CLAITON – A disciplinary hearing on misdemeanor charges against St. Louis Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner, who handled a 2018 criminal case against former Gov. Eric Gretens, was completed within an hour after the announced agreement with the city attorney general. As Monday’s hearing began, Alan Pratzel, Missouri’s chief disciplinary adviser, announced the “joint order” which was a rebuke to Gardner. The amended case he filed was not immediately available. Gardner’s deal with Pratzel’s office acknowledges mistakes in Greitens’s prosecution and means it will not face severe punishment, such as suspension, suspension or revocation of its legal license. The focus of Monday’s hearing was several pages of Gardner’s typed notes and a video of Gardner’s January 2018 interview with the woman who accused Greitens of photographing her while she was half-naked and without her consent.
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Gardner, 46, testified Monday that her office had made “reasonable efforts” to disclose all the details to Gratens’s defense attorneys, but that she had failed to provide her typed notes due to the “compressed schedule” of the case and the limited staff.
“This case is unlike any other we have ever encountered,” Gardner said.
Gardner said her staff initially thought a video recording of an interview with Greitens’s accuser was malfunctioning, but later realized it worked. She said the Greitens case served as a “teaching lesson” in her office to “make sure nothing falls out of the cracks.”
She said her office believed at the time that “we handed over everything in our possession”, but acknowledged a flaw in the handling of evidence by her office.
“This case was on a very fast track,” Gardner said. “We did our best to make sure we had a process, but unfortunately that process was short.”
The agreement still needs the approval of the three-member disciplinary committee and the Missouri Supreme Court. The commission will send its recommendation to the state Supreme Court within 30 days.
Gardner and Pratzel declined to comment after the hearing. In a statement, Gardner’s lawyer, Michael Downey, said Gardner “will continue to focus on the important work she has been selected to perform as St. Louis City Attorney.”
Last year, Pragel accused Gardner of breaking the rules of evidence by failing to provide or omit testimony in support of Gratens’s defense and allowing former FBI agent William Don Tislabos to lie. Gardner hired Tisaby, claiming the police department refused to investigate.
In court, Gardner’s lawyer denied the allegations, calling them “another attempt by Ms. Gardner’s political enemies – especially outside of St. Louis – to remove her from office and overthrow the systemic reforms she supports.”
Gardner concealed or omitted statements from Gretens’s accuser that suggested a continuous, consensual relationship months after their meeting in 2015 in Gratens’ basement, according to ethics allegations.
The allegations allege that Gardner also made false allegations to her staff, in open court and in testimony, and to the Office of the Chief Disciplinary Adviser about the interview notes she and Tisaby received and their defense disclosure.
Tisaby pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor fraud. He was accused of lying during a daily testimony in March 2018 about the former governor’s investigation.
The video of Tisaby’s testimony revealed how Greitens’s lawyers tried to attack Tisaby’s credibility by extracting inconsistent and erroneous testimonies about his investigation. It also reveals that Tisaby stumbles upon key questions and struggles to explain key facts and witness statements.
Gardner, who was present at the deposition, said Monday that she sat down for Tisaby’s deposition because the lawyer from her office who was allegedly there got stuck at an airport.
Tisaby’s investigation has led to the indictment of Greitens on a felony charge of privacy. Greitens claimed he was the target of a political witch hunt.
Gardner dropped the charge against Greitens on May 14, 2018, during the jury selection, after a judge ruled that she would have to testify in her office to handle the case.
On Monday, a committee member asked Gardner about Tisaby’s testimony and what he might have done differently.
Gardner said Tisaby was “blinded” by the “extraordinary tactics” used by Grattens’s lawyers to attack Tisaby’s credibility, including leaks of FBI personnel files. Tisaby declined to answer questions about his demotion and suspension or the agency’s findings that he lied that he had remarried in 1998 before his divorce was finalized.
“Mr. Tisaby made mistakes,” Gardner said. “But I’m not here for Mr. Tisaby. I’m here for Kim Gardner.”
In retrospect, Gardner said, he would remind Tizabi to tell the truth.
“But I can not control what anyone says,” Gardner said.
Monday’s hearing took place in St. Louis court. The three members of the committee were St. Louis Cheryl Butler and St. Louis attorneys Elizabeth D. McCarter and Kans A. Cutler of Kansas City.
This story will be updated.
He admitted to hiding documents and interview notes during his intrusion into Governor Eric Gretens’s privacy investigation.
Video of a testimony reveals Tisaby stumbled upon key questions and struggles to explain key facts and witness statements.
The trial is expected to last a week or less.
The order also obliges the city to pay “reasonable expenses”, including kilometers for travel.
A spokesman for the auditor’s office said he had not received any invoices since 2019.
Gerard “Jerry” Carmody submitted a proposal to withdraw from the case.
An ethical investigation has resulted in allegations of professional misconduct against Gardner. Her lawyer denied the allegations.
The judge wrote that the lawsuit “can best be described as an accumulation of irrelevant allegations and concluding statements supported by …
