more time to do x. Ergo your premise -"Being on leave implies the person has not read the document nor consented to his or her signature being applied to it." may be flawed in this context.

To repeat- the electronic signature of a a pleading by an any atty, to include one on maternity leave, in and of itself, is not improper or nefarious. This is particularly true if no other atty from the prosecutor's office had "entered" their appearance which is the formal and official way one becomes a party to the case. Moreover, a newspaper reporter doing their job and not wanting to possibly spin the narrative any more they they may be doing could have easily wrote the following ( in bold) in addition to this excerpt below:

"But her electronic signature appears on more than 20 cases in court documents listing her as the lead prosecutor – even though she was not in the office and did not sign them herself, according to a source familiar with the cases." Additionally, according to the same (or another source) it is the longstanding custom and practice of the office that administratively oriented and scheduling pleadings and/or forms and routinely filed by a party's administrative staff on an attorney's behalf.

[farscott]

@vcdgrips, thank you for the informative reply. As you stated, the importance of a signature is a bit different in my work. Signing a document means taking professional responsibility for that document, and no one can sign for another person without being nominated to do so. While we are not licensed professional engineers, signing a print or drawing authorizes spending money, sometimes lots of money. In my role as a team leader, my signature means I have reviewed and approved the work product and am directing its release OR I am denying approval and sending the work product back to the originator for revision.

[FNFAN]

In my old office, if a DDA no-showed the judge would have his clerk call administration to see what the story was and I don't recall anyone ever failing to appear -or at least have someone sub for them, on the same case twice. If that did happen, depending on the judge, I'd tend to believe they would send a courtesy note to "bring a toothbrush" (said partially in jest) to whichever chief deputy was called before the court to explain.

[Crow Hunter]

@vcdgrips, thank you for the informative reply. As you stated, the importance of a signature is a bit different in my work. Signing a document means taking professional responsibility for that document, and no one can sign for another person without being nominated to do so. While we are not licensed professional engineers, signing a print or drawing authorizes spending money, sometimes lots of money. In my role as a team leader, my signature means I have reviewed and approved the work product and am directing its release OR I am denying approval and sending the work product back to the originator for revision.

I read your post and realized that i forgot to set my out of office and signature authority before I left work this afternoon.

😕

Glad I got it fixed before the phone calls started rolling in on my day off.

😁

Thanks!!!!!

[Hambo]

In my old office, if a DDA no-showed the judge would have his clerk call administration to see what the story was and I don't recall anyone ever failing to appear -or at least have someone sub for them, on the same case twice. If that did happen, depending on the judge, I'd tend to believe they would send a courtesy note to "bring a toothbrush" (said partially in jest) to whichever chief deputy was called before the court to explain.

Judges here would not take that well from either side. I saw two instances in which a paralegal covered during docket call (just for a continuance), and the judge let everybody know that he didn't that was appropriate.